1. Hum, Quip, Goby, Burst, Boka, Brüush, Gleem, Shyn — these are just a few of the brands, or “blands,” seeking to disrupt the toothbrush industry right now. If you’ve scrolled through Instagram recently, no doubt you’ve seen others trying to do the same in other industries. Caspar, Harry’s, Oscar, Burrow, Keeps, Roman, Rumpl, the […]
The Latest from the Mockingcast: Smokin’ Soulmates and Those Upgrades Can Wait
Episode 192: Smokin’ Soulmates In which RJ, Sarah, and Dave talk marriage models, bored believers, fragile meritocrats, and reconciled congressmen. Also, RJ catches up on some Netflix while Sarah dabbles in prophecy. Click here to read The Wall Street Journal article on Smoking. Click here to read the article about COVID-19 Killing the Soulmate Model […]
Love, Compassion, and the Relative Suffering of Christ on the Cross: Intimations by Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s Intimations is a short collection of essays about life in corona-time. Most of them are fixed on that singularly bizarre March/April when “surreal” was the only word most of us could cough up; not surprisingly, Smith has a more expressive vocabulary. If the book arouses any suspicion, it’s that it came too fast, […]
The Hardest Thing for Anyone
According to author Zadie Smith, that is. She spills the beans in the closing mic-drop of her remarkable recent interview with The Toronto Star, ht SMZ:
“I think the hardest thing for anyone is accepting that other people are real as you are. That’s it. Not using them as tools, not using them as examples or things to make yourself feel better or things to get over or under. Just accepting that they are absolutely as real as you are and have all the same expectations and demands. And it’s so difficult that basically the only person that ever did it was Christ. The rest of us are very, very far behind.”
The Convenient Battlefield of Language, or, “This Zadie Smith Is Everything”
On the Internet, a word that will always get attention is “Actually.” You can bet it will be followed by such-and-such a reason why so-and-so is wrong, and what could be more interesting? Especially among wordy or academic types, language is so prolific that drawing lines of what should and shouldn’t be said seems imperative, […]
Peace/Love/Elvis: The Death of Ambition, and Also of Denis Johnson
It’s hard to say exactly when the plummet of Elvis Presley began. Some say in the late 60s, some say the early 70s. Some might say as early as 1958, when he was drafted into the Army. In any case, there’s no denying the devilish phase of physical and mental deterioration that carried him to […]
Malfunctioning Lovers (and Christ in a Ciabatta Roll)
A scathing narrator lowers her anthropology in this compelling passage from White Teeth by Zadie Smith:
What was it about this unlovable century that convinced us we were, despite everything, eminently lovable as a people, as a species? What made us think that anyone who fails to love us is damaged, lacking, malfunctioning in some way? And particularly if they replace us with a god, or a weeping madonna, or the face of Christ in a ciabatta roll—then we call them crazy. Deluded. Regressive. We are so convinced of the goodness of ourselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship. Greetings cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.
Millat didn’t love Irie, and Irie was sure there must be somebody she could blame for that.
Another Week Ends: Insignificance, Kanye, Rooted & Fundamentals, Zadie Smith, Blue Like Jazz and Steve Martin
1. Mark Galli continues his hot streak over at Christianity Today with a thoughtful editorial entitled “Insignificant is Beautiful,” in which he rightly explores why young people are so intent on making “a difference” and what that might mean. He doesn’t trash do-gooders per se as much as discuss how the yearning for significance often […]
