great(ish) pt 4: terrible brands, Jimmy Stewart, my favourite podcast
Hello! Today: a movie double bill about political corruption, feminism as a brand, my favourite sad male author and... a podcast about celebrities. Plus, the first – but definitely not last – appearance of hockey in this iteration of the newsletter.Article: Sister Act: The Wing Is a Women's Utopia. Unless You Work There by Amanda Hess, published in the New York Times Magazine in March 2020
The Wing is a women-only social club/communal working space with locations in North America and London. It's also a particularly egregious example of feminism as a brand, and how social movements become marketing tools. I'm interested in The Wing as an example of a kind of feminism that sees personal progress as the be-all and end-all of women's empowerment. This article explores a common trope: companies that style themselves as progressive often don't follow through in how they treat their employees. No surprise there.
Film: Mr Smith Goes To Washington, directed by Frank Capra (1936); The Edge of Democracy, directed by Petra Costa (2019)
I semi-accidentally watched a perfect double bill last week, two excellent films about politics and corruption. The Edge of Democracy is a documentary/personal essay film about Brazilian politics over the last twenty or so years. Petra Costa explores her family history – her parents were part of a resistance group – and the rise and eventual fall of the Workers' Party, exploring the deeply rooted corruption tying state, corporations and media together. Mr Smith Goes To Washington is a classic Frank Capra film with Jimmy Stewart (very tall, very handsome) in the lead role. He is Mr Smith; he becomes a junior senator; he goes to Washington where he encounters and confronts corruption. It's all very 30s, particularly the trousers, but it also hasn't really aged that much. I found both films absorbing, interesting and enraging in a good way. Gotta keep the constructive rage going!
Note: The Edge of Democracy is streaming on Netflix. Mr Smith Goes To Washington is streaming for free on archive.org, a non-profit building "a digital library of internet sites and other cultural artefacts in digital form". If you're interested in Frank Capra or films from that time, I strongly recommend watching Five Came Back (2017) on Netflix, an excellent three-part documentary series about filmmakers who were enlisted in the US propaganda effort during WW2 and how it changed their work.
Book: I Refuse or Out Chasing Horses or It's Fine By Me by Per Petterson, transl. by Anne Born or Don Bartlett
Over the past week I've been reading another Norwegian author which has reminded me of how much I love Per Petterson's books, especially these three. They are all variations on a theme: a teenage boy with a complicated family background befriends another teenage boy and tries to deal with life while growing into an adult. I reckon everyone is allowed one sad male author exploring sad masculinity, and Per Petterson is mine. His books are perfect little gems of melancholy and hope that always make me feel like I've just gone through a mysterious, profound cathartic experience. I cannot recommend them enough.
Note: Per Petterson's books have been brilliantly translated into German by Ina Kronenberger, including his very latest one. Aren't we lucky? Especially as I can never afford buying them in the original Norwegian.
Other: Jam Session podcast
Let's be real: most of the podcasts I listen to are about hockey, which, sadly, 1) most of you don't care about and 2) is currently paused. (Last week I went so far as to watch about three hours' worth of teleconferences with hockey players which was so soothing and boring it put me into an almost meditative state.) My very favourite podcast, however, is on the opposite end of the hockey-politics-culture spectrum. In Jam Session, two otherwise sensible women in their 30s discuss celebrities. The only celebrities I'm actually interested in are the aforementioned hockey players, and yet... I've been listening to this podcast for years. As with all good podcasts, I want to befriend the hosts and am overinvested in their wellbeing. I recommend starting with this episode that features a great meltdown about recent developments in Grey's Anatomy.
That's it for now. Tell me what you loved this week. Take care!
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