An insightful and brilliant criticism of the Sally Rooney-esque novel, and a great read.
5d ago
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As someone who was unmoved by Daddy but enamoured with The Iceman, I was unsure of what to expect when I cracked open Cline’s latest novel, The Guest. Revered as the Play It As It Lays of Gen Z sex work, Uncut Gems for chicks and the “book of the summer,” the novel tells the story of a twenty-two year old named Alex who is ousted by her sugar daddy in the Hamptons and determined to drift her way through the island until Labour Day. A stressful read in which an unreliable protagonist makes nothing but bad decisions, the sentences are clean and the plot grows tense with every page.
Most piercing, however, is the precision to which Cline illustrates how whiteness and its perceived docility can permeate the gates of wealth and class at ease. Chapter by chapter, constructed episodically so the rising action mirrors the high (and inevitable crash) of a drug, we read as Alex flattens herself to become fluid, to leech, to exploit. Cline's understanding of how these spaces function, and how the right (or white) wallflower can encroach on a territory that is not theirs, undetected, is acute. As a result, Alex's powers of manipulation come not from an aptitude for obscuring her identity. It's quite the opposite. Instead of a disguise, she offers herself - a blank canvas of a girl - and allows her surrounding environment to assume how she might fit in their world. Upon completion, I thought of a new comparison: Parasite amoungst the privileged.
Jan 22, 2024
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In 'Slumming', Ottessa Moshfegh so perfectly outlined the annoyance (hopefully universally) felt for the type of pseudo-intellectual who: "was too concerned with his own intelligence to see the bigger picture. He thought that the drugs we bought in the
bus depot restroom were intended to expand his mind, as though
some door could be unlocked up there and he would greet his
own genius—some glowing alien in glasses and sneakers, spinning planet Earth on its finger". A stellar read.
Jan 24, 2024
recommending this book to people is largely impossible so I'm grateful to have this platform lol
Vulture called it "the first great incel novel" but it's more than that. It's about shame and avoidance in the internet age and the extremes we reach when we suppress our desires.
I was thinking about this book for weeks afterwards and it really fucked me up
(in a good way)
May 30, 2025
Top Recs from @mehdi
The article explores how Palestinian meme creators reclaim digital space to oppose Western narratives and colonial/intellectual hegemony through satirical symbolism and linguistic subversion.
5d ago
The article introduces “necromemetics” as the digital extension of necropolitics, showing how spectacles like perp walks and viral images (think parading Luigi Mangione in a jumsuit through new york) enact symbolic death to strip subjects of agency and reinforce sovereign power in online culture wars.
5d ago
May 17, 2025