As we continue to change and grow, so does The Collective. And as we think about the balance of work and play, you’ll notice that new content will still be added regularly (quarterly) but not necessarily in full, formal issues. We’ll still be here in the Editors’ Corner recommending art that invigorates, challenges, and inspires, and you can always read previous Editors’ Corners to peruse past issues and their contents. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter so that you’ll be notified anytime new content is shared!
READ, WATCH, LISTEN
This August I’m taking delight in reading Elaine Hsieh Chou’s Disorientation, a hysterical satire about Ingrid Yang, a Taiwanese American PhD student who is desperately trying to finish her dissertation on a beloved Chinese American poet whom she never really wanted to study. . . when she uncovers a shocking secret that turns the whole university upside down and makes her question everything about herself and the world in which she lives. The prose is sharp, the critique of culture, identity, and academia both gleeful and merciless, and the ride wild. Speaking of wild rides, though of a starkly different kind, I also recommend Robert Zemeckis’s Flight (2012), a drama starring Denzel Washington as an alcoholic pilot. At the opening of the film, he miraculously lands a commercial flight under circumstances in which no one else would have succeeded. But when it’s discovered that he was high on cocaine and alcohol at the time, people question whether he really is a hero, and a legal investigation ensues. This deeply thoughtful film explores addiction, God, and inversions (down to the structure of the film).
And I’ve been listening to The National’s Live at Bearsville Theater concert (March 4, 2023). It features many of their songs from their latest record The First Two Pages of Frankenstein, an album that has been a rebirth for the band — with the pandemic, separated band members, and Matt Berninger’s depression and writer’s block, they thought maybe The National was over. I’ve been enthralled comparing the recorded album to this concert. The live version, full of raw emotion, tenderness, and a palpable spiritual energy, combined with the die-hard supportive fans in the audience cheering them on, makes obvious the love in the room.
READ, WATCH, LISTEN
N. K. Jemisin’s imaginative and apocalyptic Broken Earth trilogy has carried me through this summer in a way only feminist speculative Afrofuturist/Afropessimist fiction can. Equally dreamy and distressing, heart-rending and galvanizing, Jemisin’s worldbuilding pushes both the sci-fi/fantasy genre(s) and the human capacity to process systemic issues to their limits. I recommend pairing the books with some context reading on Afrofuturism to appreciate them to their full extent; that said, they are simply captivating and unrelenting, each one a gripping read in its own right.
Additionally, being immersed in my dissertation writing means I’m never not immersed, to some degree, in the Bulgaria-centered mind-bending quasi-fiction of Georgi Gospodinov, my thinking/writing companion — Gospodinov’s Time Shelter won this year’s Booker Prize (Sarah wrote beautifully about the book a few issues back!) and I can’t recommend it enough.
My summer watch list has been a surprising excursion. As part of an unintentional multi-month sci-fi/fantasy movie bonanza (not not inspired by my Jemisin journey, or by my recent nostalgic foray into the OG Star Trek series), Ian and I streamed Dune. Doubtful eyerolls and a here-goes-nothing energy (I’ll plead ignorance: neither of us had read the book, nor did we (yet) give a shit about Timotheé Chalamet) quickly became something resembling legitimate fandom (definitely for Dune, maybe for Timotheé) and respect for narrative and philosophical aspects we had not anticipated. A similar skepticism led us to the theater for Barbie, which has since kept me both cracking up and reflecting on patriarchy, womanhood, and the inevitable joys and complications of representation far more than I expected it would (plus, if ever a movie vouched for yay ambassadors, it would be Barbie). Then, Barbie sent me down a small and unexpected Greta Gerwig rabbit hole to Whit Stilman’s Damsels in Distress (2012), an unsettlingly entertaining dramedy with a star-studded cast and not at all subtle critiques of elitism, feminism + patriarchy, and mainstream mental health care.
Lastly, I’m currently sweet on the summery Scottish synth-pop of Chvrches (CHVRCHΞS) in anticipation of lead singer Lauren Mayberry’s solo Pygmalion show in Urbana next month. It’s pure ear candy! I love their melancholic beats and quasi-existential lyrics, especially in “The Mother We Share,” and in their collab with Marshmello, “Here with Me.” Interestingly, Mayberry also has a short but lovely duet with Aaron Dessner of the National, on an album commemorating the life of Frightened Rabbit‘s lead, Scott Hutchinson — a worthwhile rabbit hole, in more ways than one.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time!
Articles in the Summer 2023 issue:
- Materials Chat GPT & me by Noël Wan
- Nugget August 2023: AI and the exploitation of writers by Elisa Moles
