Róisín Lanigan proclaimed the meaninglessness of chic in i-D. It seems the Irish have become obsessed with its status (is it dead? Will it ever be resurrected?). Earlier in 2022, Barry Pierce wrote about it for Dazed, zeroing in on the absence of chic writers (Is Rob Doyle chic? I don’t know what the term stands for now, so Roisin and Barry are not wrong in their assessments). It was apt timing. Didion and Babitz had only recently died, their respective thrones empty and up for the taking (I can’t help but think of Allie Rowbottom and Tea Vlahovic-Hacic as possible successors, deep into Aesthetica as I wait for my copy of Cigarette Lit Backwards). Both critics id the internet as partially responsible for the demise of chic, literary and otherwise. Both also reference smoking - the way Didion held her cigarette is chic, the ban on indoor smoking is not. A certified smoker myself, I’ve never thought of smoking in these terms, preferring a Plath mode: “I do it so it feels like hell / I do it exceptionally well.”
If smoking in film made breath more expressive, what has been lost in literature? Should writers just spark up?
Holly Connolly, quoted in Pierce’s piece, suggests the thrones of Didion and Babitz will remain empty until writers reclaim a part in the wider artistic milieu, become a part of communities beyond the written word and the reign of the “recluse” out of touch writer is over. In the same missive, Kaitlin Philipps holds the book world’s puritanism responsible. Writers in our (online) generation, if her n+1 days are any indication, don’t have the freedom afforded to their predecessors. In his public diary, playwright Matthew Gasda wrote something that rings true here: “So much morality functions to isolate us…Thus a sleepy, automated, de-eroticized world invents a series of judgements for anything or anyone that’s too alive, too spontaneous or messy.” So should a writer or socialite that fit the chic bill appear, how likely are they to succeed in this culture of moral bashing and self-righteousness, as Philipps suggested?
(Everything Irish is chic to me.)
NYU announced they’ll be desecrating Lana Del Rey’s vision.
Publicity around Sky Ferreira’s return to music intensified this month (four months after her return gig in London’s Southbank Centre), hinting that Masochism isn’t that far away now. From Dazed to Evening Standard, everyone seems obsessed with pointing out the gap in between her debut and sophomore records. Almost a decade in the making, almost coinciding with her 30th birthday, Masochism has come to signify much more than a record in the collective imagination. Rob Doyle and Cat Marnell both turned 40 this month, which to me means a new era in their work, so I guess I’m just as much a part of the problem? To quote that Vanity Fair Didion/Babitz writer, if intense fascination with someone is love, then I guess I love them both.
Geoff Dyer dispelled rumours of leaving the lit biz on Tank. Mirroring Ferreira’s devotion to Masochism, the ex-Londoner says he sustained his drive to write by virtue of feeling “finished as a writer” for most of his time as a published author together with his impulse to quit. Quizzed by Matthew Janney, Dyer talks at length about his latest, The Last Days of Roger Federer, how over the years he outgrew the excess lyricism of his earliest work and how he can’t hold his drink having traded in London for California. Next, he’s working on “an extended version of the legend of the fundamentally uninteresting period of my life up to when I was about 18,” where among else he’ll spill on the places he had sex.
Best of the Month that was: Jesse Ball tells Sebastian Castillo just how fast he is (at writing books, calm down!) and bares all about Autoportrait for Full Stop.
Owen Vince thinks “it’s the season for watching films” as if this isn’t his default mode. Christian Lorentzen teased the possibility of a Dimes Square sequel. Leo Robson joined Substack with Taproot. Lauren Lauterhahn returned fresh off doing The Artists Way again after a yearlong absence. TOLKA Journal is returning with its fourth issue on 12 November featuring work from Colin Barrett and Eimear McBride. Ed Luker's ready to dress like Vincent Cassell again (that is, he's ready to layer up for autumn, or in his words, falling in love with fits again). If you missed his performance at beasy, you can read his piece on below deck.
I’m taking over beasy again next week, this time terrorising and causing chaos with Chloe Ashby, Barry Pierce, Huda Awan and Oliver Zarandi. Doors open at 7 pm on 27 October.
READ IT BEFORE THE SCREEN ADAPTATION DROPS: “As I blow him I can tell there are two faces looking through the bars of the dick-height window between our cabin and theirs. I like an audience…Outside a hundred cadets wait, bound to the gun carriage, their muscles ready to haul the state, crown, sceptre, orb and all to the royal vault. I’m pinned against the wall of the cubicle and his hands push my triceps to the wall. His hands grip them, I tense them, he runs his fingers along my shoulders and cups my face gently to kiss me.” Huw Lemmey delivers contenders for sex scenes of the year mourning the passing of a monarch by sucking and fucking at a local sauna.
Quinn Roberts landed his first cover with Exhibition Magazine.
Is Dirt book pilled?
Everyone’s favourite newsletter/more than a newsletter recruited Alana May Johnson to pair books with perfumes (dying to know what book(s) she’d associate with Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, my go-to for life).
In Booksmart, Terry Nguyễn considers the transformation of authors into influencers and (god have mercy) influencers into authors. Books, in the age of the influencer, have become aesthetic objects, mere accessories to round off the image influencers want to project to the rest of the world.
Nguyễn is insightful but I needed to know more so I slid in her DMs. What I mainly wanted to find out was if, in her view, people still look for meaning in books. If a book as an object can convey a desired meaning for the consumer, do they ever need to be readers at all? “Obviously not,” she replied. “There’s this running joke about people who read the Wikipedia summary instead of the actual book, so this tendency is not exclusive to influencers.” The influencer class then is an expression and byproduct of a wider cultural malaise rather than the cause. “I’m suspicious of everyone — myself, even,” Nguyễn said. “I have to actively expose myself to books that don’t “align” with my interests and assumed identity.” To her, it isn’t isolated to the reader either. “Authors aren’t immune from these categorizations, now that books are increasingly marketed along moral, cultural, and ideological lines.”
The publishing industrial complex has created a reality for authors, where writing a book is just part of the struggle. Then comes the call for authors to willingly or unwillingly engage in a “performance of intellect” to boost the book’s promotional campaign, partaking in producing content that can surface the book and establish it in consumers’ minds in well defined categories. Terminally offline writers do not exactly fare all that better, still reduced to signifiers publicity teams ascribe to them (look no further than Ottessa Moshfegh, who two books down the line, is still heralded as queen of the sad girls for My Year of Rest and Relaxation [I’d argue the narrator is more of a narcissist than sad, but that’s a different story]).
It would be easy to write this off as a trend, but the impact that book as aesthetic signifier has had on the industry already, makes it more of a permanent feature. Penguin Random House will be capitalising on the action through a partnership with TikTok on a “discovery feature” because as Christian Lorentzen pointed out everything now comes down to recommendation and passive consumption. Nguyễn had a lot to say on the topic. “I see the PRH partnership coinciding with this greater media trend towards books coverage. The obvious goal is to get more people to care about books and ideally buy them; whether they actually read is irrelevant.”
Books, then, have been reduced to objects, mere products to be purchased. No wonder influencers want in on the action, a book seen as the pinnacle of their power (though I suspect should they be successful in saturating the market, they’ll move on to film next). Will influencers supplant authors? “Influencer book deals aim to tap into a very specific audience, but followers don’t always translate to sales,” Nguyễn said. “The PRH BookTok strategy, though, depends on an ecosystem of consistent (and perhaps uncritical) readers, who are seeking out titles that resemble books they’ve previously read or that they can relate to. That might be more successful in “creating” readers, so long as they cater to specific tastes.”
The increased attention on “books coverage” is likely to demand even more out of authors, following in the footsteps of other mediums. “I’d be interested to see whether publishing houses will follow what some record labels have done and ask writers to get on TikTok to drum up interest in their book,” Nguyễn said. She never responded to my question on how authors can fight back against these possible demands because in my work overload state of mind I forgot to ask her.
And finally, if you ever needed proof that Venice is the superior film festival…
(Swear down I was in London.)