Things worth sharing this weekend (9/21/24)

books I'm reading, what's happening to entertainment, etc

Polo at Lakewood by George Bellow, 1910

“What’s happened to entertainment?” asks Ted Gioia…

…and he goes on to list several bad things, like the 10 songs in the US this week being the same as last week, and fewer people going to movies, and movie studios looking to move to Nevada and how no one watches late night TV anymore.

• It’s a good piece and I generally like articles like this, but I don’t find handwringing like this too helpful.

• People can’t imagine what would happen if traditional movie or the music system went away. It doesn’t mean culture will completely die, it will only be different.

• We used to go the opera and cheer on the horses and watch polo. matches but we don’t do that anymore. Movies become TV which becomes YouTube which becomes something else. So it goes.

• Perhaps I’m more ok with this than the average person because I grew up with a lot of independent music and later books.

• I like Ted’s writing, so definitely check out a few of his articles or support his Substack. Here’s the article again.

What if you added “lol” to every sentence

…of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time and Literary Hub wrote about it¹

Another thing about the state of things, this time about brat summer

…from Freddie deBoer who talks about how yes even a trend as popular and enduring as a certain summer meme shall pass and will be corny and cringey in short order. You can read it here.

“Many of the things that matter to you now, in pop culture, will still be meaningful to you in ten years. But the general state of pop culture today will seem embarrassing and anachronistic to you in ten years. It’s literally inevitable.”

Here’s something I wrote earlier this week about open-ended stories, hypertext, and how it did/didn’t change fiction:

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Notes on books I’ve been reading:

Finished: The Guest by Emma Cline

• Alex is an escort trying to reconnect with her client, but then is left bumbling around the Hamptons

• That sounds like a seedy setup, but it’s more of a grifter story, like a low-key Anna Delvey

• Not too complex, but a nice literary read, Alex seems to bumble through innocently and convincingly

• The style of Cline is sparse and not too descriptive, yet she captures the mind of Alex well, making the reader empathize with her not-great decisions

• It was the book of last summer, so I’m just catching up, the ending isn’t great, which is what most of the reviews say

• This is a great write-up from NYMag about the book

Started: Any Person is the Only Self by Elisa Gabbert

• I found this at Spoonbill and Sugartown in Brooklyn last weekend

• I’ve followed Elisa online for quite awhile, and I expected like slice of life type essays, but these are in-depth literary essays, it’s nice to read things about Frankenstein and Proust without being too pedantic, it’s about how she interacts with the text.

• I’m about halfway through, but a standout is about her picking through the Recently Returned shelf at her local library

• Here’s the NYTimes write up

Started: The Nix by Nathan Hill

• Astute readers will know I just finished Wellness by Nathan Hill, and I liked it so much that I ordered a used copy of his first book and I rode on one of those urban trains today and started reading while riding said train.

• Not much to report except it seems a bit less punchy than his new one, in that the sentences are a bit winding, of course maybe that’s because I just finished The Guest which has a very different style.

Keep going,

-Josh Spilker

1. This is the most I’ve ever mentioned Proust in a newsletter, and really anywhere, apologies