That's Entertainment?

Overdosing on fiction that's too true to life

Am I not entertained?

Well, no. The answer is no. I am currently in a run of reading (or listening to) several novels in a row featuring women protagonists, in each case, written by women. And in each case, they’re hitting close to home. To an uncomfortable degree.

We think we want our fiction reads (or watches, for that matter) to “resonate.” We think we want to “relate” to the characters. I’m fond of saying I want at least one primary character to “root for.” (And who do we root for more than someone who reminds us of us?)

But eventually, there’s a line…a line that, once crossed, takes us from relating to cringing.

In these novels, smart, even intellectual, women spend an inordinate amount of their prodigious mental acuity analyzing and assessing (some might say obsessing about) themselves. Hell, I’ll say it: These protagonists are self-obsessed, and they’re particularly focused on their physical selves. Are they attractive? Are they thin enough? Are they appealing? Are they too old? Are they, forgive the expression, fuckable? And if they are, well, then are they attractive enough to be repeatedly so? And for the right reasons…because if those reasons are purely phsyical, it’s diminshing, but if they’re more about their brain and humor and personality, then they’re back to not feeling attractive enough.

It seems like a thing right now. And it’s exhausting.

Not because I can’t relate, but because I can, and I don’t enjoy that aspect of my own self-inflicted mind games, so why on Earth would I want to be deposited into someone else’s?

Here’s a corrolary: I have often wondered if nebbishy pretentious guys are the ones who enjoy Woody Allen’s characters, or if it’s mostly people who can laugh at the characters, safely removed from being them? (I haven’t seen or enjoyed them myself in years, given #IBelieveDylan, but it was the most aligned example of self-obsessed self-analysis that sprang to mind.)

I’m curious what you have found super difficult to read or watch not because it didn’t ring personally true, but because too much truth wasn’t entertaining.

PS: For the actual #3MinuteBookReview video that two of these books spawned, watch here. I don’t think it’s an accident that I ended up enjoying the story that had more of a happy ending than the one that didn’t. Because even if I don’t see the equivalent of my worst inner monologs as entertaining, I still want my literary avatars to come out OK in the end!

@elisacp @elisacp ♬ original sound - ElisaCP

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What else is going on?

The Op-Ed Page podcast

Episode 90 is a conversation with Matthew Solomon, director of the #ReimaginingSafety documentary that I wrote about in the last newsletter issue. We talk about how he ended up being the director of this important exploration and ultimately advocate for the police abolition movement, and how he went about finding and featuring the diverse and dynamic experts that were in the film. I think this movie can help explain and advance towards the public safety future I’d like to see, so please check this out.

I’m the inaugural guest of The Noodler

Last week my friends Brady Hahn and Rebecca McQuigg Rigal launched their new project, The Noodler. It’s a quarterly digital ‘zine that will revel in slow content, releasing new long-form pieces (written and audio) week by week on quarterly themes. Q2’s theme is “Liminal,” and I’m honored to be their inaugural piece. Brady and I sat down in conversation on the topic of liminality, especially as it relates to the signposts on and labels affixed to women’s journeys. I really loved our conversation, and it gave me the chance to talk more at length about some of the things that have been rattling aruond in my brain about gender and euqality and more over the past few years. I hope you’ll give the whole thing a listen, but here are a couple of snippets, to give you a flavor:

Again, check out The Noodler!

Until next time, please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on any or all of the above. This is basically my blog now! And as always, I appreciate a share of this newsletter or my podcast.

If I can help you break through the things that are keeping you stuck (or if you are intrigued by the idea of securing my fractional leadership for your initative), set up your first introductory 30-minute consult for free by booking it in my Calendly. And you can always check out my new LinkedIn Learning Course, Telling Stories That Stick, a 57-minute course on crafting your stories for different audiences (media, investors, prospects, hiring managers) and making sure those stories stick…and convey exactly what you hope to convey.