Dysphoria in any form will not reflect reality. The bulk of 21st century media explores how poor our relationships with ourselves rot everything and everyone around us if we let the abyss within us gaze back onward and out. Aaron Schimberg in his sophomore effort has crafted a wildly fascinating slant-take on The Beauty and the Beast in which all featuring players don either mask for onlookers to howl from the gallows.
Edward (Sebastian Stan), a struggling actor living along…
"Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother's fate."
-- Bonnie Burstow, 'Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence'
My mother has asked of me a petite favour. Due to my incompentence, I've brought up an insecurity of hers which wounds her…
be it by cult, spouse, or employer, there reigns a power dynamic within the arrangement that can easily sway the graces of all parties toward self-sufficiency. within pietous offering toward the eternal, there is hopeful devotion. within kindness cast toward flesh, there is virtuous delusion. to shake off one's mortal coil upon the end is to dance by however much grace you bestowed upon others.
there's an instant where the room quiets as you let on a detail of your life too intimate to share. could it be shock? amazement? disgust? the din picks up with a new aside and the chatter picks up once again; the living room none the wiser.
eileen is ottessa moshfegh's debut novel; one that delves heavily into shame one hopes is common but likely never as shared amongst your peers. eileen dunlop is a secretary at a juvenile detention…
