Reading List for the Dog Days of Summer
Quick life update before I get into this list of links: My #beloved Lora, with whom I used to sit out in the early-morning haze on Cornell’s North Campus mini-slope while she chainsmoked Marlboro Menthols and I gesticulated wildly, just had her tiny, wrinkly, BEAUTIFUL baby girl yesterday morning!! I love her and her little daughter so much and cried tears of joy, and I'm so happy we're still friends years after we stopped being the girls we were when we first met (see below).
Anyways, here’s my list of articles:
“In Official Washington, Chasten Buttigieg is a stranger in a (very) strange land”: I ran into Chasten a few weeks ago on a way to a meeting while he was walking the dogs so clearly, we’re destined to be besties. The Buttigiegs also invited a friend and me to dinner in the forthcoming months, and I doubt that’ll happen for a number of reasons but I appreciated the gesture nonetheless!
“How Jewish is Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah?’ A Forward investigation in 9 verses”: Leonard Cohen’s version of “Hallelujah” has always been my favorite version and I really appreciated this exploration of the song’s Jewish origins and how the meaning of the song has changed over the years.
“The Anxiety of Influencers: Educating the TikTok Generation”: I hate TikTok and I loathe makeup, so naturally, I loved this article. I just don’t want to be perceived!!! Nobody has permission to look at me unless I give it to them like something something being born a woman is an awful tragedy/there is no hope for women (x3).
“Not This Morality Play”: I love Brandon Taylor so much like we’re Instagram mutuals and he’s the only one on the Internet whose takes don’t make me want to tear my hair out (except on Pride and Prejudice (2005) but it’s okay because nobody’s perfect). In any case, this edition of Brandon’s newsletter made me cry.
Episode 120: “Susan Bordo on sex and femininity in politics and its intersection with sexism and misogyny”: I’ve loved Susan Bordo since I read The Creation of Anne Boleyn in 2014, so I felt obligated to include this even though it’s a podcast. The more I get entrenched in politics, the more furious I get about feminism and women’s issues, like for a whole lot of progressives, women’s issues (abortion, childcare, equal pay) are literally last on the list despite the fact we’re over 50% of the population (almost 60% of the Democratic party) and make up less than a quarter of the government. Like, gun to head, I’m going to prioritize my womanhood over my status as a person of color because in India, I’m not a racial minority, I am not discriminated against for the color of my skin, but no matter where in the world I am, I’m always going to be a second-class citizen due to my gender.
“When the Anti-Choice Choose”: This is a collection of anecdotes from the 1990s about anti-choice women that got abortions.
“The Rift in the House Democratic Caucus”: My take about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is that she simultaneously can’t be a bonafide political genius who knows better than her Democratic colleagues how to utilize social media and mobilize populations to vote for progressive candidates, but also be political neophyte who can’t be held accountable for her starring in Republican attack ads from Anchorage to Miami and everywhere in between when she’s a freshman rep in a D+30 district in New York City. You have to pick a lane, and personally, the lane I’m picking is neither of these.
“The Enemy Within”: A decade after I first read “Notes From a Native Son,” I am still trying to learn how to be a human being, and I’d like to think that if he were alive, Baldwin would get it.
“On Self-Respect”: This is my favorite essay by Joan Didion because it was formative to me in a way no other essay has been. There’s this excerpt which lives rent free in my head: “People with self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. They know the price of things. If they choose to commit adultery, they do not then go running, in an access of bad conscience, to receive absolution from the wronged parties; nor do they complain unduly of the unfairness, the undeserved embarrassment, of being named correspondent.” I’m a profoundly good apologizer, I’m excellent at taking accountability for the things I do wrong, and I only wish other people had the same talent.
“The Fort Bragg Murders”: This piece made me want to hurl, which is why I’m including it. I’m not on the “abolish the military/defund the Pentagon” train for a number of reasons but this article really made me consider getting on it for a minute.