So...I guess we are seeing how Caroline is going to pay the publisher back the 100K advance. This new scam (Natalie playing victim to narcissistic Caroline) is going to get the 2 conniving girls -yet another book deal, movie deal, and more notoriety. Well played Natalie and Caroline, well played.
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Most of my comments are trualization of fiction stories.
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I'm not here to trivalize these two writers stories. Or maybe I am. Come to think of it I obsessively trivialize my own life over and over in these comments.
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Now I must address the Minetta Tavern menu turbulence. As I perused the menu items at said Steakhouse I noticed "Dressed Prawns". I vehemently oppose anthropomorphizing dinner items. What exactly were the Prawns wearing? Haute cutlery would be appropriate pairing with this faux pas de langage.
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Not that I wish to belabor the point but can I go back to the pencil incident. Now, I would like to know why the pencil person objected to the story because of a misunderstanding. Did she read the essay and explode in hysterics because she thought Natalie was bold faced lying about working at the pencil store? Did she scream, "Liar! Liar! How dare she lie about pencils!!!!!"
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The essay "had not been coordinated." That's rich! Of course it was! This is just the latest installment in their narrative, only now we take the minor mouse behind the scenes and we hear her roar. The main character gets a renewed boost in relevance and the secondary player gets new-found relevance. And the Times bit.
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This is just. so. weird. Why is this even an article. Why is this the SECOND article on these same two young women who are having an 8th grade drama on an inexplicably public stage.
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@KD: On one hand I completely agree with you. But on the other hand, I think what's made their story so compelling is that it illuminates the artifice of social media, and the dynamic between them, with its jealousies and lopsidedness (perceived or real), is a relatable story of a complicated frenemy-ship many women can relate to.
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Agreed. To me the essay is also about toxic relationships. Misses Beach had one with her friend, her lover and with herself
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How have I lived this long without knowing that there is a pencil community.
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@Helen . So jeolous of that remark.
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There are dozens of us...dozens!!
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same same. Since Gilmore Girls pencils are important and as a pencil connaisseur you know every dealer in town
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The young woman in question just lost her father--sending my condolences and wishing her well. Our culture props up the wrong sort of people only to relish in their takedowns moments later. All of this is more a commentary on us than these young women.
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I spent years of my life dreaming of the digital world. What will the world be like, I wondered, when you could read Elizabeth Bishop and Tagore for free, on a phone? When you can listen to Kleiber's Beethoven by simply typing "Kleiber Beethoven?" When you can watch any opera ever produced for free? When you can watch Duvall's performance in The Godfather Part II over and over, scene by scene? And then listen to a two-hour long interview with Francis Coppola? For free? With Martin Scorsese?
What would that world be like?
Like the world of Caroline Calloway's ghostwriter, Natalie Beach. That's what.
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Really? A journalist or just another liar? Bare your soul and state what you think is the truth even tho it is not. When exposed, just say you were not in possession of your faculties due to imbibing a excess of alcohol.
If that does not work, haul out the depression label. That always gets sympathy and forgiveness. Give me a break!
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I came here to comment saying nobody cares about the stupid restaurant menu, but wow, here is a person who cares about the stupid restaurant menu. Sir/ma’am, are you okay?
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Dorothy Parker, thou should'st be living at this hour.
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Natalie please get over Caroline. You deserve more.
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oh dear, Natalie had me until she got to the bit about someone "relieving" her of her virginity. Aren't we all on the same page by now that the whole idea of 'virginity' is nothing more than a social construct that ultimately harms women (and men)? Not a fan of how she promotes the idea that not having had penis-in-vagina intercourse is somehow a burden that must be relieved. It almost sounds incel-ish.
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@Amy: I think she was being ironic.
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@Amy . I once frequented a bar in the port of Marseille that was called the P'n'V. I had tremendous luck there.
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I wish both Natalie and Caroline well. They are obviously both very talented, and I want to read more from each of them. Theirs is a complicated dynamic with many layers. I see no villain or victim, no matter how hard people are trying to peg these two complex people as one or the other.
Most of all I would love to see them reconcile as their honest, grown, reflecting selves - and get a deal to create and write a Netflix show.
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Why do spend any time at all on this silliness?
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It’s a valid question. But more and more, social media influencers are telling our stories. Get tens of thousands of Insta-followers (purchased or otherwise), make up some clever hashtags, and next stop, 6-figure book deal. The grumpy old lady in me wants to say END OF CULTURE! —but in truth humans have been changing up the way we tell stories since we added puppets to the campfire tales.
And the Beach essay was very well-written, in my opinion.
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@bill Because this lends insight into how we relate to each other and the sway social media can have and how fake it is. The buying followers, the curated captions and curated lives in little squares... it results in comparison and elevated depression/anxiety for the person posting and the person viewing.
And when you have as many followers as Caroline - well, they truly do have influence. Lifestyle bloggers influence by selling a lifestyle that others will aspire to while at the same time being relatable through captions or otherwise, which people crave. People connect to them. Look at politicians. It doesn't matter if you have great plans and sound policies. People will gravitate to someone they connect to. That's how you get book deals and speaking engagements.
I don't think it's silly.
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@K . I always admire extravagant explications of the quotidian. It does seem to rob my mind of fancy flights of fantasy.
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