❤️🔥 13 things I'm thinking about this week (#2)
Hi again, here’s another list of things that have been on my mind lately:
Vaginal microbiome startups like Evvy. These start-ups offer an at-home kit containing everything necessary for you to swab yourself and send it back off to a lab. Eventually, you receive a breakdown of the bacteria present in your vaginal ecosystem. Many people are skeptical1 about the simplification of this test and its overpromises but there’s been increasing research highlighting the importance of a healthy vaginal microbiome2 for protection against infection and disease, and better fertility outcomes. Again, we have so far to go when it comes to women’s health.
Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaggy. Girlhood, obsession, etc. Sort of like if Nana took place at a Swiss all-girls boarding school.
Power by Adrienne Rich. About Marie Curie, the poem ends:
She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source as her power.This article in The Cut about break-ups. Basically, a guy breaks up with his partner, his partner saw their problems as salvageable, he did not—or, he didn’t feel the relationship was worth the work. He notes that he usually finds himself in this situation. I’ve been thinking a lot about how experiences like this might be the result of increased optionality and serial monogamy, both side-effects of contemporary dating culture. Expect a post on this.
Should GPT Exist? In which computer scientist Scott Aaronson writes earnestly about AI safety and the state of AI. A part I particularly like: “Mostly my reaction has been: how can anyone stop being fascinated for long enough to be angry? It’s like ten thousand science-fiction stories, but also not quite like any of them. When was the last time something that filled years of your dreams and fantasies finally entered reality: losing your virginity, the birth of your first child, the central open problem of your field getting solved? That’s the scale of the thing.”
Opening Scene of the Coperni Show The controversial inclusion of a Boston Dynamics robot at Coperni’s latest fashion show in Paris. You can watch the opening scene here. Said to be a contemporary reimagining of Jean de la Fontaine’s fable “The Wolf and the Lamb” where the characters are swapped for humanity and technology (left up to the interpreter to decide who’s who).3
In the Realm of the Senses by Ōshima Nagisa. A psychosexual film about prostitute Sada Abe’s deranged love affair with the owner of a hotel. We journey through the movies events witnessing Sada become fueled by desire to transgress her sanity and our moral boundaries. I love the way the movie documents Sada’s deviance and passion not as a voyeur but from what oscillates between the POV of Sada herself and a neutral observer. It’s based on a true story and apparently Sada wrote an autobiography that has yet to be translated into English.
The Agnes Callard profile. Endlessly discussed but still fascinating. I really like Becca Rothfield’s debunking of some of the stupider responses to it, which can be found here.
Shopgirl. Admittedly frothy, but I loved it. About a struggling artist who works at Saks and a love triangle between an underachieving musician and an older tech dude (lol). Watched it partially because Crazy Salad recommended it.
This Lauren Oyler essay on Andrea Dworkin. I’m going through a rereading Dworkin phase.
The End of Love by Eva Illouz. Another banger by Eva Illouz, this one on “unloving”—on how capitalism, culture and technology affect how relationships dissolve, fade, and end.
The Still Life of Desire. Warning: paid Substack post, but I’m really taken by this writer and how she explores relationships, disappearance, desire, and literature (this post in particular talks about Annie Ernaux’ Simple Passion and Lillian Fishman’s Acts of Service, two novels I’m very fond of.
Cecily Brown’s Art. Beautiful, controlled chaos. I especially love the painting Boy Trouble.
