“In the face of this macho capitalism, Fey and Poehler were like merry Marxists”—because laughs are made for sharing, and we're lucky that these two particular funny ladies are still feeling so generous.
The National Post's Afterword just launched a new feature, wherein authors write a little bit about a line of two from their books. I don't think that writers are necessarily the best people to explain their own work—if that were the case, no one would write novels, only explanations—but I'm really digging this idea from Andrew Kaufman: “I am aware that my characters aren’t real. But they’re not fictionalized versions of myself, my family or my friends, either. They are slices of myself, my problems and hang-ups transformed by fiction...”
This take on the ethics of writing confessional essays about parenting (in the wake of that nightmare of an unconsidered overshare, “I am Adam Lanza's Mother”) is totally solid: “The reader assumes that the parent will do what's best for her child. While the parent may set out to do this, using their own children in the service of a larger argument clouds their ability to self-censor.”
Of special interest: Jessa Crispin wrote up a handy reading list for those among you who are looking for a literary way to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Satanic Panic.
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Photo by Paul Drinkwater
