HELLO and welcome to the 134th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about John Green! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
The Teen Whisperer (June 2014), by Margaret Talbot for The New Yorker – I actually had no idea that John Green had like a video series and stuff, I was wondering how the internet had so many opinions about this guy just from his three novels and, I assumed, a few interviews about those novels. Anyhow this was very interesting, you should try it!
Letters From An Arsonist (June 2007), by Dave Jamieson for Washington City Paper – OH MY LORD THIS MAN IS A MANIAC. THIS IS THE MOST BIZARRE THING I HAVE READ ALL MONTH. Also he’s gay, which is SUPER NEAT.
From Factory Farm To Organic Icon: Inside White Oak Pastures (September 2013), by Maryn McKenna for Modern Farmer – This is amazing, like this guy has an ENORMOUS organic farm? He took his family’s factory farm that mainly processed and sold fertilizer and feed grain and revamped it into like a living breathing thing.
Local Story (March 2013), by Rachel Aviv for The New Yorker – Wow this one has been sitting in my Instapaper forever and I finally read it and it was pretty interesting, it’s about how the local paper covered the Sandy Hook story and the paper’s general ties to and purpose within the small town to begin with.
America Dumbs Down (May 2014), by Jonathan Gatehouse for MacLean’s – Welp. Thank you MacLean’s for compiling all of this depressing information for me! No but at first I was like oh wow we are awful, but then near the end I was like, ok we are awful, but some of this shit you are saying is total bananas. (MacLean’s is a conservative and usually awful magazine, read at your own risk.)
Crazy (June 2014), by Rob Roberge for The Rumpus – The author sort of digs down deep and tells you about being bipolar even though usually he doesn’t want to tell you about that, he’d rather tell you about his past struggles with addiction, but mental illness is this whole other thing and there is this shame around it.
The Worst Party in Asia (June 2014), by Robert Foyle Hunwick for Roads & Kingdoms – Well I’m definitely not going to THIS party SO THERE. Actually I am sort of confused by the whole concept? It sounds like a bunch of white people go to Koh Phangan in Thailand and throw a bunch of beer in the ocean.
The Seventh Day (June 2014), by Claire Harlan Orsi for n+1 – This is like a personal essay but also weaves in pop culture references and literary references and real life facts and I actually wish it was a bit longer I feel like. It’s about divorce and joint custody and includes some very interesting tidbits about how lesbians have joint custody arrangements at enormously higher rates than straight people.
Exploring Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch (June 2014) by Jules Suzdaltsev for Vice Magazine – This isn’t really a longread, I’m just sharing with you because sharing is caring.
