Consumption Diaries No. 11

August is a black hole

Last week I saw a quote on Pinterest about August from The Sound and the Fury, with a comment left underneath that said “what did August ever do to poets” — ignoring the fact that the quote isn’t poetry, I had to laugh at what feels like a collective exhaustion with August.

“Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar...” -William Faulker, The Sound and The Fury

August always makes me ask myself: Do we like summer, or do we just like the idea of it? August feels like a loss in some ways. It’s hard not to navel-gaze and indulge in existentialism. So much so for me that I’ve deleted the Instagram app from my phone. It’s unclear what that’s actually doing for me, but I can say I haven’t missed it.

It felt appropriate, then, that I read three books this month dealing with energy-sucking black holes (and theoretical physics). Well, one book about those topics — A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking — and two very loose interpretations: Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter and Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. 

I won’t wax poetic about black holes, though their mystery certainly lends itself to creative rendition, but a giant, invisible mass that nothing can escape and where space and time as we know them break down certainly feels appropriate for August-induced dread. As Ms. Taylor Alison Swift says, 🎶August slipped away into a moment in time🎶 — sounds like August is a black hole to me!

books

I managed to finish eight books this month. Here they are, lightly reviewed, in the words of Stephanie Danler, “as if we were having drinks.”

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking — I first tried reading this book in college, and it went much better this time. I know there are parts of A Brief History of Time that are now irrelevant or wrong, but I truly enjoyed this, and not only because I’m obsessed with black holes (if you couldn’t tell by now). The universe is fucking wild! And, as I shared with anyone who came within 5 feet of me while I was reading this, I found two receipts for this book, from the same Barnes & Noble in my hometown, with two different dates: late 2011 and early 2012. I know there’s some simple explanation I have no hope of recalling now anyway, so let me delight in the mystery of how fun it is to unearth this in a book about time and relativity.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa — I hate to use the word haunting to describe prose because it’s so cliched, but it works here — the sparse writing almost mimics the memory loss. There’s a lot left unsaid, but that’s also the way the plot works.

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez — I saw this on booktok (yeah I know) after deciding to read a few romances this month. Enemies-to-lovers is such a good trope. It’s always the funniest! I’m just chasing the high of Ryan Reynolds + Sandra Bullock in The Proposal!

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty — a coveted Instagram grid spot for this one, a book I truly loved. It was a book where every aspect felt very deliberate. I read this one alongside Lilly, and Erika’s and Kayla’s praise stuck with me the entire time. 

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan — not the most believable romance, but refreshing to see middle-aged characters!

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood — The books in this series are all the same, with “not like other girls” women and big beefy guys, but here I am, always coming back for more. The best parts of this book were the digs at Christopher Nolan. Tenet was not a good movie and if you tell me you understood it, I won’t believe you! (Interstellar can stay.)

The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley — This was a DNF, a little past halfway. The writing style and pacing were choppy and stilted to the point that I was flipping back constantly wondering if I’d missed something.

Almond by Sohn Won-Pyung — sad and sweet. Almost too much so in the way you expect YA to be, so I’m not holding it against the book. And even though the author took some creative liberties in portraying it, I also learned about alexithymia.

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter — I see why this book has been so well-received. I had a few qualms with it, which is probably just a personal problem.

misc.

This

Feels Like Home

essay on the “slams laptop shut til Monday” memes all over instagram thanks to the Sunday Scaries account was both funny and spot-on, even though I’ve been known to share these silly memes from time to time too.

A piece titled “Girl” trends and the repackaging of womanhood from Vox has given me the term girlouboros to replace my overuse of ouroboros (even though I think it should be spelled girloboros?) — and a sharp assessment of “girl” trends as marketing campaigns.

Speaking of girls and ouroboros, ‘A smorgasbord of unlikability’: the authors helping ‘sad girl lit’ grow up from The Guardian dissects the trend of sad girl lit, with this quote from Pip Finkenmeyer, whose debut novel with the meta title Sad Girl Novel published this summer in the UK and Australia: “There is something problematic about millennial privileged women reading about millennial privileged women who are writing books about millennial privileged women. It becomes a snake eating its tail.” Sad girl lit will remain popular and relatable, and I’m going to continue reading it, but the discourse around it has become too much.

The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are ongoing. To read more about the strikes and how to support them, go here and here.

movies

X (Ti West, 2022) + Pearl (Ti West, 2022) — I didn’t love these but didn’t hate them either, I guess. They’re borderline misogynistic and maybe pointless, but X especially was at least entertaining. Definitely watch them in release order (X first, then Pearl) and I recommend the double-feature if you’re somehow up for it. 

Red, White & Royal Blue (Matthew López, 2023) — as a DC resident, the real horrors of this movie are the references like “slumming it in Shaw.” Otherwise entertaining enough but somehow boring?

Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010) — it’d been awhile since I’d watched this, and it is so incredibly 2010. The fashion, the jokes, the slut shaming, Amanda Bynes. Now that I am an old person, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as parents stole the show for me.

The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017) — good both technically and emotionally, thoughtful, well done.

Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman, 2020) — just stressful, the whole way through. Which is to say, I enjoyed it!

The Stepford Wives (Frank Oz, 2004) — I need to read the book to make up my mind on whether this movie was ahead of its time or not, but it’s surprisingly funny and the cast is excellent besides wet-blanket Matthew Broderick being painted as a hero.

The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola, 2013) — a rewatch. If anyone other than Sofia Coppola had directed this, I’d probably have disliked it more. It’s also probably time we accepted Emma Watson can’t do an American accent.

Renfield (Chris McKay, 2023) — so bad I didn’t want to finish it. This could have been good and it was just a bloody, boring mess.

tv shows

King of Land — A charming k-drama that’s silly, as all romances are, but with two leads who actually have chemistry. The only thing (and it’s a big thing) is that there is one episode with a racist and inaccurate depiction of a Muslim prince who is in Korea to buy warplanes (warplanes!) but really to just be a flirty philandering party boy. 

The Summer I Turned Pretty — someone needs to tell Belly to go find another boy, or perhaps just a new family to rip apart. Sad-boy Conrad and Goof Jeremiah aren’t the only two hotties in the world, girlfriend! I cried my way through this second season because the grief aspect is a lot, but I stand by this being a decent show. Also, I think I’m Team Jeremiah but really just Team Anyone-But-Brothers.

Below Deck Down Under — I’ve watched a decent amount of Below Deck this month and every month, which is how I immediately clocked and made threatening eye contact with a Below Deck Down Under deck hand at a random bar in rural Maryland a few weeks ago. The drama going down on that franchise is actually serious, and it’s making me question behavior on the other BD franchises as well.

The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor + Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott — I snagged these two at Lost City Books with aforementioned soulmate Kayla. She found me a copy of The Late Americans with the (better) UK cover for $10, somehow. Ex-Wife, which is part of McNally Jackson’s reprint series, was originally published anonymously in 1929 and became an instant bestseller. This New York Times Critics’ Notebook part-review, part-profile piece made me want to read it immediately.

Madewell ballet flats — I thought ballet flats were dead and I thought I wanted them to stay dead, but I couldn’t help myself and now I own a pair again. The color I got, vintage ink, is mostly sold out. Trends are mostly silly, especially when they’re just a repeat of millennials’ formerly beloved items, but I’m actively trying to resist the Birkenstock Boston clogs, which we affectionately called potato shoes in middle school and whose most important role was tearing holes in the hems of my raggedy ass Hollister flare jeans with every step.

Serta Mattress topper — If you too have recently said, “wow, I really need a new mattress,” only to discover that they are stupidly expensive, might I suggest a stupidly expensive 3-inch mattress topper to create the illusion of a new bed!

It wouldn’t be a Steph newsletter if I didn’t leave you with a themed fun fact: The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy — scientists think there’s a black hole at the center of most galaxies — is called Sagittarius A*. It’s the second black hole to have been photographed, though the image is actually just of objects and matter becoming so hot as they fall into the black hole that they put off that much radiation and energy and can be picked up by radio telescopes.

(via)

And I’ll leave you with one optimistic August quote:

a golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life, that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive. -Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

The month probably deserves more credit than I’ve given it here, but I’m happy to move into September nonetheless. May everyone enjoy the beginning of pumpkin spice season. I have already had one pumpkin cream cold brew and cannot be stopped.

Before you go: Find me on instagram, goodreads, storygraph, or letterboxd to keep up with my obsessive tracking habits in real-time.

If you missed last month’s Consumption Diaries, you can find it here, or the full archive of these roundups here.