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SOME FAVORITES

saying yes to the dress (the believer)

The look is Marie Antoinette in her let-them-eat-cake days, and the dresses, like Marie’s dresses, weigh so much—up to one hundred pounds—that they hurt the girl. The dresses, like the gestures, are passed down from mother to daughter.

the western rides again (the atlantic)

Maybe this is what disposed me to feel that the Western as a film genre was trite and foolish, dangerously sentimental about horizons and stoicism and men shooting each other for no good reason. I know these are fighting words.

man versus rat (the guardian long read)

First, the myths. There are no “super rats”. They do not, as was reported in 1969 regarding an island in Indonesia, fall from the sky. Consider this the good news.

vanitas (the paris review)

Helplessly, moronically, I am amazed by them. Their brevity, for one.

frances mcdormand’s difficult women (nyt magazine)

Shortly after returning from Paris, I received an email from her with the subject line “My head shot.” It contained a photograph of her floating naked in a lake.

that’s just like white noise (the atlantic)

Really, I had no idea what it was about. When I asked my mother, she was cryptic. “It’s about America. You’ll just have to read it.” That’s just like my mother.