Male Mary Gaitskill
@malemarygaitskill.bsky.social
Author of Looking for Trouble, A Nancy and a Bruiser, Whether You Like It or Not, and many others
The original working title of Looking for Trouble was Dad Behavior
April 23, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The original working title of Looking for Trouble was Dad Behavior
A new Thomas Pynchon in 2025—I’ll admit, the sophomore gags always got on my nerves, and we were never big potheads back in the 80s, but: the man has always had a real knack for timing. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316427...
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon: 9781594206108 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
The new novel from Thomas Pynchon Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation busines...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
April 9, 2025 at 4:45 PM
A new Thomas Pynchon in 2025—I’ll admit, the sophomore gags always got on my nerves, and we were never big potheads back in the 80s, but: the man has always had a real knack for timing. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316427...
Brodernism—stupid word. But there’s always been something embarrassing about the way critics fawn over these doorstoppers. That said, without all the far-flung world lit in translation the culture would be in a sorry state. lareviewofbooks.org/article/agai...
Against High Brodernism | Los Angeles Review of Books
Federico Perelmuter considers László Krasznahorkai’s “Herscht 07769,” translated by Ottilie Mulzet.
lareviewofbooks.org
February 22, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Brodernism—stupid word. But there’s always been something embarrassing about the way critics fawn over these doorstoppers. That said, without all the far-flung world lit in translation the culture would be in a sorry state. lareviewofbooks.org/article/agai...
This is a classic TV trope, isn’t it?
The way TWIN PEAKS is structured around a primary act of violence against a woman, one that it never resolves. One of the few honest things ever on television.
January 18, 2025 at 3:08 AM
This is a classic TV trope, isn’t it?
They really should launch an editorial wing. They have the money to pay writers, and who wouldn’t want the exposure?
January 15, 2025 at 5:25 PM
They really should launch an editorial wing. They have the money to pay writers, and who wouldn’t want the exposure?
“Mean girls only ever get away with such a stunt while they’re hot. Like any fad, it doesn’t last forever.” Finally someone hits those two where they live.
I went to the Red Scare x Harper's event to report back on reactionary podcasts, "Woke" culture, identity politics, and the art world. For @studyhall.bsky.social
studyhall.xyz/free-newslet...
studyhall.xyz/free-newslet...
Can Podcasts Be Art?: Dispatch from the Red Scare x Harper’s Event
There’s an art to talking for hours without saying much. Only the sexiest nihilists can get away with such a con. Last week, Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova, the vaping luminaries b
studyhall.xyz
January 14, 2025 at 3:42 PM
“Mean girls only ever get away with such a stunt while they’re hot. Like any fad, it doesn’t last forever.” Finally someone hits those two where they live.
The concept of the it girl is baffling. What is it. A girl who does drugs? We used to just call them girls.
December 30, 2024 at 6:50 PM
The concept of the it girl is baffling. What is it. A girl who does drugs? We used to just call them girls.
Is this what passes for decadent these days? People having sex with each other? People using drugs? www.thecut.com/article/publ...
Ten Stories From Wild Publishing-Office Holiday Parties of Yore
Today, it’s pizza in the conference room, but back in the day, there was caviar, Champagne, and some questionable behavior.
www.thecut.com
December 21, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Is this what passes for decadent these days? People having sex with each other? People using drugs? www.thecut.com/article/publ...
Have thought about it plenty and I’m fairly certain the ultimate nightmare joint rotation (the word “blunt” was never in our drug vocabulary) would have to be Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac.
December 13, 2024 at 8:45 PM
Have thought about it plenty and I’m fairly certain the ultimate nightmare joint rotation (the word “blunt” was never in our drug vocabulary) would have to be Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac.
Shame the shooter never followed through with Infinite Jest. Wallace is usually a reliable gateway drug to the ultimate literary chronicle of Gen X manhood: Looking for Trouble, by yours truly.
December 9, 2024 at 10:06 PM
Shame the shooter never followed through with Infinite Jest. Wallace is usually a reliable gateway drug to the ultimate literary chronicle of Gen X manhood: Looking for Trouble, by yours truly.
Every day someone else is saying this. But who are these guys, really? Not the writers, the red-pilled dolts. Has anyone sat down with any of them? What are they actually like? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/o...
Opinion | The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone
What happens if half the population is no longer involved in reading and writing?
www.nytimes.com
December 7, 2024 at 5:21 PM
Every day someone else is saying this. But who are these guys, really? Not the writers, the red-pilled dolts. Has anyone sat down with any of them? What are they actually like? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/o...
Foster Wallace and Steely Dan—two flavors that do NOT go together.
December 5, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Foster Wallace and Steely Dan—two flavors that do NOT go together.
Up until about ten years ago you would be “on the phone.” Now you’re “on a call.” Ridiculous.
November 29, 2024 at 7:57 PM
Up until about ten years ago you would be “on the phone.” Now you’re “on a call.” Ridiculous.
There are some good questions here, if I might not answer them all the same way. Regardless it’s worth the read for the savvy debunking from Kenner and the perfect dismissal of Barney as “high on his own supply.”
I wrote about Vanity Fair’s gruesomely irresponsible story on Cormac McCarthy, and the feminist conundrum of how to treat women who mistake abuse for love. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Let’s be honest with ourselves: Cormac McCarthy groomed a teenage girl | Moira Donegan
The legendary American writer initiated a relationship with a homeless teenager. Don’t put a romantic spin on it
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2024 at 3:09 PM
There are some good questions here, if I might not answer them all the same way. Regardless it’s worth the read for the savvy debunking from Kenner and the perfect dismissal of Barney as “high on his own supply.”
This is the only reason I read books.
the push toward books written by AI is so bizarre. don’t you read books partly because they were written by a real person, whose mind you get to tour the contours of??
November 25, 2024 at 5:43 PM
This is the only reason I read books.
This could actually be useful. Fewer bad manuscripts clogging up the slush pile at real publishers and agencies.
Why? Who is this meant to be good for? Nobody wants your shit AI books, never mind 8,000 in a year. Just a terrible idea and a horrible road the publishing industry is heading down.
November 25, 2024 at 3:05 PM
This could actually be useful. Fewer bad manuscripts clogging up the slush pile at real publishers and agencies.
This kid’s nothing but a wannabe so far, but—there’s no denying this kind of up-your-own-ass insouciance is what many great novelists are made of slate.com/culture/2024...
He Bungled the Literary Scoop of the Year. Now He’s Ready to Explain Himself.
An interview with the Vanity Fair writer whose astounding revelations about Cormac McCarthy went viral for all the wrong reasons.
slate.com
November 24, 2024 at 9:35 PM
This kid’s nothing but a wannabe so far, but—there’s no denying this kind of up-your-own-ass insouciance is what many great novelists are made of slate.com/culture/2024...
What is this supposed to mean, exactly?
November 23, 2024 at 5:42 PM
What is this supposed to mean, exactly?
All authors are narcissists, but it takes a special kind of narcissist to use literature—and your family—to build your own commercial empire www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/ar...
A Heartbreaking Rift of Staggering Intensity: Toph Eggers on His Estrangement From Brother Dave
Introduced to millions as the kid in Dave Eggers’ 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,' Toph re-emerges to reclaim his tragic family history and explain why his famous sibling is no longer a pa...
www.hollywoodreporter.com
November 22, 2024 at 7:37 PM
All authors are narcissists, but it takes a special kind of narcissist to use literature—and your family—to build your own commercial empire www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/ar...
Two marquee male names in American fiction tarnished in one week… will I be next?!
November 22, 2024 at 4:47 PM
Two marquee male names in American fiction tarnished in one week… will I be next?!
Reposted by Male Mary Gaitskill
One reviewer grumbled about the parentheses—(but we know that it’s inside the parenthesis that reality happens).
Right now I’m reading “48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister,” a riveting novel that has the speed and density of a poem—I’m reminded of Dickinson’s poems—this novel has a similar distilled Gothic intensity, an epigrammatic mysticism, an obsessive tempo, and an unbridled Id—
November 21, 2024 at 7:29 PM
One reviewer grumbled about the parentheses—(but we know that it’s inside the parenthesis that reality happens).
If we’re going to go down this road… what do we think the odds are that, say, Faulkner also had a teenage mistress no one knew about? Joyce? Dickens?
November 21, 2024 at 4:09 PM
If we’re going to go down this road… what do we think the odds are that, say, Faulkner also had a teenage mistress no one knew about? Joyce? Dickens?
Here, for example—not only is it hard to tell where the reality ends and where the fantasy begins, it’s not even clear whose fantasy this is.
November 20, 2024 at 6:00 PM
Here, for example—not only is it hard to tell where the reality ends and where the fantasy begins, it’s not even clear whose fantasy this is.
This is plenty entertaining—but I’m not sure yet whether the woman Vincenzo Barney (an Italian dinosaur, I’m guessing) is profiling is Cormac McCarthy’s secret muse or Barney’s www.vanityfair.com/style/story/...
Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.”
When he was 42, Cormac McCarthy fell in love with a 16-year-old girl he met by a motel pool. Augusta Britt would go on to become one of the most significant—and secret—inspirations in literary history...
www.vanityfair.com
November 20, 2024 at 5:55 PM
This is plenty entertaining—but I’m not sure yet whether the woman Vincenzo Barney (an Italian dinosaur, I’m guessing) is profiling is Cormac McCarthy’s secret muse or Barney’s www.vanityfair.com/style/story/...
Reposted by Male Mary Gaitskill
kathy acker, ‘great expectations’
November 20, 2024 at 2:24 PM
kathy acker, ‘great expectations’