NEW VIDEO - The Rise and Fall of Misery Memoirs
New video is out on Nebula, and early here for Patrons! Thank you so much for being patient with me; this one was really a labour of love and took a lot of time and work. If you remember the longass post I made a couple months ago about a filming day, that was for this! Your old friend Brenda Trenderbrand features about halfway through here. This is actually a video I've been wanting to make for years; my original plans were I think 2022 or 2023. There are a few fun things that didn't make it into this video, like did you know Beatrice Sparks inspired like an offshoot from Simon & Schuster that sold Go Ask Alice clones, including one "anonymous teenage diary" that was literally like a Breaking Bad ripoff that CAME OUT IN 2019? The cover is literally like an exact copy of Go Ask Alice and it's called Breaking Bailey. Protagonist joins a Science Club at her rich kid high school and finds out it's a secret meth cooking front, with the one distinction being that she's a girl so breaking bad fans would automatically hate it lmao.
This video was at times a bit depressing to make, especially the Alden stuff. I didn't want to hit too hard on it in the video itself but oh man, that's a kid that really reminds me of myself as a teen. I would have liked to be his friend. But I tried to keep a lot of levity in there too, especially the Danny Davis stuff. He's still alive and I think he's still a practicing lawyer! I emailed him but never heard back, which is honestly completely fair. Danny, wherever you are, you are an absolute king. I am going to choose not to google ANYTHING else about you in case we get a milkshake duck situation.
I hope you like this video. I'm really proud of it!
Comments (14)
there's an article by Joan Shelley Rubin called "why you disappoint yourself" about how literacy changed as America went from produce economy, consmerist capitalist economy. basically readership broadened, but advertising and marketing began dictating tastes rather than markets being built around particular taste. in a word: the rise of the book grift
Finally got Nebula on my TV and, completely not the point of the video, your makeup is *amazing*.
What a great work of cultural criticism. And I'll be damned if the writing isn't on point too, even by your high standards. Your insights about The Template got me thinking about The Prestige. (Oh no, it's a dude bringing up a Nolan movie, but I won't be obnoxious I swear!) The structure of a magic trick resembles the structure of The Template, and they're both optimised for giving the audience an emotional experience that leaves them with a certain sort of satisfaction. "We want to be fooled," we hear Michael Caine say. Why? The Prestige suggests that revealing the trick would not only ruin the illusion, but it would also expose the pain and exploitation needed to create the illusion at all, implicating everyone who paid money to see the show and thereby participated in that exploitation. The machine runs on fantasy, you could say. So what exactly draws us to art that challenges us and then denies us whatever catharsis we might crave? The Prestige deliberately leaves us unsettled with that [no spoilers] final shot. Is the film just punking us, luring us in with the promise being entertained by an established director with famous lead actors and a cameo from David freakin' Bowie, only to leave us shocked and asking a bunch of questions we never had before? Or is it confident that some part of us wants to wrestle with difficult ideas and will seek out challenging art? If we're thinking about addressing the cultural pathologies that gave us The Template, I wonder whether the cure may be in speaking to whatever is in us that *doesn't* want to be fooled.
I just joined the Patreon after this video. I believe the Narcissism Scare video is the first one of yours I saw, and I went back and watched a lot of your old stuff and it’s great. But the quality with these last several videos has been *unreal*. You take topics I’m completely uninformed about and generally uninterested in, and you get me incredibly invested in them AND connect them to broader social issues, while also connecting those social issues to the core emotional needs of human experience. I deeply respect what you do, and thanks for all the love and thoughtfulness you put into your work.
I know right - imo what sets Sarah apart from a lot of YouTube video essayists is that she manages to cover a lot of ground and connect her topics to "the big picture" while still tying it all together and actually having a coherent summary and message throughout.
Also please tell your cat they're perfect
Unmask Alice is SUCH a good book, not just a fascinating piece of research but also a super compelling read, I devoured that audiobook in like one day
the RESPECT i have for danny davis from this video. Absolutely incredible work.
I can’t help but wonder if this genre was part of the inspiration for Ms. Rose “I wrote My Immortal to find my lost definitely Native American brother in the foster care system and here’s my book about it” Christo.
Great video! You should probably cite Baudrillard re: hyperreality (unless not citing him is the joke, then it's hilarious, he never cites properly)
I had an editing gag about Baudrillard in there that got left on the cutting room floor but honestly it might be worth popping back in
As a Song vs. Song listener, I appreciate the "Misery Business" reference/callback.
cannot WAIT to watch this (probably while knitting)
(that's a lie, I will have to wait to watch this since it's 2hrs long and I have work to do, but you get me)