Awesome piece as usual, though sorry to get off topic, but as a fellow fan of 'Amadeus' I feel as though it is my duty to inform you that an absolutely stunning 35mm scan of the theatrical cut has found its way online (and yes it is an authentic scan from a theatrical print, not an emulation. Enjoy!)
Thanks for writing about these two books, neither of which I've heard about before. "The Expat" sounds really interesting to me, and I just read a few pages of the preview on Amazon...yeah, I'm gonna have to read this book. I'll read pretty much anything about American identity, and this guy is nailing it so far. Also the fact that he's referencing the book we're reading as one that he's writing, the opening about the history of nostalgia, the theorizing on the meaning of California...sign me up.
The reason he doesn't have sex with her is that he must be in some sort of mind palace zone where she's not quite the right fetish? If you're already in a cultural mindspace where your entire sexuality depends upon being particularly abject to the point where you're comparing your own ugliness to that of vast groups of ugly women, you might not want actual sex with a particular woman?
back in their heyday i was always kind of impressed at how good PUA blogs were at just making you feel like shit—like even if you knew it was garbage, you still felt awful. i remember one of them had like an attractiveness quiz on his website and i looked at the comments and one of the first ones was something like… "sorry, every woman already knows how attractive she is by how many guys ask her out every day." despite the fact that i have never known anybody who gets asked out multiple times every day some part of me was still like… "oh no!!!"
they were also obviously great at making men feel worthless too—it was sort of their business model lol.
I'm picturing you saying aloud "Oh no!" when you first read that PUA thing about how every hot girl is supposed to get hit on multiple times a day. It's a very funny image.
a part of me thinks it would be funny to write a satirical comedy where both PUA images of women and femcel images of men are 100% true but that movie kind of exists (The Love Witch) and it is zero percent funny because Anna Biller clearly believes this is how people all are lol
That's a possible explanation. We just don't know, however, which is my main criticism. I don't think it's a subtlety thing, because the novel is not particularly subtle (e.g. plot dilemmas get solved pretty quickly without much build-up).
Yeah, that PUA quote is a gem, right? It's stayed with me for all these years. But it does reflect how a lot of people, of all ideologies, act.
All men fear irrelevance. It doesn't matter what your age or ethnicity is.
We all want to be useful. Perhaps there are more opportunities to be useful as a middle-aged man because I can earn money, mentor younger people, be a good father, a competent spouse, etc.
When you are a young man, there are fewer chances to be useful. There's your job and sometimes, that's all there is.
People in my circle were really fawning over that NYT feature, but I had questions, namely: Does the Asian American Foundation seriously think this is a good use of their money? Embarrassing!
If Ross frequently finds himself in a situation where a woman he's met on Tinder but not face-to-face is coming over to his apartment to bang, he's the world's luckiest insecure guy.
Awesome piece as usual, though sorry to get off topic, but as a fellow fan of 'Amadeus' I feel as though it is my duty to inform you that an absolutely stunning 35mm scan of the theatrical cut has found its way online (and yes it is an authentic scan from a theatrical print, not an emulation. Enjoy!)
https://gofile.io/d/dNPd7J
My eternal gratitude. 30gb! But worth every bit.
Absolutely! Feels like watching the movie for the first time all over again.
Thanks for writing about these two books, neither of which I've heard about before. "The Expat" sounds really interesting to me, and I just read a few pages of the preview on Amazon...yeah, I'm gonna have to read this book. I'll read pretty much anything about American identity, and this guy is nailing it so far. Also the fact that he's referencing the book we're reading as one that he's writing, the opening about the history of nostalgia, the theorizing on the meaning of California...sign me up.
Yeah, would be interested to get your take on it
The reason he doesn't have sex with her is that he must be in some sort of mind palace zone where she's not quite the right fetish? If you're already in a cultural mindspace where your entire sexuality depends upon being particularly abject to the point where you're comparing your own ugliness to that of vast groups of ugly women, you might not want actual sex with a particular woman?
Sorry, that PUA quote really shocked me
back in their heyday i was always kind of impressed at how good PUA blogs were at just making you feel like shit—like even if you knew it was garbage, you still felt awful. i remember one of them had like an attractiveness quiz on his website and i looked at the comments and one of the first ones was something like… "sorry, every woman already knows how attractive she is by how many guys ask her out every day." despite the fact that i have never known anybody who gets asked out multiple times every day some part of me was still like… "oh no!!!"
they were also obviously great at making men feel worthless too—it was sort of their business model lol.
I'm picturing you saying aloud "Oh no!" when you first read that PUA thing about how every hot girl is supposed to get hit on multiple times a day. It's a very funny image.
a part of me thinks it would be funny to write a satirical comedy where both PUA images of women and femcel images of men are 100% true but that movie kind of exists (The Love Witch) and it is zero percent funny because Anna Biller clearly believes this is how people all are lol
That's a possible explanation. We just don't know, however, which is my main criticism. I don't think it's a subtlety thing, because the novel is not particularly subtle (e.g. plot dilemmas get solved pretty quickly without much build-up).
Yeah, that PUA quote is a gem, right? It's stayed with me for all these years. But it does reflect how a lot of people, of all ideologies, act.
All men fear irrelevance. It doesn't matter what your age or ethnicity is.
We all want to be useful. Perhaps there are more opportunities to be useful as a middle-aged man because I can earn money, mentor younger people, be a good father, a competent spouse, etc.
When you are a young man, there are fewer chances to be useful. There's your job and sometimes, that's all there is.
People in my circle were really fawning over that NYT feature, but I had questions, namely: Does the Asian American Foundation seriously think this is a good use of their money? Embarrassing!
What type of people are in this circle?
If Ross frequently finds himself in a situation where a woman he's met on Tinder but not face-to-face is coming over to his apartment to bang, he's the world's luckiest insecure guy.
The first thing she says when she enters Ross' place is, "Oh, this apartment sucks." lol
Which bit of the Goodreads review did the promo quote? Not the whole thing?
I don't remember. But I think it was at least a good chunk of it.