4 Comments
Apr 15Liked by Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick

Hard agree: Patricia Lockwood, hard disagree: crystal deodorant. Never been smellier! The book drama brings to mind Andrea Long Chu’s scathing Lapvona takedown: https://www.vulture.com/article/ottessa-moshfegh-lapvona-review.html

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oh god i ADORE any Ottessah takedown and i cannot believe i missed this ALC (ICON!!) review, granted i tried to block out all the noise around Lapvona. as far as crystal deodorant...i will get back to you at the end of summer!!!! maybe it's a fall/winter/early spring-only thing 🤔🤔🤔

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Apr 14Liked by Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick

I liked the two essays. The one about the symptoms is helping me cook on an idea I've been cooking for weeks, inspired by Compact Magazine: the war between IRL and URL. And yes I am not being dramatic it is a fucking war. The second essay was also great. What particularly stood out to me is the glut of celebrity 360 deals. As much as I've razzed the Dimes Square micro celebs (who were at the center of the New York vibe shift), they are the opposite in a way: they are not even famous for their works so much as for their parasocial personalities. Their auto fiction introduces people to their IRL shenanigans. But then I guess this goes back to the performance culture referenced in the first essay. Good stuff!

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~ thank you ~ as always!! these both, as you say, are tying up this battle between IRL and URL (so great) and i do think you're onto something with the micro celebs who are working toward, in spite of, and in order to dissolve the ideas of "celebrity." i feel like in a lot of ways people who are too aware of how broken the machine is getting *inside* the machine will lead to it's downfall. while i don't think she will be the one "to do it," someone like a billie eilish calling out the system from within does say something. granted, to be so young and so powerful yields a sort of idgaf energy that's needed to create change — and yet they're still subscribing to such models. it's interesting! we'll see where any of this goes!!!

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