Search Results for “achievement anxiety”

Achievement Anxiety, Ctd

An animated addition to the thread, from Ira Glass:

A reader writes: In what I trust will not be breaking news: achievement anxiety (particularly in relation to others) is nothing new. Consider this famous anecdote from Suetonius’ “Life of Julius Caesar”: As quaestor it fell to [Caesar’s] lot to serve in Further Spain. When he was there…he came to Gades, and noticing a statue … Continue reading Achievement Anxiety, Ctd

Achievement Anxiety

Heather Horn ponders the sentiment among millennials who see Lena Dunham achieving the kind of early fame her Girls character can only dream about: The feeling of having hoped you’d be further along by age x is pretty common, whether the yardstick is in financial success or artistic achievement and critical acclaim (and often young … Continue reading Achievement Anxiety

The Meaning of Girls

This thread explores the cultural influence and meaning of Lena Dunham’s show Girls. Mon Apr 02, 2012 – 10:19am If Louis CK Were A 25-Year-Old Girl That’s Emily Nussbaum’s characterization of the young auteur Lena Dunham, star of the upcoming series “Girls”: Like Dunham, [Louis CK] writes, edits, directs, and stars as a character based on him. … Continue reading The Meaning of Girls

The Weekly Wrap

Friday on the Dish, Andrew diagnosed the GOP with ongoing Dubya-denial, and urged Republicans to get over it for the sake of the party. Meanwhile, Chait chided the silent centrists in the GOP, Karl Rove reminded the foundering party of the “Buckley rule,” and we gave Chris Christie a pass on his weight. Elsewhere, we … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap

From Interns, Big Things May Come

Angela Evancie reviews Andrew Shaffer’s Literary Rogues, which covers the mundane internships, grunt jobs and general kicking around that preceded the rise of literary giants: [W]hat is most remarkable about Shaffer’s history is the way in which it colors that liminal space between writers’ obscurity and their eventual fame – not just with tales of weeklong … Continue reading From Interns, Big Things May Come

Corporate Concubine Culture

Dan Kois praises Helen DeWitt’s 2011 novel Lightning Rods – the first selection for the Slate/Whiting Second Novel List – as “a sex comedy that pursues a single dirty joke much, much further than it ought to and, in doing so, skewers American capitalism with a purer, more invigorating hatred than any novel I can remember.” The satire figures female … Continue reading Corporate Concubine Culture

Platonic Procreation, Ctd

A reader remarks on a recent post: Long before Michael Woodley theorized it, the link between asexuality and genius was covered on Seinfeld, when George Costanza’s girlfriend had mononucleosis and couldn’t have sex with him for six weeks. The result, as you may recall, was that George dedicated all of that time and energy once … Continue reading Platonic Procreation, Ctd

Feminism Meets Occupy Wall Street

Rachel Hills profiles feminist writer Laurie Penny, author of Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution: [Penny] is skeptical of attempts to take the bite out of the gender equality movement. “I think the whole question [of rebranding feminism] is very indicative of how threatening a lot of people find feminism and gender liberation in general,” she says. “My … Continue reading Feminism Meets Occupy Wall Street

Sully And Hitch After Dark

A late-night conversation between Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens, recorded in 2006. A while back I thought it would be a cool idea to do some post-prandial chats with some of my favorite people. It occurred to me that the best conversations I ever heard in Washington never happened on television or radio. They were … Continue reading Sully And Hitch After Dark