v4nividivici

hate club

Imagine if we made a book club where we talk shit about the authors that everyone likes but who in our opinions are just not that good?

some of whom we even dislike very very much on a personal level?

And it’s a sort of erudite club where we argue some actual points

For example that Hemingway writes like a complete narcissist

Or Sheila Heti is lazy and provides nothing for anyone

And Joan Didion makes pseudo-scientific claims which are simply not backed up by psychological research and not even by keen observation but she says them in such a way as to give an impression of having had an education and therefore people believe her.

And Woolf (and Didion) are pointlessly pessimistic. One doesn’t even know where they could’ve summoned so much sorrow — navel-gazers drawn to negativity and sadness. Their problem is a narcissism of a different kind. A deflated narcissism. And Woolf is — I would almost venture to say — a hateful pandering feminist. The kind of feminist who makes blanket statements of the virtues of women as superior to men. I hate women who say “I love women” — do you? (Especially now, with people like Billie Eilish who seem to say these things for likability, because it’s fashionable to be a feminist now) But women, like men, can be rapists and murderers. There are bad mothers out there who do things to their children. Do you love women? It’s the same as saying “my husband can do whatever he wants and I’ll stick by him because he is my husband” why show allegiance to a gender? It’s as stupid as saying “I love men” though if I’m being honest I do prefer men, knowing too that hitler was a man. It’s just a stupid thing to say. “I love women” or “I love men”

And then there’s the conspiracy side of the club where we propose theories on why people like them, what kind of people like them, if maybe everyone is lying about liking them

And then there’s the absolute trash side of the club where we brainstorm who they could’ve possibly have had sex with to get their names out there like that.

Actually I don’t even want to spend time thinking about them. I’m afraid they’ll rub off on me.

ANOTHER HATE CLUB TOPIC: BOOKTOK & the corruptive power of money

I don’t have a TikTok and even I have heard of booktok; it comes to me in the air the same way that the Ukrainian-Russian war has come, the same way that the Euro Meister has come

I’m worried that TikTok and booktok will do to literature what monetization has done to YouTube, and what illusions of rockstar riches have done to music, that money will be waved in people’s faces and people will make mediocre factory produced “content” for money and then there will still be books worth reading somewhere (because if no one produced another book we would still have enough to read) but no algorithm or search word will connect you to them anymore. All roads to the things you love will be cut off. And soon you won’t have any independent small press literary magazines that are genuine that promote genuine pieces of literature anymore

Money does this to things. Money brings a crass lacking-in-originality mediocrity to art

And when the opposite’s reverse is true, when originality is the origin, money follows, whether you like it or not

But then…

Disneyland was a marvel of originality and vision and the money came and customers came despite “failures” and now, look at Disneyland.

The money has saturated its soul and it is dripping in tastelessness and hunger for more money

Everyone who used to love Disneyland says that it is now a piece of shit, that you can see claws coming at your wallets at every turn and that you can’t have fun there anymore, as much money as you’re willing to spend. They’re appealing to the mass trendy taste and they’re bringing in franchises that have nothing to do with the themes and it becomes this Russian billionaire’s super yacht of marble and gold and hot dog couches and hamburger chairs and James Bond posters and chartreuse green pools with rings of watermelon and donut floaties, side by side, in a salad that doesn’t make sense.

i don't want to think about that either anymore