Category: Criticism

Book Review, Criticism

Bad Blood: Intermezzo Explores the Complexities of Brotherly Bonds, Broken or Otherwise

Sally Rooney is no stranger to exploring the complexities of the (monogamous) romantic relationship, but with her fourth novel, Intermezzo, the author challenges herself to explore the even more particular emotional intricacies of the sibling dynamic. Namely, among two brothers, Ivan (the youngest at twenty-two) and Peter (the eldest at thirty-two). The Koubek brothers, if you will. Although normally “estranged” (for all intents and purposes), … Continue reading Bad Blood: Intermezzo Explores the Complexities of Brotherly Bonds, Broken or Otherwise

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Book Review, Criticism, Essay

Not A Girl, Finally A Woman: MARINA’s Eat the World

Like many pop stars who weren’t yet pop stars in the early 2000s, Britney Spears was both an inspiration and a cautionary tale to someone like MARINA. Her influence undeniable on every millennial from Taylor Swift to Charli XCX. In 2021, MARINA paid homage to that influence in a “justice for Britney” sort of way with the “Purge the Poison” lyrics, “2007/When Size 0 was … Continue reading Not A Girl, Finally A Woman: MARINA’s Eat the World

Genna Rivieccio2 Comments
Book Review, Criticism

Ingmar Bergman’s Persona Incarnate: Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik

Lili Anolik’s Didion & Babitz is out November 12th via Simon & Schuster. By now, it’s not exactly a new take that Eve Babitz and Joan Didion are two sides of the same California-centric coin. Except that the latter was always given far more credit and weight (despite her thin frame) than the former. It was in large part thanks to Lili Anolik that Babitz … Continue reading Ingmar Bergman’s Persona Incarnate: Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik

Genna Rivieccio2 Comments
Criticism

What If The Year of Magical Thinking Is Actually A Book About the Hazards of Codependency?

Earlier this year, Sloane Crosley released a book called Grief Is for People. Detailing the loss of her close friend and mentor, Russell Perreault, it is, in many ways, a spawn of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (this connection can be read about more in-depth in the Vol. 37 issue of The Opiate). Crosley, accordingly, is not shy about referencing it a few … Continue reading What If The Year of Magical Thinking Is Actually A Book About the Hazards of Codependency?

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Criticism

Fire Crotch Embraces Her Heritage (And Little Else) in Irish Wish: A Tate Carmichael Review

The following is a review of Irish Wish by Tate Carmichael, author of her own 00s-related Burn Book, Lindsay Lohan Stole My Life. Reader discretion is advised.  Okay, so I know Lindsay, like, dispensed with her dignity somewhere between banging Wilmer Valderrama and not paying her Chateau Marmo bill ‘cause she was (/is) poor, but I guess I continue to be blindsided by the depths … Continue reading Fire Crotch Embraces Her Heritage (And Little Else) in Irish Wish: A Tate Carmichael Review

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Criticism, Essay

Coraline’s Underlying Warning to the Unborn: Don’t End Up With Writers for Parents

There are a number of key messages to take away from Coraline. At the top of the list is the old platitude, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” (Until it isn’t.) Or, as Ovid once put it, “The harvest is always richer in another man’s field.” However one chooses to phrase it, the point is that everything else seems … Continue reading Coraline’s Underlying Warning to the Unborn: Don’t End Up With Writers for Parents

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Criticism, Essay

What Should You Do When You’re Accused of Plagiarizing But Don’t Really Feel That You Have Based on Your Own Set of Values?, Or: I Can’t Believe Plagiarism Is Incontrovertibly, Inarguably Objective!

Everyone always wants to speak from the outraged and victimized perspective of a person who has been plagiarized, never taking into account the perspective of the one accused. The following is coming from the latter standpoint. The people who believe what they believe (i.e., “plagiarism fundamentalists”) will not be convinced otherwise long enough to open their mind even a single iota about this. But still, … Continue reading What Should You Do When You’re Accused of Plagiarizing But Don’t Really Feel That You Have Based on Your Own Set of Values?, Or: I Can’t Believe Plagiarism Is Incontrovertibly, Inarguably Objective!

Genna Rivieccio4 Comments
Criticism

Says I: Against the Repetitive of Use of “Says” and “Said” in Prose

Something has happened in the writing world recently. A sudden sea change in favor of the repetitious use of a particular four-letter word…describing characters’ utterances. Said. Where once it would have been unthinkable to see such lazy writing (and it is lazy, not “simple,” as many writers are fond of using as a defense), it’s now deemed the norm for “straightforward, unpretentious” writing. Writing that … Continue reading Says I: Against the Repetitive of Use of “Says” and “Said” in Prose

Genna Rivieccio3 Comments
Criticism, Essay

The Woman In Me: Britney Spears Reckons With Exploitation and the Double Standard She Was Subjected to Her Entire Career

“Hello. Oh my goodness, ew. Strong Britney!” These were the words an on-the-verge-of-tears, twenty-one-year-old Britney Spears uttered while forced into doing an episode of Primetime on November 13, 2003 with Diane Sawyer. And oh, how strong (stronger than yesterday) she had to make herself in the years spent under a microscope that followed. The word “forced” vis-à-vis Primetime feels applicable because, as Spears tells it, … Continue reading The Woman In Me: Britney Spears Reckons With Exploitation and the Double Standard She Was Subjected to Her Entire Career

Genna Rivieccio2 Comments
Criticism

Do Tell Is All About Showing…How The Past Is Prologue

As Lindsay Lynch (easy to misread as Lindsay Lunch on the book cover) does tell it, her drive to write the novel that became Do Tell stemmed from the media headlines that were percolating circa 2016 to 2017. And especially at the end of 2017, with the #MeToo movement being resparked (Tarana Burke had already coined the phrase and its meaning in 2005) amid Ronan … Continue reading Do Tell Is All About Showing…How The Past Is Prologue

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