Things I'm Bringing (March 2025)
some things I've been engaging with since the start of the year
Excess in moderation, the adage I’ve clung to since the start of this year. As in, stop micro dosing reality. As in, commit to less and throw yourself 120% into the things you’ve elected to do. As in, if I’m writing anyways, why not write a book?
Some of you might ask, Gemma, isn’t that just the same thing as balling out? Go hard or go home? To a certain degree, yes, it is. But I’d like to believe that by regulating your encounters with extremity, acknowledging their infrequency, you approach the experience differently, with a reverence balling out disinhibits.
In a college sociology class, we spoke about how microdosing psychedelics is a capitalist means of appropriating indigenous practice for profit, undermining the intended usage of the hallucinogenic substance. In non-Western cultures, the mind-altering drugs are meant to be taken in “spiritual dosages,” rupturing the sanctity of the ingestor’s world. The point is to meet the outer limits of worldliness and return to your standard state of mind a profoundly changes person, aware of the futility of social prescriptions, empowered to approach the everyday in new ways.
As it often happens, the corporations of colonial nations have stolen indigenous hallucinogenic rituals and advertised consumption at microdoses so that consumers don’t experience the reality revolutionizing effects. The purchasing audience is meant to content themselves with a slight perceptual shift, big enough to “make a difference” and small enough to ensure they go back to their desk job the following day.
While I think the case can be made for maintaining a baseline state of personal stability, having routines and coping mechanisms that help one get through the day, I also acknowledge that a lot of the “quick fixes” sold, be that prescription anti-depressants, a workout class-pass, a five minute daily meditation, are methods corporations use to render consumers predictable profit units, illusioned enough to mistake habit for happiness.
Ok. Lots of preamble. All of that to say sorry I’ve been ghosting you with the recommendations, as penance here is an amassed list of all the books, movies, events, music, miscellany I’ve been engaging with since my last installment.
Movies:
The Square by Ruben Östlund
Östlund, a two-time Palm D’Or winner (The Square, Triangle of Sadness), paints a wonderfully scathing portrait of a deliriously self-concerned Nordic art scene. His contemporary social satire is pretty unmatched in my opinion, and I cannot wait for his new movie (currently in production). Guiding Question: Why does Östlund use shapes in his titles? What might the geometries reveal to us about the social relations he is exploring?
Femme by Sam H. Freeman & Ng Choon Ping
An unfortunately topical film on a hate crime outside of a British drag bar. Jules, the victim, seeks revenge on their closeted assailant by sparking up a relationship with him. George MacKay is a revelation, as usual, and transforms himself into a wonderfully complicated villain we struggle to hate despite his crime.
Vermiglio by Maura Delpero
A stunning period piece of a small northern Italian village at the end of WWII. Director Maura Delpero shows us a glimpse of a way of life that is both proximate and incredibly alien. Questions of family, duty, and religion bubble up from the loaded silence and arresting scarcity of the visual environment.
Armand by Halfdan Ullman Tøndel
Renate Reinsve (breakthrough actress from Worst Person in the World, also majorly recommend) once again gives a distinguishing performance as the mother of a six-year-old embroiled in a sex related scandal at his elementary school. Shot in a single location, the film evades claustrophobia through the expansive performances of all the cast members. Very much in the style of Anatomy of a Fall, this movie will leave you with a gaping question of culpability.
Books:
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
See my essay “Wild Goose Chase.”
The Third Unconscious by Franco Bifo Berardi
Italian Marxist Franco Berardi writes from the 2020 COVID lockdown in an attempt to understand, diagnose, and treat the current “psychosphere” (the broader societal psychic condition).
On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint by Maggie Nelson
In a lucid and astoundingly articulated way, Maggie Nelson takes on massive questions regarding the contemporary obsession with freedom. Nelson has the tremendous gift of being able to see an argument from all angles of approach, and she follows the dominoes of facile reasoning to their far-drawn and enlightening conclusions.
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
The book I aspire to write myself, Bluets, is a synchronous amalgamate of personal prose and collected sprinklings of theory. Unencumbered by genre, Nelson weaves together poetry and critical analysis like she’s a spider in tall grass, her webs holding despite strong winds.
The Lives of Things by Jose Saramago
A collection of surrealist short stories about animated objects, helpless governments, and social obligation. Saramago’s writing (I’m currently re-reading his Nobel Prize-winning Blindess) seems wildly prescient given current unease around pandemics and impotent political order.
Places/Events
Joseph Olisaemeka at Derek Eller Gallery
After his latest show, “Hard Times and Silver Teeth at the Spicewood County,” I’m intent on keeping tabs on Olisaemenka. The faded American dream comes off in sheets from his carnival/casino canvases, full of mudded colors and non-sensical numbers and symbols gesturing at how gamified experience sweats life of its saturation.
This reading series happens every Saturday at 5 pm both in person in downtown Manhattan and on a Zoom Webinar. I tuned in on Feb 15th for Audrey Wollen and Lynne Tillman and was truly blown away by both the excerpts they shared, especially Wollen, who I’d never read prior. While a critic, she read from a forthcoming fiction project I’m highly anticipating. As far as Tillman, I’ve been a longtime enthusiast of her books (Haunted Houses, Mothercare), and hearing her voice read the characteristically sharp and sardonic prose reinforced my growing impulse towards attending more readings/open mics (if you know of any good ones in NYC, let me know).
Music
More spoken word than song, this artist’s discography is somehow both irreverent and simple at the same time. Combining underground club beats with highly personal/confessional lyrics, this music feels like a genre in itself. The song title Truisms 4 Dummies perfectly captures the lyrical style layered on top of the glitchy and fractured beats. In it, he writes:
“Love is the only thought, pain is the only feeling.” “People need to stop trying to be cool and start trying to be hot, because the enemy is yourself posed as a question.”Slightly dream-pop, slightly post-punk, Nabihah Iqbal’s synth-heavy music creates a shimmering atmosphere that feels wonderfully expectant, a perfect listen to carry you through the last bits of winter drudgery into an impending spring-time lightness.
Miscellany
To keep your hands warm and off your phone!
Fatigue buster, immune system booster.
By far the best pencils I’ve ever used.
Brazil Nuts
Wild card nut but full of selenium and very tasty if fired in olive oil and honey.
Idle waiting
You sure do notice a lot more about the world if you have no distractions!
The cheapest and most efficient way to clear up clogged skin.
Trying to understand Harmony Korine
Unsure whether to give this man credit for his style or if I’m falling prey to the larger culture that seems at ease with objectifying incels…