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samrher 's review for:
Like Love: Essays and Conversations
by Maggie Nelson
pretty bummed about this one. there are some brilliant moments in this because maggie is brilliant, but i am so frustrated by the form of this book.
we are living in a moment where content is repackaged in order to produce new “value” for it (something nelson herself reflects on with eileen myles in the final conversation of this book). we are constantly fed ten installments of a film franchise; social media content riffs on the same joke for weeks on end; musicians release a slew of remixes, LP variants, and rereleases with “bonus content” so their super fans can collect what have now inevitably become tchotchkes. as sianne ngai has helpfully theorized, we are living in the moment of the gimmick.
and unfortunately, this book is a gimmick. you can find all of these essays and conversations online or in magazines, probably mostly for free… or you can pay $32 for all of these in a book. i’m not necessarily saying there is no value in anthology, but most of these essays read like early-hipster-insider-new-york pieces that, out of context, do more to confuse than to reveal. i won’t go on, but i am confused about why maggie nelson decided to compile this. maybe she needed to fulfill a contract with her publisher and she was struggling to pull something new together. i think that would be incredibly understandable. so this review isn’t meant to whine about maggie nelson not giving me “original” content, but more to lament the economy of hyper-circulation that prioritizes volume over anything else. and so we are often served mush by those who are capable of much more, all in service of breaking records, doing “the most,” and satisfying the insatiable craving for more.
we are living in a moment where content is repackaged in order to produce new “value” for it (something nelson herself reflects on with eileen myles in the final conversation of this book). we are constantly fed ten installments of a film franchise; social media content riffs on the same joke for weeks on end; musicians release a slew of remixes, LP variants, and rereleases with “bonus content” so their super fans can collect what have now inevitably become tchotchkes. as sianne ngai has helpfully theorized, we are living in the moment of the gimmick.
and unfortunately, this book is a gimmick. you can find all of these essays and conversations online or in magazines, probably mostly for free… or you can pay $32 for all of these in a book. i’m not necessarily saying there is no value in anthology, but most of these essays read like early-hipster-insider-new-york pieces that, out of context, do more to confuse than to reveal. i won’t go on, but i am confused about why maggie nelson decided to compile this. maybe she needed to fulfill a contract with her publisher and she was struggling to pull something new together. i think that would be incredibly understandable. so this review isn’t meant to whine about maggie nelson not giving me “original” content, but more to lament the economy of hyper-circulation that prioritizes volume over anything else. and so we are often served mush by those who are capable of much more, all in service of breaking records, doing “the most,” and satisfying the insatiable craving for more.