This is serious.
July 2, 2014 5:58 PM Subscribe
Yeah, romanticizing the intersection of writing with smoking (or drinking) is a very college sophomore thing to do. Still, this underscores that absurdity in a delightfully understated way.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:03 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by middleclasstool at 7:03 PM on July 2, 2014
I dunno - On the surface, at least, and all social/psychological/gender/etc. issues aside, at least the men look like they were caught in the middle of something they do often, but she just looks like a non-smoker playing pretend. That sort of undercuts any message she's trying to convey, to my mind. Maybe this project would benefit from a better photographer...
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:08 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:08 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
She does a spot on Bret Easton Ellis.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:33 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:33 PM on July 2, 2014
Oh, men!
posted by basicchannel at 7:41 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by basicchannel at 7:41 PM on July 2, 2014
Yeah, romanticizing the intersection of writing
with smoking (or drinking) is a very college
sophomore thing to do.
I double-dog dare you to try telling that to Kurt Vonnegut or Hunter Thompson.
Or myself, not that I'm in the same class, but my best posts here and my best writing has involved the stimulation of nicotine.
Nicotine itself is a known nootropic drug that is in essence as safe and as stimulating as caffiene outside of smoking highly addictively engineered modern cigarettes full of pollutants, which involve delivering chemicaly freebased nicotine (freebased as in cracked nicotine, like crack cocaine) through modern chemistry.
But there is an unrefutable link between nicotine and writing, and it is problematic. But there is harm reduction and safer or even effectively safe-as-caffiene methods of consuming nicotine, and frankly our culture has profited from it more than is likely comfortable for most, and not just in the realm of arts and literature.
Nicotine is inarguably a powerful mental stimulant, aka nootropic. It is proveably influential with caffiene for what the European Western world calls The Enlightenment and lifting the West out of the Dark Ages, replacing taverns with cafes, for better or worse.
Calling this sophomoric is simply myopic and disingenuous.
posted by loquacious at 7:49 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
with smoking (or drinking) is a very college
sophomore thing to do.
I double-dog dare you to try telling that to Kurt Vonnegut or Hunter Thompson.
Or myself, not that I'm in the same class, but my best posts here and my best writing has involved the stimulation of nicotine.
Nicotine itself is a known nootropic drug that is in essence as safe and as stimulating as caffiene outside of smoking highly addictively engineered modern cigarettes full of pollutants, which involve delivering chemicaly freebased nicotine (freebased as in cracked nicotine, like crack cocaine) through modern chemistry.
But there is an unrefutable link between nicotine and writing, and it is problematic. But there is harm reduction and safer or even effectively safe-as-caffiene methods of consuming nicotine, and frankly our culture has profited from it more than is likely comfortable for most, and not just in the realm of arts and literature.
Nicotine is inarguably a powerful mental stimulant, aka nootropic. It is proveably influential with caffiene for what the European Western world calls The Enlightenment and lifting the West out of the Dark Ages, replacing taverns with cafes, for better or worse.
Calling this sophomoric is simply myopic and disingenuous.
posted by loquacious at 7:49 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
That sort of undercuts any message she's trying to convey, to my mind.
It's ironic that for a writer she seems to miss the gist of the photos she's aping. This one here draws this point out quite a bit, as there are historical styles of cigarette holding, and Ellis' is of the straight-fingered with a touch of fey. He is also holding it at the tips of his fingers. Her's is reminiscent of, dang I can't remember right now, but more occasional-smoker, a person who flicks the ashes too much.
posted by rhizome at 8:11 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's ironic that for a writer she seems to miss the gist of the photos she's aping. This one here draws this point out quite a bit, as there are historical styles of cigarette holding, and Ellis' is of the straight-fingered with a touch of fey. He is also holding it at the tips of his fingers. Her's is reminiscent of, dang I can't remember right now, but more occasional-smoker, a person who flicks the ashes too much.
posted by rhizome at 8:11 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
There's definitely something about the mimicry/re-staging thing that always lures me in (and it's all over the place now!), but sort of in that same cognitive candy way that listicles and upworthy do their trick.
posted by batfish at 8:51 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by batfish at 8:51 PM on July 2, 2014
Calling this sophomoric is simply myopic and disingenuous.
And here I thought it just meant that I've been to college.
I'm not dismissing the effects of stimulants on the brain any more than the millions of Tumblr photos of ashtrays next to typewriters (with optional sexy lady in panties) are extolling them. Yes, a lot of writers smoke. And yes, smoking stimulates the brain.
As does going for a walk outside. But then it's hard to work that into the misunderstood tortured genius trope. You can't slap a fedora on that and tie up a coffee shop table with it for three hours.
You don't need cigarettes or booze to learn how to write worth a shit. There are many pros who do it all the time. But millions of impressionable kids think they do need it, and there's way too damn much cultural encouragement of that misconception.
Thompson thought he needed guns, too.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:23 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
And here I thought it just meant that I've been to college.
I'm not dismissing the effects of stimulants on the brain any more than the millions of Tumblr photos of ashtrays next to typewriters (with optional sexy lady in panties) are extolling them. Yes, a lot of writers smoke. And yes, smoking stimulates the brain.
As does going for a walk outside. But then it's hard to work that into the misunderstood tortured genius trope. You can't slap a fedora on that and tie up a coffee shop table with it for three hours.
You don't need cigarettes or booze to learn how to write worth a shit. There are many pros who do it all the time. But millions of impressionable kids think they do need it, and there's way too damn much cultural encouragement of that misconception.
Thompson thought he needed guns, too.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:23 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
It would lend more authenticity if she held her head in a tanning bed for 3 to 1500 years first.
Man authors have seen some miles.
posted by poe at 9:42 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Man authors have seen some miles.
posted by poe at 9:42 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
I want to like this project, but most or all of these photos feel to me as though she's missing the heart of the expression. I mean, the very first image — he's got his brows furrowed in a "just imagine what deep and artistic thoughts I'm having" way and is gazing challengingly at the viewer, while her expression reads (to me) as much more aware of what the viewer is thinking and concerned with whether they approve. If she'd furrowed her brow and glared out from under her brows, like he's doing, it would have been a more effective parallel.
posted by Lexica at 10:06 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Lexica at 10:06 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yeah, looking from a visual pov (rather than any discussion of satirical intent) a lot of these shots could have benefited from having someone else standing behind the tripod with a reference photo, forcing her to get it exactly right. Get the cigs at the right angles, turn the hand to the correct pose. Wipe out as many of the small differences as you can, and the large differences would be more effective.
posted by rifflesby at 11:17 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by rifflesby at 11:17 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Close, but no cigar.
These were amusing. I have trouble imagining Martin Amis without a cigarette between his fingers. I'm sure he'd look quite lost.
posted by aesop at 1:15 AM on July 3, 2014
These were amusing. I have trouble imagining Martin Amis without a cigarette between his fingers. I'm sure he'd look quite lost.
posted by aesop at 1:15 AM on July 3, 2014
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I don't know that I agree that her poses make the male poses look "silly" any more than they already do. Author photos are always a bit weird or silly or cliche.
posted by emjaybee at 6:51 PM on July 2, 2014