Kittentits, Overthinking, and talking about Bridgerton
Watching, Reading, and Doing_Week 10
I have felt like I'm in a draught of things that I love as far as reading and watching goes. When I started this newsletter, I wanted to share things that changed my life! I felt like I was consuming so many good things and I wanted a place to document.
Then once I started writing, I felt like things started to dry up. I couldn’t quite find the media I loved, just a lot of stuff that wasn’t bad in terms of quality, but also not connecting with me in a way that I prefer.
This week, I felt similarly, but I could also just barely start to taste something a little better was coming. This week’s reads and watches are not things I was in love with or changed my life, but things that I did enjoy. I guess I’m learning to just appreciate things as they are and accept that sometimes these droughts of everything being amazing will happen. With that, let’s dive in because I still did have a lot to say about each!
Reading
I was immediately attracted to both the title and the cover of this book. Kittentits by Holly Wisen is an absurdist fiction that follows ten-year-old Molly who lives in a Quaker home, when her life is upended by the entrance of formerly incarcerated Jeanie and Molly’s ensuing fixation of her. Additionally, Molly has a penpal, Demarcus, that joins her on her outlandish and unpredictable adventures.
This book might be off-putting to some. Molly is supposed to be ten but uses vulgar language and wanders the streets, meeting strangers and talking with ghosts. Some of these things may not sound like a ten-year-old child, but I do assure you this book is very much about a child. One with an obsession with necromancy, but a child all the same. Molly is difficult and frustrating and needy, but ultimately she’s a lonely girl who misses her dead mom.
It ran a little slow in the middle for me, and several times I questioned what this was supposed to be about. Some things felt less developed or like maybe we could have cut that because the point just wasn’t clear. But then again, maybe the point didn’t need to be clear, it just was how it was. I think you need an open mind, light-heartedness, and an appreciation of dry humor to enjoy this novel. It’s a ride, it’s fiery (this is a pun if you haven’t read it yet), and it’s funny. There are some laugh out loud lines. And there’s also a surprising amount of grief and exploration of mothers and death. It’s deeper than you might expect. And I think that’s why I enjoyed it--off-putting and explorative, I recommend it if any of this sounds remotely interesting to you.
I am in my essay collection era. And I am kind of obsessed with the women authors that put these together. Like these are people putting wonderful explorations of our culture and society, and I want to be like them some day. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell is observant and interesting.
Like all essay collections, I appreciated some more than others. I think my favorite was on the “Halo Effect” because I love the discussion of celebrities and how we love/hate them, our interactions with them, and what that says about our society and culture. There’s one on Sunk Costs that’s also pretty good; it explores the author’s long term relationship and the difficulty we have leaving things that no longer serve us but we’ve invested so much time in. This is part observation of society, part memoir, and a bit of psychology, which I found to be a fun mix. I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author, something I also love. Overall, it was just an interesting listen and I’m glad I picked it up.
Watching
There has been a lot of discourse on this season’s Bridgerton, and I mentioned it briefly in an earlier weekly, but I wanted to bring it up again now that the season has finished. Possible spoilers ahead if you haven’t finished! I’ve tried to organize my thoughts on some of the main discourse points below.
My thoughts on the Penelope & Colin of it all.
I love Penelope. I have from the beginning. Partly because I love Nicola Coughlan (DERRY GIRLS), but I love her character. She’s a woman gossip writer, which is a genre I read regularly. Her development could have been better? I felt like she was a little wishy-washy (grappling with confidence perhaps). Truly, I think I just wanted more time with her. She is Lady Whistledown for crying out loud!
I don’t know if there was much chemistry between her and Colin to be honest, but I don’t know that they were given the same amount of time to develop the chemistry as in previous seasons. I also am tired of each male Bridgerton being some kind of irresistible playboy. I mean every single one?? Sorry, but I just don’t believe that and frankly I find the trope repetitive and tiresome.
The costumes always hit.
And I am a sucker for a good “makeover”. I loved that Penelope’s makeover was less about how she needed to become more beautiful but rather a way of separating from her family and becoming comfortable in her own skin. The other standout of costumes for me was definitely Cressida. The bows on her, both dress and hair, were gorgeous! Bows have been having a moment, but the oversized bows are my favorites by far. (Also, justice for Cressida who had major developments and then for some reason was the only one to not have a happy ending??)
Should we add 10 different storylines in a ten-episode season? Or would that be overdoing it?
I will agree that there were too many stories. Too many!! Look, Benedict, love that you’re out there having fun and getting comfortable but you are boring! Your threesome is boring! And you have no character development despite all the screentime. Nothing. I am his #1 hater and have been in previous seasons. Please don’t waste my time. And the Mondrichs. How has the disservice of a boring and pointless storyline (there is barely a story, it feels a crime to even call it that) been given to the only Black couple in the show? Like that’s all you could come up with? I kept waiting for more and was only disappointed.
Lady Whistledown has been revealed to the ton and now what?
I have felt like Lady Whistledown’s identity was kind of a big storyline in the whole series, but now it’s essentially over? When we’re half way through the series? I haven’t read the books, so maybe that really isn’t as big a deal as I’m thinking it is, but I’m still like ok we spent all this time on wondering who she is and now it’s just over? I just have questions. What will the show do now that a major plot driver is revealed and also will be a really nice gossip writer now?
I guess I am a bit of a hater this season, but I think at some point Shonda’s shows all come to be hated at some point. Often the disklike is both kind of fun and also makes for a great redemption when the shows do get it together. Some haters think this season was so bad they will cancel it before they can finish the series. Highly disagree. Everyone is talking about it, Nicola is in Skims, and I love Eloise and need to see her moment. So I guess we’ll see you in two years, Bridgertons!
Doing
For this week, and possibly future weeks, I have decided to remove the what I’ve been doing section for a separate essay to be published later this week. I ended up just writing way too much about an important experience so I decided to save it for its own post.
For now, please enjoy these photos of Kiki as of late.
