Thanks to Holly for alerting us to “Not Guilty by Reason of Inanity,” Jasmine Paul‘s blog. Author of the highly reviewed novel “A Girl in Parts,” Paul is a funny, heartfelt, writer. Her blog is a collection of frankly personal, sometimes painful, sharp-witted ruminations on life.
Try a couple of samples:
Now 36, like too many women my age, I’ve recently begun seriously ruminating on my early, frivolous and misguided adulthood, trying to piece together What Went Wrong. I have a master’s degree from UCLA, I’ve published a critically acclaimed novel, and I should be living among the literati, smoking Gauloises and summering in the Hamptons. Instead, I’m working at Barnes & Noble in Portland, Oregon where I man a cash register and stew nightly from behind stacks of Twilight. People are more likely to ask me, “Hey dumbass, where’s the toilet?” than, “Literary Goddess, may I have your autograph?”
from “What Would Judge Judy Do?”
I quickly reached my intellectual ceiling during my second and final year of grad school when faced with the ultimate question on every decent film theorist’s mind, “What is the Lacanian notion of the Real?” I had no idea. Not only was I lacking any idea, I was completely unable to pluck understanding from the French and Italian film theory we were assigned to read. As far as I was concerned, Andre Bazin could have been a one-armed racecar driver and Ricciotto Canudo made cheese in his basement with a pet Pomeranian snuggled in his backpack. I needed help and I needed it fast.
From “Low-Rent Madness“
Now, get on over there and read some more!