It’s silly, maybe. But I woke up in a bit of a cold sweat last night.
Not so much worried, just excited? Eager?
I hate how earnest I can be sometimes. But, alas. Thar’ she blows. I’m a hospitalitarian at heart. I want to “do good”, as it were.
Yet, and maybe here’s where the anxiety folds in, when I look up and out, I think, “who the hell needs another recipe? another food writer waxing on about their latest feast or famine or birthday cake? Who needs another dynamic Bourdainian travel story?”
Honestly, the field is stacked. The market saturated. What once was an exciting landscape of opportunity for professional chefs, cooks, writers and non-”creators” who have actually made careers out in the world (no shade, just confusing for those of us who have worked in jobs that give us street cred), it has become a very full ladder that feels easier to watch from afar. Trying to clamber up with, frankly, people who have a helluva lot more energy than I do at this point in my life feels hideous. As I’ve tried to gracefully make my way as someone who teeter-totters between “food writing” and “writing”, it has been an interesting landscape to navigate. (Perhaps one day I’ll tell you just how devastating, unimportant and cheap getting big bylines feels these days… how reduced those spaces have become.. video killed the radio star, etc. etc.)
There’s a line in Barton Fink (if you haven’t watched, you maybe should) where Tony Shalhoub’s character Ben Geisler, as he downs whisky chased with whole milk, says a thing that feels pertinent to anyone after having been in any industry too long (check clip above). Fink has just made his way to Hollywood. He himself is an earnest playwright from New York. He has no idea how to navigate the Hollywood boom of “writers” - everyone in that world, to him, a soapy pulp version of what he deems his only real gift. The movie is about a guy who can’t get out of his head long enough to succeed. His failure to launch - or, actually, the realization that “success” is now reduced to throwaway dialogue in cheap B movies being made per minute - is largely based on the fact that he does not understand how any of “it” works, try as he might. This is mixed with a preternatural pretentiousness that disavows him from being actually “great”. He is both the problem and the solution, but his “the life of the mind” trope makes sure that he misses the stories that might actually bring him the relief he craves.
At the end, everyman Charlie Meadows (and secret serial killer Madman Mundt, representing Fink’s interior apocalypse), played expertly by John Goodman, rages down a hall on fire, shouting “Look upon me! I will show you the life of the mind!!” while gunning down and subverting both the intellectual posturing of Fink and the idiocy of the Industry, both guilty of grotesquely overlooking or simply parroting cheaply the important, real stories of the common man. Fucking brilliant.
My favorite factoid about this film is that the Coen Brothers wrote it in three weeks to cure a devastating case of writer’s block while trying to finish Miller’s Crossing. True genius.
Maybe too revealing (but we’re friends here, right?): At one point in my life, I think I foolishly related to Fink and now, dear reader, I realize, I am nice guy Charlie Meadows turned Madman Mundt. I’ll have you know that I am well aware that to relate to either character is a flaw of my person.
Either way, Mundt or Fink, this is not, dear reader, how I feel about Substack. And I want to celebrate these feelings! On the contrary. Seeing so many writers here that I admire and respect has eased a lot of the overwhelm and lack of getting “it” that is required to maintain any kind of career these days. I think, despite it’s quick shift to becoming a social media platform instead of just a true-blue writer’s space, Substack has managed to keep a lot of the bad feelings out.
It feels nice in here.
Perhaps, though, I flag this film because these Fink-i-fied feelings are how I think most of us feel about the American consumerism vs. culture problem we are having writ large - everything accessible, all the time, everywhere, on every channel at your fingertips, forever and ever and ever and ever, never a second to spare, daydreams are dead, critical thinking and reading comprehension increasingly in the toilet. And seemingly fewer and fewer characters and stories of real life to cling to.
A lot gets lost when you have access to everything, everyone an expert. Throw it hard, Fink.
How do we parse out what we actually want to consume in order to choose things that encourage us to grow and learn and develop as humans when the godforsaken algorithm has decided it all for us ahead of time, continuously mining our lives and “feeds” and conversations in order to simply regurgitate it all back to us in the worst kind of cultural, philosophical and political banal circle-jerk with ourselves?
How, indeed!
Well, today is a free post for two reasons. First, I don’t plan on making this (entirely) a space in which to rant or give long, overwrought synopsis of my favorite movies. Sorry and here’s a freebie.
But also, as I find my way reentering this platform, I am realizing that there is much to celebrate! I want to be only the solution, not the problem.
There are so many writers on here and out in the world that I want to share with my own subscribers as a foil to the above declarations - a small offering to help weed out the noise and get to the good stuff. A person to person recommendation for you from me. These are the people who stop me in my tracks often and wonderfully, in case you haven’t yet come across them or their publications.
Since this will be a rare free post, it is available to share far and wide in order to spread the word on good, good writers.
Story Club by George Saunders: Did you know St. George has a SUBSTACK? Where he teaches and guides people through STORIES?! Absolute tears in my eyes when I found it. I never want to leave there.
New Worlder by Nicholas Gill: this guy is a real smart cookie and a really expert explorer. “New Worlder is my newsletter and podcast that explores the world of cuisine in the Americas, and sometimes other places too. Each week you will find interviews with fascinating figures in the culinary world, plus a wide range of stories and recipes. I’ll discuss things like foraging, farming, food preservation and what restaurants I think you should be going to. I’ll talk about old technologies and new ones. I’ll look at how we can use the power of gastronomy to ignite social change and preserve landscapes.”
Honey Stay Super by Kimberly Harrington: I adore this woman, her voice and her style. “HONEY STAY SUPER: A newsletter that’s pro-Big-Life-Changes. Creating a new life after 50, after marriage, after kids, and after moving clear across the country. So sick of learning and growing I could barf. Making you think, laugh, and feel.”
Attitude Adjustment Facility by Millicent Souris: You’ll be glad to have Millicent’s voice in your inbox every week. “Attitude Adjustment Facility
Our rapidly sluggish decline to the end times, but with humor! and food!”
The Querent by Alexander Chee: Not only one of my favorite writers, but a great mentor. I was a non-fiction fellow at Sewanee Writer’s Conference a few years ago and had the great pleasure and honor of working with Alex (and the brilliant Lacy M. Johnson). A great read, every single time. “The Querent
The person asking a question at the beginning of a Tarot card reading. Or, a newsletter project by Alexander Chee.”
Jeremiah Tower’s Out of the Oven: Rollicking, a tiny bit naughty gossip, old school storytelling from one of my favorite chefs. He says true things and writes them plainly without hesitation. The man has never, seemingly, given a single fuck - a trait I miss most in the 21st Century.
**note: I am leaving out many writers here, because, gleefully, the list is very long. But the point was to be succinct! So I’m trying.
Roads & Kingdoms (their newsletters and other online publications are also absolute gems - you can sign up on their website)
CakeZine (which also has a fantastic Substack) : this little pub out of Brooklyn has my heart.
Vittles: A beauty coming out of London - “Vittles is a food and culture magazine based in the UK and India. At Vittles, we think about food as economy, class, inheritance, and political agency, rather than just a dish on a table. We publish essays about all aspects of food culture, from deep dives to polemics, from personal essays to reported journalism, as well as restaurant recommendations, recipes, and reviews.” Both in print and on Substack
Finally, here’s my pitch to all readers who aren’t already subscribed to our greats, our guardians of thought: The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books.
**Again, here I feel like being succinct is hard as there are many more incredible, rogue feeling zines out there. Feel free to share your faves in comments. We all want to know!
That’s all for this week!
Next week I launch a twice a week push for paid subscribers. I want you to know that I am so grateful to all of you who literally busted down the barn door signing up for this newsletter.
I am grateful beyond words.
I leave you with a question: Not to pander, but I am so curious about what you are looking for when you get this newsletter. Please comment here if there are things you particularly hope to read from me.
It’s quite alright if you say “recipes”. ❤️
I am having so much fun planning out the next few weeks and following little threads from my brain to my heart, going where the inspiration takes me every week. It feels a bit like menu writing - hoping for some surprises and some old favorites, lots of daydreams, lots of “does anyone really want to eat that besides me?” Lemme know.
With love,
L
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