Find Your Beach
October 10, 2014 7:49 AM   Subscribe

 
The very end of Smith's essay reads thus:
You can find your beach here, find it falsely, but convincingly, still thinking of Manhattan as an isle of writers and artists—of downtown underground wildlings and uptown intellectuals—against all evidence to the contrary. Oh, you still see them occasionally here and there, but unless they are under the protection of a university—or have sold that TV show—they are all of them, every single last one of them, in Brooklyn.
....Actually, no, most of us are moving up the Hudson River to the podunk towns because even Brooklyn is pricing us out now that it's become the New Hotness.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:57 AM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Actually, most of my artist friends live in Queens.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:58 AM on October 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


The 21st century version of "Sous les pavés, la plage!"
posted by sobarel at 8:04 AM on October 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


When I clicked on Smith’s essay, I may not have stumbled upon the awesome piece of content marketing I was hoping for, but instead, I found an opportunity to write about the potential for an awesome piece of content marketing—to set down my wobbling compass for a while and work with words.

This fills me with visceral hatred. I want this notion, this essay, this site, and this person to all die in the same fire. Brand that, mother fucker.
posted by WCWedin at 8:34 AM on October 10, 2014 [6 favorites]


I found this essay really resonated with a lot of things I've been thinking about, especially this idea that the ideal person lives independently of societal pressures or limitations. But it is sort of weird that she is so focused on Manhattan because 1. Manhattan is not really the cultural heart of NYC in the way it used to be and 2. this phenomenon is not really limited to Manhattan.
posted by lunasol at 8:35 AM on October 10, 2014


I may not have stumbled upon the awesome piece of content marketing I was hoping for, but instead, I found an opportunity to write about the potential for an awesome piece of content marketing—to set down my wobbling compass for a while and work with words.

"We helped people engage with brands" he rasped, as he rinsed his children's oxygen filters out in the fetid water. "It was important. We were engaged", he said. For a moment his eyes lost focus as he stared as the grey water sluiced into the drain. "We made content so people could be engaged."
posted by mhoye at 8:57 AM on October 10, 2014 [25 favorites]


Joyce's Ulysses Isn't a Native Ad for Plumtree's Potted Meats, But What If It Was?
posted by theodolite at 9:17 AM on October 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


I love Zadie Smith's writing more and more every time I read one of her essays.

On the other hand: "When I clicked on Smith’s essay, I may not have stumbled upon the awesome piece of content marketing I was hoping for, but instead, I found an opportunity to write about the potential for an awesome piece of content marketing—to set down my wobbling compass for a while and work with words." Ugh. Everything about that paragraph makes me want to get up and go wash my hands and my eyeballs.
posted by blucevalo at 10:12 AM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Joyce's Ulysses Isn't a Native Ad for Plumtree's Potted Meats, But What If It Was?

There'd have probably been less wanking in it I suppose.
posted by sobarel at 10:35 AM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


I love the taste of Corona totally and completely unironically and will never, ever apologize for that.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:38 AM on October 10, 2014


What if Eat, Pray, Love was content marketing for Air India?
posted by duffell at 10:51 AM on October 10, 2014


Hmm. I wonder if Corona is paying him for this new brand of found content marketing? He should ask, if they aren't.
posted by notyou at 10:54 AM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


What if ISIS was content marketing for Ebola?
posted by batfish at 11:25 AM on October 10, 2014


The pursuit of happiness has always seemed to me a somewhat heavy American burden, but in Manhattan it is conceived as a peculiar form of duty.

said before but the Protestant work ethic deals with having fun by turning it into homework.
posted by The Whelk at 12:32 PM on October 10, 2014


Also


"“A reality shaped around your own desires”—there is something sociopathic in that ambition."

The economic stress and demands of modern American life require people act like perfectly optimizing economic robots that can move at the drop of a hat, never complain, have no strong emotional or family ties, and ruthlessly throw others under the bus cause if you somehow don't come out on top it's your own damn fault.
posted by The Whelk at 12:38 PM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


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