Ottessa Moshfegh

Totally mystified by all the Eileen criticisms itt. McGlue was the one that felt like an overextended short story. flopson otm about that particular scene, though iirc constipation is a recurring theme throughout the book, and I just remember reading it and seeing that house so vividly and feeling how cluttered and trapped she was. Never thought once that it was overextended or too conventional, it was a very weird, dark, and satisfying novel. I do prefer Homesick for Another World though.

https://longreads.com/2018/07/05/a-person-alone-leaning-out-with-ottessa-moshfegh/

new moshfegh alert! drudge sirens!

The narrator of Ottessa Moshfegh’s new novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, a 24-year-old New Yorker, wants to shut the world out — by sedating herself into a near-constant slumber made possible by a cornucopia of prescription drugs. In various states of semi-consciousness, she begins “Sleepwalking, sleeptalking, sleep-online-chatting, sleepeating… sleepshopping on the computer and sleepordered Chinese delivery. I’d sleepsmoked. I’d sleeptexted and sleeptelephoned.” Her daily life revolves around sleeping as much as possible, and when she’s not sleeping, she’s pretty much obsessed with strategizing how to knock herself out for even longer the next time, constantly counting out her supply of pills.

oh there's already an update on that up there. sorry.

yea im excited for this

preordered way back in February

Looks like this is the Ambien and Oprah novel

I think the thing that I have in common with this character is that I am acutely aware of how much I do not like my own mind. When I’m not distracted by my imagination or by something external, time passing feels like I’m just waiting for the time to pass until I die. It’s kind of like vigilant awareness of mortality and mindfulness.

otm

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/ottessa-moshfeghs-otherworldly-fiction

Moshfegh once told Vice, which published some of her early work, “My writing lets people scrape up against their own depravity, but at the same time it’s very refined . . . it’s like seeing Kate Moss take a shit.”

lmao. love her

Yeah, will be buying this next week.

When I’m not distracted by my imagination or by something external, time passing feels like I’m just waiting for the time to pass until I die.

This is an ego problem, not a mind problem.

Get one mustard seed, why dontcha

new book is great so far, pretty early on tho

yea im maybe 60 pgs in

i mean this in a value neutral way but it reads like fight club sorta idk
getting away from toxic femininity and social climbing by sleeping
rather than getting away from toxic consumerism by fighting

Dwight Garner says that she writes with "so much misanthropic aplomb, however, that she is always a deep pleasure to read."

otm

Also 60 pages in, waiting for the bomb to split.

I can’t quite get with Dwight Garner, sorry.

I mean in general, not what he said about OM.

Finished the book just now. Really disappointed.

~~~~SPOILERS~~~~

using 9/11 for suspense / as a central dramatic device is such a cliché and so worn out and I'm stunned that a writer as talented as OM would utilize it.

Having a similar reaction to this as I had to The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Need to sit with it.

Ottessa Moshfegh really, really loves herself, doesn't she?

haven’t read the nyorker profile yet but a friend recounted to me the story of how she met her partner (came over to interview her, and stayed inside her house for 17 days) i thought that was very romantic

Ottessa Moshfegh really, really loves herself, doesn't she?

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison)

don't you?

Should be part of yr Buddha nature.

I loathe myself, and I'm not that keen on her, either.

i've only read her short story collection which is at times brilliant and at times truly horrendous, which is how i feel about her generally and her persona in interviews. the husband seems like such a massive bellend.

i've started to read the interviews for a laugh, generally. this one is fairly good: https://longreads.com/2018/07/05/a-person-alone-leaning-out-with-ottessa-moshfegh/

The ’90s were really, really different from the decades that preceded. At least, I felt. A lot of cultural shifts happened. You could get away with being weirder. Now things are so policed. You can’t even really express an opinion without getting haters on social media. But in the ’90s we had Nirvana

not sure i could bother with a novel.

lol

seems like a smart decision

The NYer profile completely turned me off of ever reading her. My loss, perhaps.

Maybe she meant it this way: "But in the '90s we had Nirvana *smirk* "

The NYer profile completely turned me off of ever reading her. My loss, perhaps.

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:27 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep

Who should we be reading besides Moshfegh? It seems like a problem with all media but we're living in a time where the gonzo-ness of reality is outstripping literature's ability to articulate anything compelling or insightful about it.

She's far and away the best young fiction writer in America. Struggling to think of anyone else that's even close.

https://www.thecut.com/2018/07/profile-ottessa-moshfegh.html

At the time I read moshfegh's story collection, I was also reading a novella about someone skating in abandoned swimming pools while dealing with her brother's drug addiction, and another novella about a corridista who sings himself into a ganglord's castle, and none of them struck me as being better or worse than the other (to the point I don't remember who the authors are). What is it about moshfegh you would say is more deserving of attention?

I relate to her misanthropy, her cynicism, her confidence, and her wounded optimism. On a technical level she's a fantastic writer & in the story collection demonstrated a pretty stunning range of voices & managed to consistently surprise me. And she's hilarious.

imo if a profile of a writer turns you off the writer the blame likely lies more on the writer of the profile of the writer herself. i love her interviews ymmv

If the appeal of a writer is largely persona-driven, then it seems like a good proxy for whether you'd enjoy reading her stuff, though.

It’s not at all persona driven for me. I knew nothing about her before I read Homesick for Another World - the qualities I listed above I found in her writing.

Right, but the qualities you initially point to describe a representation of an author, a voice, a sensibility, which are things I don't particularly like about, say, David Eggers' writing, but I'm enjoying Monk of Mokha right now.

Okay... what is the question again

Which question? It seems like you answered that the distinguishing appeal is the specific personality and attitude that comes through her writing. I couldn't really speak to the technical level of writing as it didn't seem miles and away more accomplished than two randomly selected pieces of fiction I happened to have picked up at the time. Is there something specific you'd say she does on a technical level that other writers don't do as well?

haven’t read the new one yet but the stories, mcglue, and eileen are all v different and i don’t get a consistent persona from reading her stuff. she’s a bit of an ‘edgelord’ i guess but in a way i find cool

the appeal of her writing was v immediate to me but ive had mixed results in turning friends onto her, if u don’t like the stories it’s nbd, like there’s no big secret to it; flappy’s description gets at her appeal pretty well. i would say maybe try mcglue just bc it’s an awesome piece of writing, if you still wanna give it a try

I read the stories and eileen and they did seem of a piece, a kind of similar detachment. what should I look for in mcglue from a writing POV? (I feel like if i notice what a writer is doing, the writer's doing a bad job, so i'm not going to automatically take notice of really good writing)

this thread makes me remember that i thought mcglue sounded like something i'd enjoy, despite my reservations. may well give it a try.

anybody else finish the book yet? thoughts?

She has a talent for depicting squalor.

I started it and I'm not sure how I feel yet, but it does make for excellent bedtime reading.

Yeah. Not to mention that Trevor seems to be based on P Bateman or maybe since it’s set 15 years after A Psycho, that character might be modeling his personality on the book / movie.

The scenes with him in it with the main character read like rosencrantz and guildenstern style perspective shifts of scenes that could be A Psycho outtakes.

read the first two stories in the collection. (i know -- not enough to form an impression -- but still, form one i did.)

she is an extremely talented humorist. both "bettering myself" and "mr. wu" are kind of like, elaborate and fucked up jokes. "bettering myself" is less depressing because the narrator, who is the butt of the joke, is also in on the joke.

the characters are profoundly alienated and misanthropic. their lives feel like a kind of purgatory. probably more than half of all contemporary literary fiction seems to feature characters like this, which seems notable.

the ending of "mr wu" is brilliant, deranged and masterfully crafted. but i'm not sure what i'm supposed to make of that story or that character. i also wonder if anyone found that story racist.

HOLY SHIT

Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation is to be made into a movie by none other than Yorgos Lanthimos. Name a more iconic duo. H U G E !

— Louise Benson (@benson_louise) January 6, 2020

New novel Death in Her Hands out in August (was scheduled for this month)

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71D6XhjXZQL.jpg

Cover art on her books is consistently far better than the contents deserve

I'm surprised I haven't seen more mentions of 'My Year...' as proto-quarantine lit.

“Sub-American Psycho shit” is still basically where I am with “my year” but I would watch the lanthimos adaptation no question

sad this got pushed back but i have enough to read rn i guess

i read mcglue a little after i was being grumpy on this thread. maybe i would have felt more charitable about it had i not read my year first but, gosh.

She is very gifted but what I’ve read of her work is incredibly and unrelentingly misanthropic. The fact that someone so talented is writing about characters like this—like, that this is for her a plausible representation of humanity as such, even if it’s supposed to be a slight parody—is cause for alarm I think.

I’ve only read that short story collection and the stories were really funny and well-crafted but unrelenting. There really wasn’t any sympathy or generosity in there, that I saw, to add levity to the pettiness and seething hatred. This was the source of the humor, obviously—like a really committed version of curb your enthusiasm—but it seems notable that these kind of characters and narratives feel naturalistic to contemporary. It’s like one part of human psychology has been given outsized prominence. It’s either a problem with capitalism or with fiction.

*feels naturalistic to contemporary readers

Including myself, I should say. I wouldn’t be surprised to open up the minds of other New Yorkers, for instance, and find these kinds of bizarre solipsistic dramas playing out.

McGlue seems like it could be interesting though. Hard to imagine what she’d do with a historical setting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/books/ottessa-moshfegh-death-in-her-hands.html

Just finished the new one, love it.

Nice didn’t realize it was out yet