so glad someone really delved into the literary it girl, it's a topic that has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth especially bc i feel like it's sort of dark academia made edgier. thanks for writing it !!
Such a great piece, thank you so much for writing it! I've been thinking about this very topic as well, but wouldn't have been able to put it into words the way you have.
I especially loved this bit: "When we strive to be something that doesn’t really exist, that is nothing more than the figment of the algorithm’s imagination, we can compromise our originality, risk our authentic voices and artistic development being subsumed by the tidal wave of content and conversation that we have come to call the discourse."
I wonder just how much of this is tied to being chronically online. The literary it girl was of course a thing before the advent of social media too, but to me it feels like the evolution of particular women into literary it girls was more organic and somehow also more substantial as well (being invited to openings, launches, lunches, etc.) - as opposed to now, when so much of it is just digital clout. The solution, to me, seems simple enough: keep writing and keep honing our craft, without advertising so much of it. But unfortunately you just cannot get by without branding yourself anymore, not unless you go down more traditional avenues of publishing your writing.
Anyway, I have many thoughts and many feelings about this, and you have done an incredible job of compiling some of those into a very insightful, interesting piece. So thank you!
Fascinating and perceptive, although I always find "we" to be a very slippery pronoun in such essays; here, for instance, I read it to perhaps mean "we women," or occasionally "we, men and women both" (but not of course "we men"). I don't suppose anyone would be shocked if women tend to have a different perspective on the 'it girl' than do men. Thank you for writing.
thank you for reading! and interesting - I will think more about the pronouns. possibly for me it comes from being in (British) academia which very much discourages the use of the ‘I’ pronoun.
I love this essay as much as I hate it due to my attempt to write on the same topic recently with fewer well written words and an Ottessa Moshfegh observation. Thank you for articulating what I would say many of us are grappling with at the moment.
Wow wow wow, such an articulated response to the it girl discourse with comments I haven't seen anyone making outwardly, especially in reference to the vanity comments which occupies my mind the most!
1)So glad to have someone affirm my idealisation of getting stopped for a tiktok interview.
2) It's so interesting, I dont think the climate in this country can facilitate such a scene like New York for literary it girls to come out from with lit mags falling off left right and centre.
3) Being a 'cool' writer and self promoting your work and yourself (to an extent) doesn't seem to be two ideas that can co exist whilst maintaining the 'cool' persona, but if you're not being plucked for literary magazines and readings, seems like the only path forward. Big welp :(
Reading this really clarified something for me. Amongst close friends, the topics of discussion/debate – the It Girl, queerness, AI, the burn-out society, the commodified, SEO-optimized raging dumpster fire that is the current internet – we are debating the nature of modernity and what it means to be modern. On the one hand, a lot of us are living lives of unimaginable freedom to our parents, our grandparents. And yet we’re also hitting the limits, the contradictions of whatever model of modernity this is. The sense of being free and not free simultaneously. Economic precariousness, the walls to our ambitions, branded commodified selves, the constant assault of images to compare ourselves to, instantaneous connection and isolation. In admitting the frustration and contradictions there is a groping towards different possibilities that aren’t reactionary. That’s why for all the messiness, there’s also profound relief in saying, “F*** this bull****, we can do better than this can’t we?”
thank you for compiling everything I've been thinking for the last several months since I started writing "for real" on the internet
thank you! am so glad it resonated 💓
so glad someone really delved into the literary it girl, it's a topic that has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth especially bc i feel like it's sort of dark academia made edgier. thanks for writing it !!
thank you! I actually wrote a piece on dark academia a few months ago too - and I totally agree (also as a fellow hel love your blog name)
hehe thank you!! i will absolutely check out the dark academia essay :)
Such a great piece, thank you so much for writing it! I've been thinking about this very topic as well, but wouldn't have been able to put it into words the way you have.
I especially loved this bit: "When we strive to be something that doesn’t really exist, that is nothing more than the figment of the algorithm’s imagination, we can compromise our originality, risk our authentic voices and artistic development being subsumed by the tidal wave of content and conversation that we have come to call the discourse."
I wonder just how much of this is tied to being chronically online. The literary it girl was of course a thing before the advent of social media too, but to me it feels like the evolution of particular women into literary it girls was more organic and somehow also more substantial as well (being invited to openings, launches, lunches, etc.) - as opposed to now, when so much of it is just digital clout. The solution, to me, seems simple enough: keep writing and keep honing our craft, without advertising so much of it. But unfortunately you just cannot get by without branding yourself anymore, not unless you go down more traditional avenues of publishing your writing.
Anyway, I have many thoughts and many feelings about this, and you have done an incredible job of compiling some of those into a very insightful, interesting piece. So thank you!
thank you for such a lovely response ❤️
Fascinating and perceptive, although I always find "we" to be a very slippery pronoun in such essays; here, for instance, I read it to perhaps mean "we women," or occasionally "we, men and women both" (but not of course "we men"). I don't suppose anyone would be shocked if women tend to have a different perspective on the 'it girl' than do men. Thank you for writing.
thank you for reading! and interesting - I will think more about the pronouns. possibly for me it comes from being in (British) academia which very much discourages the use of the ‘I’ pronoun.
Thanks for replying! Please don't feel obliged to think more. Appreciate the essay.
I love this essay as much as I hate it due to my attempt to write on the same topic recently with fewer well written words and an Ottessa Moshfegh observation. Thank you for articulating what I would say many of us are grappling with at the moment.
Goddamn! So good.
haha thank you!
Wow wow wow, such an articulated response to the it girl discourse with comments I haven't seen anyone making outwardly, especially in reference to the vanity comments which occupies my mind the most!
1)So glad to have someone affirm my idealisation of getting stopped for a tiktok interview.
2) It's so interesting, I dont think the climate in this country can facilitate such a scene like New York for literary it girls to come out from with lit mags falling off left right and centre.
3) Being a 'cool' writer and self promoting your work and yourself (to an extent) doesn't seem to be two ideas that can co exist whilst maintaining the 'cool' persona, but if you're not being plucked for literary magazines and readings, seems like the only path forward. Big welp :(
hard agree! thanks for such a lovely and considered reply.
Reading this really clarified something for me. Amongst close friends, the topics of discussion/debate – the It Girl, queerness, AI, the burn-out society, the commodified, SEO-optimized raging dumpster fire that is the current internet – we are debating the nature of modernity and what it means to be modern. On the one hand, a lot of us are living lives of unimaginable freedom to our parents, our grandparents. And yet we’re also hitting the limits, the contradictions of whatever model of modernity this is. The sense of being free and not free simultaneously. Economic precariousness, the walls to our ambitions, branded commodified selves, the constant assault of images to compare ourselves to, instantaneous connection and isolation. In admitting the frustration and contradictions there is a groping towards different possibilities that aren’t reactionary. That’s why for all the messiness, there’s also profound relief in saying, “F*** this bull****, we can do better than this can’t we?”
You always hit the mark right when it needs to be said!
thank you! too kind
good good good stuff. lots of thoughts swarming round my head now!
thought swarms is the aim 🫡