Narrates an experience observing (for almost a decade, 100% via social media) an acquaintance who got deeply involved with a pyramid scheme. Fire prose. Unstoppable vision. Must read
5d ago
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My corner of the internet is a love letter to ambiguity. Bittersweet tensions, open-ended questions, comical happenstance, feelings with spark, brain-blasts that stick, investigations into the grey.
Latest was an essay, a letter, to my long lost Myspace lover 💌
Mar 18, 2025
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a very celebrated collection of essays on internet culture amongst other things, but worth recommending for those who don’t know. each essay is incredibly digestible and engaging, you are invited to follow Jia as she zooms in and out, shifting between personal anecdotes and larger cultural contexts. I love following the personal through line of each story from start to finish, the way she writes feels very tangible and physicalised idk how to describe it! also the same person who wrote ‘the age of Instagaram face’ for the New Yorker if u need any more convincing
Jan 31, 2024
"I'm not the next Joan Didion, and I'm okay with that. [...] I'm the first of me, but to my own surprise, it's much more difficult to come to terms with that."
Every word I write is a victory over my impostor syndrome. It's always telling me my writing should be different. Less like me, more like other, much more successful online writers. Seeing how many of those writers aspire to be like Joan Didion, I felt like I was doing something wrong in not wanting to be like her. My doubts and fears about (not) being like Didion turned into a Substack post that struck a chord with others, and myself. For once, I was proud of something I'd written. I hope you'll give it a chance and a read too 🖤
Aug 18, 2024
Top Recs from @phc
I hesitate to say her movies are ’about’ masculinity (they’re actually about sadism), but since AMERICAN PSYCHO is the jumping off point, he r ouevre feels appropo to cite. Random aside… One of my fav observations/quips I’ve read about a film was re: ZERO DARK THIRTY, we nt something like “Even though Jessica Chastain is the star, ZD30 fails the Bechdel test. There’s only one s cene of her and a woman are having a private conversation, and wouldn’t you know it, the conversation is about a man (Osama bin Laden).“
Mar 15, 2025
rando phrase I read on a wall in a building where 12 step meetings go down. Can’t stop thinking about this phrase
5d ago
Mar 7, 2025