The Bluestocking, vol 251
the vibrations of electronic shoe inserts
Happy Friday!
If you’re reading this, then the book got filed and I am having a lie-down in a darkened room, trying not to think about the British economy.
Helen
The Guggenheim’s Scapegoat
A museum curator was forced out of her job over allegations of racism that an investigation deemed unfounded. What did her defenestration accomplish? (The Atlantic)
In August, I sent an Instagram message to LaBouvier asking if we might speak for this article. In her reply, LaBouvier castigated The Atlantic for not having covered her Guggenheim exhibition or its fallout. “Where were you in 2019 or 2020?” she asked. “Fuck you and your arrogance.”
LaBouvier followed up by email, copying the executive editor at the magazine. “I am not interested in participating in a piece that through lack of expertise, thoroughness, research or fortitude will resign me as a footnote and amplify a glorified publicity stunt,” she wrote, calling me “another example of a clueless, rapacious White woman.”
“I am so tired of scavenging journalists attempting to speak for me, or depict me. I am nothing if not direct, and I have always said it from my chest, and with my name on it.” She closed with a warning: “Should you fuck this up—which you will—I will be on your ass like white on rice on a paper plate in a snowstorm at a KKK rally.”
Well, this was certainly the most memorable response to a request for comment that I’ve received in a decade and a half in journalism.
Here is my investigation into what happened at the Guggenheim in the panicked, anxious, frustrated, incendiary summer of 2020, and how a handful of people in the art world ended up as scapegoats for its wider structural flaws.
The Forgotten Lessons of The Recovered Memory Movement (New York Times)
“For quite a long time, there was a broad consensus in popular opinion that memories recovered in therapy — including the outlandish satanic cult tales — were true. Nearly a decade after the publication of “Michelle Remembers,” Ms. Smith appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk show. Her stories of torture and human sacrifice were portrayed by the host as if they were indisputable facts.
Other prominent believers in the validity of recovered memories and satanic ritual abuse ranged from the feminist icon Gloria Steinem to the evangelical preacher Pat Robertson to the talk show host Geraldo Rivera. In 1993, Ms. magazine published a cover story with the warning “Believe it! Cult ritual abuse exists.” These prominent and well-respected public figures were seemingly convinced that an international cult of satanic child abusers would soon be fully exposed.”
Ethan Watters is an expert on the recovered memory movement—Jesse and Katie did a great interview with him on Blocked and Reported—and he’s worth reading on the question of what that episode should teach us today (tl;dr: beware of mad medical trends that people are afraid to question).
On the Satanic panic specifically, David Aaronovitch made a documentary series, and an episode of Jon Ronson’s latest podcast followed one of the accused.
I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller (GQ)
John Lovedale is feeling pretty good, despite the fact that he should not be walking right now. It’s a little after 9am on a hot Saturday morning in Las Vegas and he’s ambling through the Aria Resort & Casino with a pronounced limp, wincing as he throws his hips into wide semicircles and dragging his feet exactly where they need to be. The effect is like a Grand Theft Auto extra who’s just been sniped in the ass.
John is in his mid-40s and stands 5ft 11 1/2in. Big-hearted laugh. Built like a saguaro cactus. If you squint he kind of resembles a brolic Neil deGrasse Tyson. He’s in town to see his orthopaedic surgeon, having arrived last night from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he works as a network engineer for the government. He almost missed his flight and was in such a rush he forgot to bring the crutches he’s supposed to be using, but, again, he’s been feeling pretty good.
That John is on his feet at all is impressive – and probably foolish – considering that only eight months prior, he was 5ft 8 1/2in.
Making yourself taller is a logical choice for men, since the tallest guy usually wins the US presidency and research shows that most women don’t want to date down, as it were. But nonetheless, whew, the methods are extreme.
Bluestocking recommends: It feels like I spent the entirety of The Doctor’s development haranguing Robert Icke via WhatsApp about identity and institutional dynamics—the same subjects as my Guggenheim piece, essentially. So if those interest you, the play is now on at the West End. There is also a live drummer, which none of my pieces have.
Quick Links
Handel didn’t compose another significant work after going blind, but Beethoven continued writing music after going deaf. Why should a composer need sight more than hearing? (The Sociological Eye.)
Incidentally, reading about Gibbon writing prose in his head reminds me that my single best piece of advice to young writers is to read your work aloud, either to yourself or a willing victim. Suddenly your ear will catch the times you’ve used two words that weirdly sound alike, or when the rhythm of a sentence is wonky, or when your vocabulary is stilted and archaic. (The last of those is a particular hazard among student journalists, who shoot for “grown-up” and land in “pompous.”)
“Spoonies find community in having complicated conditions that are often hard to identify and difficult to treat. That’s why a lot of spoonies include a zebra emoji in their social media bios, borrowed from the old doctor’s adage: “When you hear hoof beats, look for horses, not zebras.” In other words: assume your patient has a more common illness, rather than a rare one.” Suzi Weiss on the spoonie community (Common Sense). You can also read some of the pushback on Twitter here.
In the Viking and medieval eras, women were the basis of the North Atlantic economy, and their cloth allowed people to survive the climate of the North Atlantic. (Scientific American; with thanks to Bluestockinger Nick for the tip)
“On Twitch and Twitter, players and fans theorized that Niemann might have been receiving secret messages encoded in the vibrations of electronic shoe inserts or remote-controlled anal beads.” AI has revolutionised the game, and chess is poker now (The Atlantic).
“I’ve seen his whole career up close — going through all of his drafts and scribblings, his psychological and physical cutting-room floor that exists in the 56-box, 57-year personal archives he has been curating since 1980 at Princeton University (which he did not attend).” Richard Morgan reads Woody Allen’s entire archive at Princeton (Washington Post, 2018)
“Nina Totenberg Had a Beautiful Friendship With RBG. Her Book About It Is an Embarrassment.” Interesting piece about the problem of journalists being friends with the people they cover (Politico).
Talking of which, I had no idea that RBG’s personal trainer did push-ups next to her coffin when it was lying in state (twitter). I hope my PT does the same for me, except it will look sarcastic when she does it, because I am notoriously bad at push-ups.
I have no interest in ClickUp (sorry Julian) but the rest of this post by Julian Simpson contains the only productivity advice I’ve found that really works: you can do 4 intense hours of work a day. Decide carefully what you’ll spend them on, and don’t be afraid to stop, leaving something unfinished and hanging—a colleague called this “parking downhill”—because that makes it easier to restart the next day. Spend the rest of your working day on Zooms/emails/admin etc, but don’t try to squeeze out more hardcore brain time. So many incredibly productive writers (Stephen King, Victor Hugo, Terry Pratchett) wrote for short periods, but every single day.
From Nostradamus to Fukayama: how to make a prophecy so everyone thinks you’re great (Astral Codex Ten, Substack).
A French TV show got people with unusual laughs together (Twitter).
A kindly Bluestockinger sent me the first volume of Chips Cannon’s diaries. The second volume sounds equally great (The Critic).
“While Playing Hamlet at the National Theatre, Daniel Day-Lewis Leaves the Stage, Having Seen the Ghost of His Own Father” A poem. (The Atlantic)
See you next time!
Congratulations on finishing the book. Looking forward to reading it
also worth checking out Sarah Marshall's (of You're Wrong About pod) work on the satantic panic!