my favorite links
This is just a collection of some of things I've been thinking about recently. I wanted to have a respository of things like my favorite articles available online, both so my friends could easily see the list and so that the list is accessible to me from anywhere.
Remember, if you don't have a subscription, you definitely SHOULDN'T put the url into wayback machine to bypass the paywall. .
*just a note: these articles have been collected by me over the last 4ish years as a running list, and so are organized here as best i could depending on what i perceived to be their subject matter. they are not listed in order of importance or how much i like them. asking me to pick a favorite is like asking a quiverfull parent which of their 11 kids they'll feature the most on their christian youtube channel.
Politics
- The Making of the New Left - Louis Menard an interesting look at the rise of one of the most progressive movements led by students in living memory.
- Asian Americans: It's Time We Address Anti-Blackness - Cynthia Gong an excellent primer on the origins and ramifications of the widespread anti-Blackness seen in majority-Asian-American communities. has the added bonus of being written by an exceptional writer and close friend :)
- Fearing For His Life - Chloe Cooper Jones a portal into the deepy, deeply unjust world of prisons & police.
- The Rise (and Stall) of the Boba Generation - Jenny G. Zhang this article has everything: boba, identity politics, the interrogation of identity politics, third places...
Culture
- Difficult Women - Emily Nussbaum hell yeah, examining sex & the city through a feminist lens! my favorite excerpt: "the four friends operated as near-allegorical figures, pegged to contemporary debates about women's lives, mapped along three overlapping continuums. The first was emotional: Carrie and Charlotte were romantics; Miranda and Samantha were cynics. The second was ideological: Miranda and Carrie were second-wave feminists, who believed in egalitarianism; Charlotte and Samantha were third-wave feminists, focussed on exploiting the power of femininity, from opposing angles. The third concerned sex itself. At first, Miranda and Charlotte were prudes, while Samantha and Carrie were libertines. Unsettlingly, as the show progressed, Carrie began to glide toward caution, away from freedom, out of fear."
- Fan Fiction - Tavi Gevinson as a taylor swift fan (for the most part, we don't talk about her last two albums) even i feel disgustingly overexposed to her. but i loved this satire by tavi gevinson, a writer whose voice i adore, about celebrity and feminism and the faustian bargain you make when you're a semi-autobiographical writer. it's a zine, and a pretty long one at that, but in my opinion well-worth the read.
- Identity Fraud - Jenny G. Zhang funny and important, whether you were surrounded by white people in college (like i was!) or not.
- Nobody knows how to be friends anymore - Halima Jibril about the increasingly parasociality in our relationships with public figures. this quote about the recontextualization of deep friendship really resonated with me: "To diminish its value, deep friendship is either sexualised ('they must be gay') or reconnected to kinship (sisterhood, brotherhood, fraternity) to cancel the presumption of homosexuality and go back to the family." (alice cappelle, collapse feminism)
- On Hearing My Father's Legacy in Vampire Weekend - Fanta Sylla even as a longtime vampire weekend fan, i have plenty of issues with them (this, and also re:tavi gevinson&ezra koenig). sylla's piece delves into the question of appropriation vs. appreciation in music from a front-row seat.
Literary
- The Strangeness of Grief - V.S. Naipaul a beautiful meditation on grief, written by one of the greatest indo-caribbean authors in history.
- The Crane Wife - CJ Hauser one of the most popular (and for good reason) long-form essays.
- Even artichokes have doubts have you ever felt totally alone, wondering why all the best people you know have gone into consulting and finance? then this article is for you.
- Chinese Cooking Helps Me Connect With My Mother--And Helps Me Prepare to Lose Her - Nicole Zhu shit about moms and daughters is just always going to get me.
History
- Never Forget: Life After the Khmer Rouge Genocide - Michael Paterniti an absolutely haunting recollection of life under the khmer rouge.
- Tracing Europe's influence on India's culinary heritage - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu colonialism in india had so many branching effects, not least in the foods we eat.
- When the Punishment Feels like a Crime - Julia Ioffe a fascinating side of the brock turner case that i had no idea existed.
- The Most Gullible Man in Cambridge - Kera Bolonik there's nothing i can say to prepare you for the true bizarreness of this story.
- Crush Point - John Seabrook i read this article in the aftermath of the tragic itaewon crush incident. it did not ease my concerns.