WORMS DIGEST

Arcadia Molinas 

SMALL FIRES by Rebecca May Johnson

This book takes the recipe and holds it up to the light. Under a microscope the recipe becomes text, an epic, a chorus, the possibility of embodiment. Under Rebecca May Johnson’s pen, the recipe becomes a rich text that can open up conversations about relationships to the self (via Simone Weil and her refusal of food) and to others (Anne Boyer's “You” who is "every beloved"). What are the implications of a text (the recipe) that is translated by every reader (from page to pan) - whose purpose is to feed the body, modify the anima, relate to other people? Very powerful and fleshed out ideas in this book. My copy is full of scribbles.

TO THE FRIEND WHO DID NOT SAVE MY LIFE by Hervé Guibert

I loved our September book club pick. The writing was mesmerizing, the honesty rattling, the tea hot. Credited for outing Michel Foucault and revealing his AIDS related death, To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life takes no prisoners in its account of the horrifying epidemic that took so many lovers, friends and family members from each other. Guibert describes with an incredible tenderness the duality between life and death that the disease forced its victims to face, between utter despair and hope. Extremely, extremely keen to read his other books.

IN PRAISE OF CONTEMPT

I really, really enjoyed this essay by Katherine E. Standefer on the Iowa Review.

ANNIE HAMILTON

I’m unhealthily obsessed with Annie Hamilton, writer-cum-performance-artist. She’s published a couple of articles these past weeks and I’ve been reading them attentively.

How to Quit Smoking When You’re Really, Really Good At It in GQ was so great. Almost sent it to my ex as a way of reconnecting (he was really, really good at smoking).

Annie Hamiton On Failing in Byline was beautiful and I loved getting some insight into the enigmatic figure of Annie Hamilton. I loved what she said about being “a good charmer, a good showman, a good writer, but not an actress.” I also found her reflections on persistence and failure very true. 

BFI FILM FESTIVAL SPECIAL

You arrive to the Southbank Centre, the atmosphere is bustling. People with pink and blue lanyards around their necks are scuttling about, audiences enter and exit movie halls, you find your seat in the enormous Royal Festive Hall and the lights dim and the screen flickers to life. This film festival has given me many joys these past days and here are some of my highlights:

• PRISCILLA
  Had the fortune of going to see Priscilla by Sofia Coppola and it was GOOD. It’s undeniable that there’s a master at work when you see this film.

• LAST SUMMER
  Controversial, but if there’s one thing I like, it’s morally questionable matters explored in film.

Enya sullivan

I recently watched ‘The Stuart Hall Project’- up on Mubi currently. It’s directed by John Akomfrah, who weaves archival footage of Hall to chart his own life and the emergence of the New Left in the UK, sliced between music from Miles Davis. Given how dire the critical landscape is by those in power and at the top in this country, it’s a balm for the mind that is urgently needed. 

I’ve also been reading ‘The Plague’ by Jacqueline Rose, which charts how we talk and deal with death (what lives are deemed as disposable) and the fact that death can no longer be wiped or pushed away from our consciousness- she writes largely of Covid and Ukraine. I saw Rose give an eloquent talk as part of the Parapraxis series on the topic of ‘the wish’. She was able to speak so sensitively and intelligently in response to audience questions on Palestine, racism in psychoanalysis and generally feelings that many had in regards to their own lives being considered as ‘a living death’. Rose works through Simone Weil and Winnicott in order to try to argue that we must admit the limits of our own humanity in order to rid the terror and illusion that those at the top impose of ‘earthly power’. 

This also leads me to recommend the magazine ‘Parapraxis’ whose mission is ‘To inquire into and uncover the psychosocial dimension of our lives—investigating social, political, and personal issues in relation to violence and conflict, gender and sexuality, racism and diasporic experience, and care and welfare.’ Check out their website!