mmm good good good! really feeling this lately. lots of dull routines to sink into, good to be reminded that the same basic gestures are the start of many different escapes
I loved this so, so much. This is also my issue with media about millennial malaise—it correctly diagnoses the external conditions of our despair, but seems to surrender entirely any level of interior agency or insistence that we could still demand more from ourselves, or more from our lives, despite the circumstances.
I was thinking recently about novels that don't do this, that depict (beautifully/tenderly/sensitively/etc) the difficulty of people's lives, especially when it comes to economic precarity—but then still commit to a hero's journey, where the woman at the center of the novel DOES something, tries things out, careens chaotically through her life, in and out of difficult situations, sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes not…but she hasn't given up her own agency yet, and in the end there is some reward for it. Raven Leilani's Luster, Lily King's Writers & Lovers, and Vigdis Hjorth's Long Live the Post Horn! (all of which I read in 2021, while struggling out of my own millennial malaise) all have this quality…I think you're right that Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation has it too…the protagonists would rather do chaotic unpredictable things that be mired in a static form of despair. And in the end I find this an extremely intriguing premise for fiction and an extremely inspiring approach to living.
thank you celine!! i think in your comment you nailed something i was only suggesting at. firstly- "demanding more from life" as a concept, yes. we are not just lab rats in god's wicked experiment. we have to be bold enough to want more. and ask!
it's just unbearable to think about a lifetime of taking lashings. i want characters that lash back. I wanna lash back!
also agree with what you said, that our main character in R&R makes a desperate chaotic act - it's not intentional - anything to shake off the despair. when despair is a routine the only resort we have is to do something completely unpredictable. and by doing so we reclaim some agency :3 better than quietly slipping away.
i remember around the same time I read the new me, i had started on Luster but didn't end up seeing it through. another one was Such a Fun Age. perhaps time to check them out from the library again.
Yes re: characters that lash back! It's ultimately corrosive to the soul to feel like there is no room for a little bit of resistance, a little bit of defiance against the despair and limitations and unfair systems around us.
I love characters that, in the midst of a totally psychically unsustainable situation (you described this really beautifully with Moshfegh's novel) decide: why not, fuck it, things can't go on like this, time for something DRASTIC…and it's that drastic chaotic move that is the most humanising and liberating moment of the story!
As a lost 20-something, I read this intently. I love you and your perspective.
yes indeed
mmm good good good! really feeling this lately. lots of dull routines to sink into, good to be reminded that the same basic gestures are the start of many different escapes
what’s that painting btw ?
the reluctant bride ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reluctant_Bride
ty ty
I loved this so, so much. This is also my issue with media about millennial malaise—it correctly diagnoses the external conditions of our despair, but seems to surrender entirely any level of interior agency or insistence that we could still demand more from ourselves, or more from our lives, despite the circumstances.
I was thinking recently about novels that don't do this, that depict (beautifully/tenderly/sensitively/etc) the difficulty of people's lives, especially when it comes to economic precarity—but then still commit to a hero's journey, where the woman at the center of the novel DOES something, tries things out, careens chaotically through her life, in and out of difficult situations, sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes not…but she hasn't given up her own agency yet, and in the end there is some reward for it. Raven Leilani's Luster, Lily King's Writers & Lovers, and Vigdis Hjorth's Long Live the Post Horn! (all of which I read in 2021, while struggling out of my own millennial malaise) all have this quality…I think you're right that Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation has it too…the protagonists would rather do chaotic unpredictable things that be mired in a static form of despair. And in the end I find this an extremely intriguing premise for fiction and an extremely inspiring approach to living.
thank you celine!! i think in your comment you nailed something i was only suggesting at. firstly- "demanding more from life" as a concept, yes. we are not just lab rats in god's wicked experiment. we have to be bold enough to want more. and ask!
it's just unbearable to think about a lifetime of taking lashings. i want characters that lash back. I wanna lash back!
also agree with what you said, that our main character in R&R makes a desperate chaotic act - it's not intentional - anything to shake off the despair. when despair is a routine the only resort we have is to do something completely unpredictable. and by doing so we reclaim some agency :3 better than quietly slipping away.
i remember around the same time I read the new me, i had started on Luster but didn't end up seeing it through. another one was Such a Fun Age. perhaps time to check them out from the library again.
Yes re: characters that lash back! It's ultimately corrosive to the soul to feel like there is no room for a little bit of resistance, a little bit of defiance against the despair and limitations and unfair systems around us.
I love characters that, in the midst of a totally psychically unsustainable situation (you described this really beautifully with Moshfegh's novel) decide: why not, fuck it, things can't go on like this, time for something DRASTIC…and it's that drastic chaotic move that is the most humanising and liberating moment of the story!