The Weekend Special (May 20)

C’mon in!

Pieces are given up to three Munros (for fiction), Sontags (for essays), or Herseys (for your picks). As with restaurant stars, even one Munro, Sontag, or Hersey indicates a generally positive review.

🍳 Fiction

“Consolation” by André Alexis. Three Munros. parents, possibilities, perversity. A remarkable story with no particular conceit, just a universe of relational depth and a “matter-of-fact and un-judgemental” narrator who enacts a story-long decompartmentalization – it seems almost a therapeutic exercise – on themes of love and loss. Things are by turns tender, funny, tragic, awkward, contradictory – nothing feels settled in advance. I’m no scholar of Alexis, but from what I gather he’s rarely this naturalistic; this began as a sort of experiment in autofiction which gradually turned more fictional. This means Alexis’ masterful skill is combined with a beginner’s mind he’s clearly tapped into as a result of his pushing toward new technique. That combination is often how really great art is created. The narrator’s mother and father have recognizable and human foibles, but more interesting than this is how we join the narrator on a journey toward a deeper understanding of these foibles – but one that still doesn’t fix the damage they’ve done.

🍳 Weekend Essay

“How to Live Forever” by David Owen. One Sontag. diary, family, relentlessly. Hard not to read this in conversation with Jerome Groopman’s piece on memory from the issue. Groopman tells us why forgetting is important; Owen counters that his endless archive helps him escape the cruel march of time. Owen’s philosophy couldn’t be more different from mine – to me, the obvious thing to do with the conclusion that time is fake is to continuously recommit to the present moment – but I appreciate the piece all the more for that; it shows me a rational argument for a conclusion opposite my own. Owen could go far further into philosophy, if he wanted to: Where does the impulse to preserve the self come from? It’s interesting that Owen sees his project as about self-preservation; many would view a practice of compiling emails from their friends or writing down lots of things their kids say as having more to do with a social/familial impulse, but there’s something deeply true about the way that Owen conceives of his project, I think: We write down what we see to convince ourselves that our view has continuity, that we aren’t constantly being reborn. Owen could press these points a lot further, and in lieu of that the piece can verge on condescension: Owen uses social media correctly while everyone else uses it wrong, believe it or not. (Also, moments like this: “…it’s important for young people to be reminded that old people had pre-decrepit existences.”) But even when the piece is just “my kids say the darnedest things” it’s still entertaining. “Raise your hand if your friends have a problem with your penis.”

🍳 Your Pick

“A Woman’s Work” by Jia Tolentino. (October 2, 2017). One Hersey. rights, publicity, assault. I remember reading this piece seven years ago, when I was a junior in college. What’s behind the curdling of #MeToo depends on who’s telling the story; whether Allred’s always been a force for good is questionable, too. She is, at the end of the day, a prosecutor; her crusade is tangled up with issues of rights that go beyond representation. And her reputation wasn’t helped by She Said, a book on Harvey Weinstein’s case which shows how Allred’s firm profited off nondisclosure settlements with his victims and others – and helped quash anti-NDA legislation. Her daughter, who’s central to this piece as well, was retained by Weinstein and her emails on strategy make very clear that ultimately the central aim of a prosecutor will always be fighting for their client, even when that requires fighting against social justice. (Even “fighting for their client” could be argued – they’re fighting for their client to win money, so they can take their cut. Which might mean pushing a client toward an NDA.) Even at the time, I vaguely remember thinking that Tolentino could’ve pushed harder at some of the contradictions between Allred’s rhetoric and her actions; this gap has only widened. Still, as ever, Tolentino can write, and I’m certainly somewhat sympathetic to the argument that the left needs people like Allred to work within the system. But perhaps a better read on the forces driving Allred is Jill Lepore’s piece on the origins of victims’ rights. If Allred’s cause is foundationally feminist, it’s also foundationally right-wing.

“Your Pick” is a piece chosen by a randomly selected paying subscriber. Have a piece you want to be "Your Pick"? If you're a paying subscriber, you can also skip the vicissitudes of fate and force your way to the front of the line! Venmo $20 per request to @SamECircle, then write me an email or a note on Venmo letting me know you've done so and what your requested piece is. No limit on the number of requests, BTW. If you want to give me a more open-ended prompt ("1987 reported feature by a woman") that's great as well – and pieces from other venues are okay too, if you ask nicely.

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