NO NONSENSE #37
Hey dolls!
We’re back with another instalment of our recommendations newsletter, with loads of TV, books, and films to enjoy if you’re in a slump. Enjoy!
Sihaam Naik - Editorial Fellow
Book: Girl Online: A User Manual by Joanna Walsh
I recently read Girl Online (not to be confused with Zoella’s collection of novellas) and it made me reframe the concept of girlhood online. With easy-to-digest data theories, anecdotes, and film stills that relate IRL to URL, this was a comprehensive read that left me Educated and Inspired about the ubiquitous nature of the internet and its many offerings.
TV and Book: I Love Dick
Inspired by this week’s text on autofiction and Taylor Swift (Si apre in una nuova finestra), I set out to read and watch I Love Dick. This weeks I’ve been double teaming a novel by Chris Kraus, and a limited TV series directed by my favourite Andrea Arnold. Although it’s kind of chaotic, I enjoy reading chapter by chapter and flipping to the corresponding episode- it makes for a fun multi sensory experience that I Love Dick warrants I think.
Yoghurt Parfaits
Ideal post dinner dessert is The Collective passion fruit yoghurt with a handful of crispy M&Ms, granola, chia seeds and blueberries. Divine!!
Hatti Rex - Contributing Editor
Book: Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison
Inspired by the most recent Polyester cover (Si apre in una nuova finestra) I’ve been listening to the memoir of Hugh Hefner’s former gf on Spotify Audiobooks, and got a little bit too into listening about her life at the Playboy Mansion whilst I ignore my growing inbox.
Pain Suisse
They’re like a pain au chocolat but with a delicious filling and they’re my main vice at the moment, not had one in a few days so I’m mildly grumps.
Misha MN - Culture Editor
Film - Saint Maud
We recently got invited to a preview screening of Rose Glass’s newest film Love Lies Bleeding, about lesbian body builders on the run, and it was honestly transcendental. One of the best cinema experiences I’ve ever had. After it had finished, and I was mulling it over, I decided to rewatch her debut, Saint Maud, and see how it stacks up. I loved Saint Maud when it first came out in 2019, a character study of loneliness, an ever-increasing losing grip on reality, and religious ferver. The film is subtle and delicate, compact in its runtime, standout performances from the two leads, and poses a lot of questions without spoonfeeding answers. If this is the year of the nun, we have Saint Maud to thank for reigniting the beacons of spiritual disruption. All in all a great debut, and with the follow up being as strong as Love Lies Bleeding, we are going to be talking about Rose Glass for a long time.
Music: Editors
Not quite cool enough to have been spoken about that much during the Indie Sleaze revival, I found myself re-listening to their first album (which I remember buying from a bargain bin) and honestly, it bangs. Munich was my fav single and is probably the best on the album, closely followed by Camera. Love the singer’s deep throbbing voice, and also very into the simple lyrics that get repeated, almost to abstraction. “People are fragile things, you should know by now,” “You fall from grace, you fall with such grace,” and “I just close my eyes as you walk I just close my eyes as you walk I just close my eyes as you walk OUT!” It’s a bit maudlin, little bit “we take ourselves very seriously”, but tbh that’s what works when you are a teen. Was very shocked to find out they never stopped and are still making music, might try that later, but without the veil of nostalgia, will it be worth it?
Book: The Chiffon Trenches by Andre Leon Talley
Got this book for Christmas and have finally got around to starting it and it’s amazing. It doesn’t do what so many autobiographies do and dwell on the minutiae of childhood, it fairly quickly jumps to Andre’s astonishing career in fashion and is eminently readable because of it. It’s shocking how quickly his star rose, from making connections at a fancy university he got in on scholarship, to his first job at the Costume Institute with Diana Vreeland, to becoming receptionist at Andy Warhol’s Interview, fast becoming a fashion editor, then becoming an editor at Women’s Wear Daily, then taking over as their Paris editor, all whilst wearing Karl Lagerfeld’s cast offs because he didn’t have much of his own yet, and that’s all in the first 60 pages. Exciting, exhilarating, an education in style icons past and present.
Ione Gamble - Founding Editor in Chief
TV: FALLOUT
Seems obvious it’s riding the wave of success for video game adaptations that The Last Of Us, initiated but Fallout is far sillier and dare I say… camp? Kyle MacLachlan plays a dad with a dubious past, and people keep saying they fancy the ghoul… need I say more?
BOOK: Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna
I was very kindly sent this ahead of publication (out now in the US, out next week in the UK), and it is of course essential reading for anyone with even a minor interest in feminist publishing, organising, or the music scene in Olympia during the 90s. I found her writing on illness and being cared for by her husband really touching too.
ZINE: Fan Fiction by Tavi Gevinson
I already raved about this on my IG story but have had Tavi’s excellent satirical writing on Taylor Swift whirring around my head for weeks now. So much to glean on parasocial relationships, fandom, and creating narratives of our own lives. Free to read or print out here (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
See you next time!
XOXO
The Polyester Team
