Status Updates From Authority: Essays

The Mixed Metaphor. Andrea Long Chu throws her hat in the ring of Asian America discourse. My thing is, would be nice to have some SEA/South Asian/etc literature brought up to this joint. Maybe Ng and Kang are just the tentpoles coz theyre diametrically opposed opinions. Maybe.

Sick Leave. The charge here is not so severe as the others, though the author being an alleged statutory rapist makes me feel like there should be more not less skewering

Big Cry Country. About the show Yellowstone.

Holier Than Thou. You could call this a take down piece, but Long Chu doesnt really say anything about Otessa Mosfegh, and mostly lets her own words and affiliations speak for itself. 4D chess ahh article

Authority. The titular essay. Has a lot of research and makes the first direct line of the development of ‘criticism’ as a thing across history. Hm. It was informative pero I think the conclusion is underbaked as presented,coz it does endorse a certain way of moving forward re: criticism but its not very convincing even with the historicization in mind. Lots of good quotes.

Angel in The Wings. Found this one pretty weak. Striking as a reading experience, informative and a bit funny, but the idea as a whole feels like it should have been warmed up for longer

Join the Club. First Long Chu piece that made me want to read the thing talked about. Hence, the most flattering of the lot sort of

Metro-Goldwin-Myra. First time in reading this that I have zero context what she’s talking about. I sort of grabbed on something near the end when Long Chu pinpoints the want Myra represents, since want is a recurring thing in her writing. I’ll probs read this book’s wiki and try again.

No One Wants It. This is the way I wanted to write about Sarge Lacuesta

Psycho Analysis. Today I found out Bret Easton Ellis is a garden variety Trump-supporter, “centrist” right-winger. And that he sympathizes with Patrick Bateman. Go figure.

China Brain. That was the most adventurous so far. Uhhhh I’m a psych grad so this is 100% supposed to be in my wheelhouse but instead I’m just awed by how far the “experimental” treatment that white psych professionals are allowed can go

Pink. Complicated tryst through the idea of womanhood, transness and feminism. The physical descriptions of the surgery made me feel things. Putting this out in 2019 is truly bold

Bad TV. Long Chu implicitly pushes back on the idea that #Metoo was itself a wave of feminism, by casting it instead as a performance of justice, based on how Hollywood centric it was and how publicly it happened. I didnt like it as a reading experience but it unexpectedly helped me reconcile my own conflicted feelings about #MeToo as a blip of a political moment

On Liking Women. Prescient, challenging, and confrontational. I liked it