Reliable sources have informed me that there is Ocean Vuong Discourse on Substack right now, and for a brief moment, I regretted my untimely departure from the site. I was and remain sorely tempted to go on at length about how I was a hater long before it was popular, with receipts in the form of texts from when I was reading On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous for a piece several years ago, but we addicts must resist the urge to relapse. Suffice it to say that the reading experience was traumatic enough that maybe someday I’ll write a purple memoir of my own about it. For now, I invite any editor who wants to assign his second novel to me to do so, stat. Onwards and upwards!
For all his faults, Vuong does have the minor virtue of indirectly reminding me that I said I’d send out links of my pieces at regular intervals. (Did I say how regular? I don’t recall.) Anyway, here are some links from some recent pieces. (I write for the Washington Post every week but have selected two of my favorite recent pieces for the paper to circulate here, so as to avoid inundating you.)
-On why the right hates “girl bosses” so much for The Drift”: https://www.thedriftmag.com/a-bureaucratic-and-feminine-mind/
-On Henry James’s criticism for the Washington Post: https://wapo.st/4oNVapb
-On Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection for the London Review of Books: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n13/becca-rothfeld/whatevership
-On Quill Kukla’s Sex Beyond Yes and how—and how not—to write about sex: https://wapo.st/3HB8Z9O
A book I recommend that I read recently: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer.
Until next time,
B
please go on at length. PLEASE!!!
Please write regularly for the LRB.