What to Read When You've Spent Too Much Time on JSTOR
It's hot out. We're talking about my favorite books of 2020, abolishing Silicon Valley, competitive tickling, lying on the internet, and more.
New here? Welcome! Consult my first post to see what amateur bibliotherapy means. If I link to a paywalled article that you can’t access, reply to this email and let me know. Finally, complete this Google form or reply to this email any time to let me know what you’re reading. I may include your recommendation in a future edition.
Hello from the New York heat wave. I hope you’re somewhere cool.
This Week in Activism, Local Business & More
Federal law enforcement officers in unmarked cars have been detaining protestors in Portland, Oregon, since July 14. The PDX Protest Bail Fund is soliciting donations for legal support of protestors and related expenses.
Business has been down in Chinatown since January because of increased xenophobia resulting from coronavirus fears, and a recent Pew Research Center study reports that many Black and Asian Americans have had more “negative experiences because of their race or ethnicity since the coronavirus outbreak.” Welcome to Chinatown, a grassroots community initiative, is aiming to raise $200,000 for the distribution of grants to small businesses in the neighborhood. Their Instagram also has a specific highlight of Black Lives Matter resources tailored for and from their community.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief: Collective Care is a hub of resources, projects, and donation funds run independently by communities combating the ramifications of the pandemic. You might find a useful zine or resonant organization in this list that you can amplify or support.
The Books
This week I finished A Beginner’s Guide to Japan by Pico Iyer, a beautiful and short book of essays about life in Japan. I also finished Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu, which is part-memoir, part-capitalism takedown. I will start Revenge by Yoko Ogawa next.
Our Gregorian system of time tells me that it is July, and thus we have passed the half-way point of 2020. Below, I’ve compiled the 4+ books that have resonated with me most thus far this year. Though widely different books, they are all emotionally evocative above all else, and convey a consistent mood throughout. (I call this “atmospheric,” but my editor calls that word “unspecific and unclear.”)
Here are the 4+ books:
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. I will not be satisfied until everyone I know has read this book. I cannot believe it took more than 20 years for it to be translated from Japanese to English, and it spurred me to read more literature in translation. (I wrote more about it in March.)
Severance by Ling Ma. What a strange year to read this book. How weird is it that I remember seeing Amanda hold this book at our quasi-weekly Variety Coffee dates earlier this year, now that we’re living its plot out in real time? (I wrote more about it in March.)
Educated by Tara Westover. I cannot believe it took me so long to read this memoir of a young woman leaving her survivalist Mormon family to pursue college. It was recommended by everyone for years and I, in January of this year, finally read it.
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas. Anytime I walk in a green space, I think of this book and its heaviness. Its depictions of detail only in describing food. Its lack of clarity and direction as a larger metaphor for the pseudo-academic environment and lifestyle it depicts. (I wrote more about it in June.)
Runners up are Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, both of which I tend to think about a lot while falling asleep.
If none of these tickle your fancy, the New York Times has a compendium of 2020 releases from around the world; Traci Thomas, host of The Stacks podcast, put together a list of books by Black authors that aren’t sold out everywhere; and Electric Literature recommends 11 novels starring essential workers (many of which were just added to my to-read list).
The Articles
I got wordy this week, so apologies in advance.
How Italians Became ‘White,’ The New York Times (~10 min). This piece, originally published in October 2019, tells the story of “how Italian immigrants went from racialized pariah status in the 19th century to white Americans in good standing in the 20th,” which “offers a window onto the alchemy through which race is constructed in the United States, and how racial hierarchies can sometimes change.” The piece also functions as a remarkable case study in the cyclical nature of America’s “national panic” in the face of every new wave of immigrants—the arrival of Italians prompted Americans to “adopt a more restrictive, politicized view of how whiteness was to be allocated.”
And of course, the Italians learned. In A Great Conspiracy against Our Race: Italian Immigrant Newspapers and the Construction of Whiteness in the Early 20th Century (niftily available on JSTOR), Peter Vellon explains that, “littered with coverage and commentary that brutally relayed how American racial inequities turned on color, Italian Americans learned how Blackness, or even proximity to Blackness, could impose overwhelming obstacles to full inclusion as Americans.” And, “although the Italian language press entertained a complex construction of race and color,” the same press encouraged Italian Americans to narrow their understanding of race to the Black/white binary, and then act within the prescribed notions of whiteness to successfully assimilate.
Sweet & Slim, Greasy & Grim: The Physical Traits that Define Men & Women in Literature, The Pudding (~6 min). This is a visual essay of data from 2,000+ books about the gendered descriptions of bodies in literature. Unsurprisingly, the data shows that “the gaze of society falls differently upon different bodies, and society values different things about men and women.” It doesn’t reflect nonbinary expressions of gender or race, likely as a result of the data being used. The books used to build the dataset were published “between 1008 and 2020” and selected “for cultural reference,” which also means the books are typically by cis, white authors with cis, white characters.
But it does include a revealing quiz that asks readers to select whether various character descriptions from books are describing men or women: people who participate in the quiz tend to guess the correct gender 86% of the time. We’re inheriting gendered language from a canon of texts that reinforces it for generations of readers.
Tickled 2: This Time It’s War (Part 1, Part 2), Webworm with David Farrier (~16 min). Let’s jump into the wayback machine so I can tell you a story from the Obama era. It was the summer of Pokemon Go! and nothing could hurt us. Martin and I got tickets to see an incredible matinee performance of Hadestown at the New York Theater Workshop. We decided that, in order to make a full day of the spectacle, we’d head into Manhattan for the show, kill time at the nearby Coffee Project NY while waiting for Lil Frankies to open for a dinner of spaghetti al’limone and caprese salad, then catch the 7 PM screening and talkback for a random movie called Tickled at the Sunshine movie theater (RIP) before heading to a party in back in Brooklyn. (Ah, youth.)
What an itinerary! Hadestown was a vision. The Coffee Project gave me a “deconstructed” latte that blew my mind (it was basically a coffee flight so please do not @ me over this decision). Lil Frankies was my favorite restaurant at the time and was not yet constantly crowded, so the meal was delectable and relaxing. And then… there was Tickled.
Reader, I have never been so baffled and riveted by a documentary. It is full of twists and turns and has very little to actually do with tickling. It is currently on Hulu, and you should watch it immediately. Then come back and read this piece which talks even more about the dramas and absurdities of an underground tickling ring. Upon arriving at the Brooklyn party after the screening, I word-vomited my way through every interaction with exhortations for everyone to go see Tickled immediately. Somehow, I didn’t completely ruin the night with my incessant rants; I met one of my favorite pals at that party (Hi Jess!), and the night turned out to beautifully close a day I will never forget.
For years, I have followed the story of Tickled. And now, I finally have an update. It’s this two-part series from documentarian/reporter David Farrier, and so I will make you all jump down this rabbit hole with me again.
If I’ve known you since the first time I told you about this documentary… thanks for sticking around.
Some of Reddit's Wildest Relationship Stories Are Lies. I'd Know – I Wrote Them, Vice (~6 min). For the uninitiated, Reddit has a number of specific communities where people “seek advice for interpersonal issues.” Sometimes, that means asking the crowd about how to handle a sticky situation or if you’re the asshole in a particular scenario. Many of these stories are sadly real, with real life repercussions. But many of them are also FAKE AS HELL.
So long, suckers. If you need me, I’ll be reorganizing my bookshelves a la Jia Tolentino.