⋆. 𐙚˚࿔May in tabs 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

Janet Malcolm and romance pulps

I began the month going down a Janet Malcolm rabbit hole. I’ve previously mentioned reading The Silent Woman, and picked up a copy of In The Freud Archives earlier this month and was blown away by it. Think eccentric psychoanalysts fighting over Freud’s estate and scholarship in New York in the 70s. (one analyst is old school and established, the other one is flamboyant and perhaps something of an imposter, and the other one was once a personal assistant to the Rolling Stones?????) I need more people to read this. But in the mean time I’ve rounded up some of the pieces Malcolm wrote for the New Yorker. If you’re not familiar with her work, I’d say it is in the Joan Didion universe, though slightly more inclined toward literary criticism and psychoanalysis. It is the kind of long form journalism with the page turning quality of a thriller, and some of her pieces were then subsequently developed into books (like The Silent Woman and The Freud Archives). I also loved reading her “Art Of Nonfiction” interview for the Paris Review.

Feed Me’s Summer Novel Reading List. I love love love Emily Sundberg’s newsletter and I love the idea of crowdsourcing the perfect summer novel! Agreed with Tender is the Night. I reread it every couple of summers, along with Bonjour Tristesse, it’s just in my neighbourhood. Lonesome Dove has been coming up on my radar time and time again in the last few months and this may be my sign to pick it up. Then again, I still haven’t read Infintie Jest, and if I’m hanging myself to a 900+ page book, I guess Infinite Jest has to be it.

Olivia Rodrigo’s interview on Popcast. I love Popcast, and I find that in the age of podcasts/ video shows, they’re one of the few that actually ask real questions.

“Writing as Transformation” by Louise Glück for the New Yorker

“Algorithm Nation: Bookforum talks with film critic A. S. Hamrah” by Christian Lorentzen for Bookforum

“How Vincenzo Latronico Went From Construction Worker to Booker Nominee” for Cultured Mag.

Best for last: The Pulp Magazines Project is an online archive of pulp magazines from the 1930s. Browsing through is such a treat. I landed on the page dedicated to Love Story Magazine, a pulp dedicated to romance stories and serials. From what I gather, Love Story was a successful magazine, though even then, pulps largely retained marginal status as literary document. I was able to find an online archive of Love Story Magazine, though I wish someone would anthologies them!

Reading this in light of the current romance novel boom the publishing world is experiencing is interesting. I haven’t read very many contemporary romance novels, though I have respect before it (I’m quite interested in what 831 Stories is doing), and definitely read a lot of YA as a kid.

I love how the covers of Love Story reflect the fashion of the time, but even better are the ads!!!! I read some of the serials and some of them are truly nuts and others just cute. I found myself endlessly charmed by the old timey American names of the writers (Georgette Macmillan! Louise Carter Lee! Vivian Grey!) And the astrology section alone is worth taking a moment for, along with the corresponding astrology-specific advice column, where readers wrote in with their love related conundrums.

Happy weekend!