Magic, Monster-Babes & the Midnight Sun

In This Missive:

• I’m wondering about the effect of social media on our brains
• Reading Chouette by Claire Oshetsky
• Watching Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell
• Planning the Midnight Sun Subscriber Hangout for June 23rd

What I’m Wondering

Much has been said about the way social media ‘feeding’ rewires our brains. What does that mean if you are a writer? In the early days of Twitter, I loved reading William Gibson’s tweets. Once he tweeted something like—I don’t post on social media when I’m writing a book because that would be writing away my fire—something to that effect.

I took this to heart when I began writing my next book, and I can’t imagine going back on now. It’s been six months since I’ve checked IG daily. I swoop into IG when I need to post something (this is futile as my posts have no reach). I put a timer on and spend 15 minutes signal boosting other people’s posts. I do this twice a month. I see fewer and fewer posts from people I actually follow. I would have to stay on far longer in order to find posts from artists, musicians and writers that I would like to boost. These posts especially are being ‘hidden’ by the algorithm, though they are exactly the content I wish to see. There’s a lingering feeling of being systemically ‘shut out’ from a community I once enjoyed—ironically that feeling is most acute when I am actually on IG. I resent an algorithm deciding for me what merits my attention.

Going off has been really good for my fire.

What about you? How do you negotiate the increasingly commodified and dopamine-driven world of social media?

What I’m Reading

Chouette by Claire Oshetsky

Thanks to my friend Jude who recommended this savage fable of motherhood. This narrative—entirely written in the second person to a monstrous ‘Owl Baby’—presents a slippery allegory where the ideal of the self-sacrificing mother is taken to its obliterating conclusion. The book asks difficult questions about conformity, ableism and the social contract as well as narcissism inherent in reproduction—having kids for the ‘wrong reasons’. I have no children of my own. Writing a book however is very much like birthing a monstrous Owl Baby. It devours you, isolates you, unmakes you, and in the end it leaves you alone with the aftermath of its becoming. It manifests as its own majestic thing—-belonging only to itself. That is to say, I get it.

What I’m Watching

I have loved escaping into BBC One’s lively adaptation of Susanna Clark’s novel, Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell. Despite there not being a single interesting female character in the series (it shares this with the book), it is an exquisite rendering of this delicious world. I had forgotten how good it is. 

What I’m Planning

Paid subscribers mark the date and check your inboxes for a zoom invite!  We’ll have a Hangout for paid subscribers on Sunday June 22rd at 7pm BST

Find your time zone here. 

If you would like to come along, become a paid subscriber. I’d love to have you join us.

If you are already a paid subscriber—check your inbox for a Zoom link. I’ll be sending a reminder nearer the time as well.