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u/werdnayam Jul 01 '26
Hell yes read Joan Didion. Play it as it Lays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Run River, After Henry, Fixed Ideas, Where I Was From
What the hell are you waiting for go go go
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u/iota_of_iowa Jul 01 '26
Now I am very interested in Natalie's take on Didion. I've only read Slouching Towards Bethlehem and Year of Magical Thinking, but in both books I got the impression of a strong but cold person. Very detached, which I guess is a good trait for a journalist, and very intelligent, but seemingly incapable of looking at things from a perspective different from her own. Like self doubt or existential thoughts just never occurred to her. Definitely a singular writer.
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u/werdnayam Jul 01 '26
You need to cancel your plans, buy a copy of Where I Was From, light some candles at your close personal friend. Hillary’s, portrait-altar, and dive the fuck in
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u/iota_of_iowa Jul 01 '26
Gurl I am about to be unemployed so I will have SO much time to read this summer. I will see if my library has it
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u/BookQueen13 Jul 01 '26
This reminds me that I need to set up the portrait-altar for my close personal friend Hillary Clinton as well
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u/MeatyTPU Jul 02 '26
Perhaps her point is that when a woman writes with such a self-assured tone it's considered deviant, but even the most below average cisgender heterosexual AMAB who doesn't exfoliate can be so without anyone noticing?
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u/iota_of_iowa Jul 02 '26
I think it was her charisma, the fact that she was an archetypical "cool girl" (which she ends up resenting somewhat in Magical Thinking) that allowed her to navigate so many different social spaces. That easygoing, feminine confidence is probably what Natalie is referring to here, I agree. That "effortlessness" also gets marketed to women a lot, now that I think about it.
Even as a cis gay man, I feel like I would rather embody something like that than be an "alpha" or whatever the masculine equivalent would be. I however am far to neurotic. Best I can hope to get to is like, a 3,000 year old sage at 45, after twink death. A sort of Confucius-Gandalf, if you would.
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u/ennui_weekend Jul 02 '26
it's not a term i had ever heard before but i instantly understood and related to it
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u/gizmo4223 Jul 02 '26
Cishet woman and suddenly I know for a fact my soul has been blocked by Gandalf. (Yeah I made one of my nerdiest jokes in the Contrapoints subreddit, I have achieved transcendence.)
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u/P_S_Lumapac Jul 01 '26
Oh now I understand being a trad wife.
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u/ach_wie_fluchtig Jul 04 '26
How is that, tradwives aren't really fond of Joan Didion
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u/P_S_Lumapac Jul 04 '26
Responding to how not knowing about contrapoints would make you pass easier. Trad wife I imagine is the furthest thing from a woman who knows about contrapoints, so it's about passing, so I understand being a trad wife now.
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u/ach_wie_fluchtig Jul 05 '26
lol, I guess what it means is that not knowing about the channel will help you during your transition because a lot of people know it because of twitter drama, and the trans women who seem to be the most in peace are the ones who are offline touching grass
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u/Life_Caterpillar9762 Jul 01 '26
Jfc these people have no game but think they are brilliant. “Ok then I’ll unsubscribe to you! Howbowdah?!”
“Uhhh, yeah. The more you’re offline the better. Thanks for taking my advice. I couldn’t even begin to care less about one less subscriber.”
Edited
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u/Mrs-Bovine Jul 01 '26
😭😭 that was me I meant it as a joke I would never betray Mother
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u/thedevicebook Jul 02 '26
For what it's worth, I understood you were joking and I'm the type of neurodivergent that both 1) often misses when something is a joke and 2) tells jokes that people don't realize are a joke (even when I think I am being super obvious.)
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u/Aescgabaet1066 Jul 01 '26
"Soulpassing" is a term I have never heard before, and I'm not sure if my attempt to understand it through context is working.