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jacobblank 's review for:
The Witches Are Coming
by Lindy West
It is impressive how much the world and the country (United States) has changed since 2019. It is surprising how petty and insignificant some of this analysis is. Reading this felt like an archeological dig into white pop feminism.
The odd choices for which slurs would be bleeped out, the snarky but begrudgingly hopeful outlook, the idea that language policing is praxis for a utopian society, and personal dislikes turned into ethical failures in others. In a not-so-bad essay about Twitter trolls, she rails against Twitter without taking a moment to acknowledge how much of her style and political disposition comes from being a user of it for so long.
My favorite essay was about Joan Rivers. West writes beautifully about a complicated figure, but it’s clear that the most insightful portions come from Guy Branum, her former writer who knew her personally and is a very thoughtful person himself. I would say that I wonder what that essay would look like without someone to walk her through nuance, but I don’t have to. There’s an absolute clunker about Adam Sandler, questioning if he was ever funny and even trying to pin him as a proto-alt right figure. It’s a baffling reach.
It’s not the worst thing in the world. Hardly a classic. I’d be much happier with a bit more soul excavating. I think a lot of contemporary readers will also be glad their politics have matured past this moment.
The odd choices for which slurs would be bleeped out, the snarky but begrudgingly hopeful outlook, the idea that language policing is praxis for a utopian society, and personal dislikes turned into ethical failures in others. In a not-so-bad essay about Twitter trolls, she rails against Twitter without taking a moment to acknowledge how much of her style and political disposition comes from being a user of it for so long.
My favorite essay was about Joan Rivers. West writes beautifully about a complicated figure, but it’s clear that the most insightful portions come from Guy Branum, her former writer who knew her personally and is a very thoughtful person himself. I would say that I wonder what that essay would look like without someone to walk her through nuance, but I don’t have to. There’s an absolute clunker about Adam Sandler, questioning if he was ever funny and even trying to pin him as a proto-alt right figure. It’s a baffling reach.
It’s not the worst thing in the world. Hardly a classic. I’d be much happier with a bit more soul excavating. I think a lot of contemporary readers will also be glad their politics have matured past this moment.