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review
monalyisha
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Mehso-so

I found the essays written when Rothfeld loves a thing (pasta, Melville, David Cronenberg‘s horror films, the comedies of remarriage from the 1930‘s & 40‘s, erotic sex with her partner) way more pleasurable than those when she writes about her hatred for a thing (minimalism, fragment novels, mindfulness). This is funny because Rothfeld herself draws attention to “the pleasure of hating,” a term coined by 19th century essayist William Hazlitt.👇🏻

monalyisha 1/10: Part of my personal joy over excess, though, is the way in which it gives us license to embrace. I‘m not hunting for things to cast away from me; I‘m searching for ways to add to myself & to my world. Therefore, the essays in which Rothfeld takes pleasure in her hatred — joyfully squishing ideas, art, & ethos with her shoe — are not what I was looking for from this collection. 19h
monalyisha 2/10: There are, of course, plenty of ideas that are dangerous to embrace. I‘m not advocating for a judgment-free existence. I see the value in “extolling virtues” AND in “condemning inadequacies.” However, I‘m currently in a place where I‘m desperately craving celebration, as it‘s been profoundly lacking IRL. This is what I expected “essays in PRAISE of excess” to do. 19h
monalyisha 3/10: The subtitle feels akin to false advertising. As the world burns, there are enough people around me taking “pleasure in hating.” I don‘t need it in my reading life, too. 19h
See All 12 Comments
monalyisha 4/10: Part of my issue may be format & tone. As a thought experiment, I asked myself, “What if Rothfeld‘s essay, “Wherever You Go, You Could Leave” were reformatted into a handful of jokes in a standup act?” I think I‘d laugh riotously! 19h
monalyisha 5/10: In essay form, her serious smackdown grates & has a tendency to come across as wildly arrogant. She says she‘s always associated herself with “spikiness,” & that‘s exactly right. It‘s hard to embrace something prickly. 19h
monalyisha 6/10: My frustration with tone kept me from fully embracing this collection, which is a disappointment because I thought, at first blush, that I‘d love it! Rothfeld‘s writing can be strong (when it‘s not embarrassingly overwrought); there are some knockout sentences & ideas here. 19h
monalyisha 7/10: I guess what I‘m saying is that if she ever undergoes a midlife crisis, has a change of heart and a change of career, & takes her standup show on the road, consider my ticket purchased! Given that jokes require the boiling down of material, however (Norm MacDonald‘s brilliant moth joke notwithstanding), I don‘t think it‘s in the cards. 😅 19h
monalyisha 8/10: Rothfeld writes, “To live at all is to yearn to be somewhere besides where we are, and to make every effort to get there.” Despite my occasional yearning to be somewhere other than reading her book, I found that making every effort to fulfill *my* desire was to keep reading. The bitter end was the “there” in question. The only way out was through — & the only place to be was where I was (between the pages). 19h
monalyisha 9/10: Along these same lines, Rothfeld also agrees with a character in one of her favorite films, that “the prospect of quiet happiness stretching indefinitely before me depresses me.” This is where our dispositions diverge most drastically. 19h
monalyisha 10/10: I didn‘t always agree with Rothfeld, which was dispiriting because I thought we‘d be kindred spirits. In particular, I firmly believe that sometimes (certainly not always), “living” IS resting & luxuriating — in *exactly* the place we find ourselves. But disagreeing doesn‘t amount to disliking, & I‘ve judged the reading & writing of Rothfeld‘s essays to be a worthy effort…most of the time. Okay, some of the time. At least 50% of the time! 19h
monalyisha Tbh, I think her true calling is as a film critic. 19h
PurpleyPumpkin Excellent, thoughtful review!👍🏽 8h
49 likes12 comments
review
REPollock
Thin Skin: Essays | Jenn Shapland
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Pickpick

Wow, what a great essay collection! I read it because it was assigned reading for a workshop on writing an essay collection, and I‘m so glad I did.

review
REPollock
Thin Skin: Essays | Jenn Shapland
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Pickpick

Wow, what a great essay collection! I read it because it was assigned reading for a workshop on writing an essay collection, and I‘m so glad I did.

quote
lil1inblue
Collected Essays | James Baldwin
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Chrissyreadit Excellent quote 💙 2d
IriDas True. 2d
Suet624 Reading his work is so powerful. I wish more people would read his books. 2d
dabbe 💙♥️💙 2d
32 likes5 comments
quote
monalyisha
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“But why does Nehamas think we can‘t enumerate beauty‘s reasons? Is it because beauty‘s basis is metaphorically indeterminate? Or just epistemically elusive?”

I will never finish this essay collection and I regret everything.

ChaoticMissAdventures Oh, nooooo 3d
monalyisha Listen, @ChaoticMissAdventures …”It isn‘t that antipodes change into something intermediary but that the moratorium on contradiction gives way. Not only does plenitude become compatible with paucity, but abundance requires absence.” I just can‘t say it any more clearly. 3d
ChaoticMissAdventures @monalyisha 😂🤣😂 it is one of those time that I know all those words but are we sure we want to use them all in one breath? 3d
monalyisha @ChaoticMissAdventures Right?! Too much! “Excess,” indeed. 2d
monalyisha @ChaoticMissAdventures And I did have to look a couple up. 😉 2d
48 likes5 comments
quote
Rome753
A Collection of Essays | George Orwell
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"But what impressed me then, and has impressed me ever since, is that atrocities are believed in or disbelieved in solely on grounds of political predilection. Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence."
-George Orwell, "A Collection of Essays"

review
HodgepodgeandMiscellany
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Pickpick

Searching around for some local authors, I came across Sejal Shah and her collection of essays. Thank you, Internet! There‘s so much in these essays, identity and community, food and travel, weddings and dancing, joy and sorrow. And I do admit all the Rochester mentions—from the Lake to Cobb‘s Hill to Monroe Ave—well, there‘s just something so fun about hearing mentions of the places that are part of your world, isn‘t there?

blurb
ravenlee
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I started this yesterday as my commute audiobook, and it turns out to be almost perfectly sized for it. I‘m only in the car for about 20 minutes at a time, which is about the length of most of the essays so far. I already highly recommend this one, too.
#DannyBoy for tax. He‘s not impressed with Mom working and gone for several hours every evening, so we get extra morning snuggles whenever we can.

TheBookHippie ♥️ 4d
dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 4d
36 likes2 comments
quote
trifleneurotic
Complete Works | Michel de Montaigne
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...it takes a lot of self-love and presumption to have such esteem for one's own opinions that to establish them one must overthrow the public peace and introduce so many inevitable evils, and such a horrible corruption of morals...and introduce them into one's own country.

quote
trifleneurotic
Complete Works | Michel de Montaigne
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No one dies before his time. The time you leave behind was no more yours than that which passed before your birth...wherever your life ends, it is all there. The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.

(from "That to philosophize is to learn to die", Book I, Essay 20)