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Things Are Against Us af Lucy Ellmann
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Things Are Against Us (udgave 2021)

af Lucy Ellmann (Forfatter), Diana Hope (Illustrator)

MedlemmerAnmeldelserPopularitetGennemsnitlig vurderingOmtaler
524491,984 (2.92)1
"North American edition of Things Are Against Us, published by Galley Beggar Press in July 2021. Things Are Against Us is a collection of satirical essays. They treat subjects such as the obstinancy, incorrigibility, and recalcitrance of THINGS, which have a lot to answer for; Laura Ingalls Wilder's unimpressive descriptions of the construction of bobsleds, railways, and complicated dresses, and the astonishing amount of food Almanzo Wilder ate in a day; our efforts to stand on our own two feet, put our best foot forward, remain footloose and fancy-free, only inevitably to put our foot in it; the first suggestion the internet offers when you Google the word 'women' (spoiler: it's shoes); the nobility of buttons; and what the rejection of tourists by Jordanian donkeys should mean for global air travel. Ingrid Bergman and Jane Austen come into it somewhere (Helen Gurley Brown was forcibly removed). Early versions of some of these essays appeared in international outlets of record, but others are brand-new. Primary concerns are feminism, antifascism, and environmentalism, and the intersections between them. Many of the essays were previously published in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, the Irish Times, and elsewhere. The first essay begins with a reference to the 2021 Capitol riot. Many allude to or are inspired by the lockdown experience and related pandemic concerns"--… (mere)
Medlem:DavidWineberg
Titel:Things Are Against Us
Forfattere:Lucy Ellmann (Forfatter)
Andre forfattere:Diana Hope (Illustrator)
Info:Biblioasis (2021), 224 pages
Samlinger:Dit bibliotek
Vurdering:***
Nøgleord:Ingen

Work Information

Things Are Against Us af Lucy Ellmann

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» See also 1 mention

Viser 4 af 4
I found this a bit patchy and repetitive. I can't remember great detail now, but sometimes it really got going into an enjoyable rant, but other times was a bit more of a slog. ( )
  AlisonSakai | Jul 12, 2023 |
No idea how to rate this! The fact that Ellmann's so often so spot on just reinforces the depressing nature of what humanity's done (and continues to do) to itself, and humor and determination can only go so far in bringing you back from the resulting dumps.
  KatrinkaV | Jun 20, 2023 |
Sometimes Cruel but Sometimes Funny & Thoughtful Rants
Review of the Galley Beggar Press buddies edition (2021)

[2.65] average bumped up to [3]
Fourteen essays by the writer of the 1000-page Booker nominated Ducks, Newburyport (2019), which I have made 3 unsuccessful attempts to read, usually giving up between pages 50 to 100. These bite-sized pieces are easier to get through and often funny, but in a cruel schadenfreude or bitter, envious curmudgeonly sort of way. Some are so over the top that it makes me think this is a persona adopted for comic effect only. i.e. can someone hate Americans, mystery novels, travel, electronic appliances etc. this much in real life?

1. Things Are Against Us. (2021) * A rant against THINGS, a proxy for anything that bedevils one's existence. A one-page joke that goes on for twelve pages.
2. The Underground Bunker. (2019, Irish Times [edited to include the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capital riot]) **** An anti-Trump & anti-deplorables rant, but funny. Rather brutally contemptuous about America. See 2 extended quotes below.
3. Trapped Family Fingers. (2019, Globe & Mail) **** More of the same as 2. See 1 short quote below. Bonus points for the Trapp Family Singers/The Sound of Music parody.
4. Three Strikes. (2015, The Baffler) ***** Inspired by Three Guineas (1938) by Virginia Woolf. This is the most interesting essay of the book and covers many of its themes e.g. money confiscation as in 14. It has an infuriating amount of footnotes printed in microscopic font, but you can read it online and save your eyes at The Baffler (March 2015).
5. A Spell of Patriarchy. (2019, NYTimes) *** Viewing Spellbound (1945) dir. Alfred Hitchcock in hindsight as a MeToo precursor movie.
6. Third-Rate Zeros. (2021) *** OK, we get it, you don't like Trump.
7. Consider Pistons and Pumps. (2016, The Baffler) ** Viewing everyday machine objects as phallic or vaginal symbols.
8. The Woman in the House. (2012, The Guardian) *** Reading The Little House on the Prairie series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a frontier feminist epic.
9. The Lost Art of Staying Put. (2017, The Baffler) ** A rant against world travellers.
10. Bras - A Life Sentence. (2000, Deliberately Thirsty) ** A rant against the title subject.
11. Morning Routine Girls. (2015, The Baffler) ** A cruel rant against the "morning routine" videos on YouTube. The idea of these make me feel pity rather than wanting to mock misguided young women.
12. Sing the Unelectric!. (2013, Aeon Magazine) **** Promoting minimalism and non-electric appliances.
13. Ah, Men. (2021) * A rant against men and then against the mystery and crime genre, which, as far as I appreciate it, was and is dominated by women writers esp. in the golden age 1920-1930s and in the present day.
14. Take The Money Honey. (2019, The Evergreen) *** More on the money confiscation theme.

I read Things Are Against Us in its limited edition grey-cover release available to supporters of the Galley Beggar Press' Galley Buddy subscription program.

Quotes:
“Americans are acutely unaware of the past and the future. Also, the present. History is infinitely malleable for them. So is reality. Are they just undereducated, indoctrinated, chronically indifferent, hypnotised, or too damn busy makin’ a buck? Consumed by consumerism, they wallow in army fatigues and self-regard, coveting the next dynamite Apple doodad or an AK-47, plasma screen and some Nikes. They have worried everybody and ruined the earth, all so that they can prance around, effect insouciance, drink beer, watch football, guzzle Sloppy Joes and Oreos, wear pro-Auschwitz sweatshirts, make pipe bombs, absorb incessant rock music, object to positive discrimination and the public display of female nipples, wonder whether the mailman has shut the mailbox properly, and choose a new euphemism for excretion yearly.”
― from The Underground Bunker in Things Are Against Us


“The United States of America has now reached a whole new level of patriarchal absurdity. You mean they massacred the Indians, enslaved the Africans, cut down all the trees, poisoned all the rivers, and extinguished or imprisoned all the animals for THIS, this hellhole of bombast and hamburgers and opioid addictions and cardboard-box houses and pretend ideas? You mean they used up all the oxygen on 4th of July firecrackers and forcing kids to pledge allegiance to the flag every goddam day, drank Coke till they choked, spat tobaccy till they puked, fought cancer (but only for people with lots of money), nestled in Nestlés, slurped slurpees, burped burpees, handed on herpes, Tasered the wayward, jailed the frail and tortured about a million billion chickens (then fried and ate them), just so people can drive around and shoot each other and create GoFundMe sites to pay the hospital bills?
- from The Underground Bunker in Things Are Against Us


“What riches there once were, what beauties! Raindrops on roses and crop tops on cuties. Now it's just tear gas and water hoses, and Mexican children tied up with strings. These are a few of their favourite things. Quarry every mountain, wreck every stream.”
― from Trapped Family FIngers in Things Are Against Us
( )
  alanteder | Jul 31, 2021 |
Lucy Ellmann has a reputation for being an excruciatingly funny writer. It’s all been in novels, award-winning novels. Seven of them. Now, she has published Things Are Against Us, a collection of 14 essays, four of which have never been published before. Not being big on novels, this is my first exposure to her work.

It is angry. Ellmann complains about everything, and every aspect of everything. Even the TOC is labeled the Table of Discontents. Outside of orgasms and money, nothing seems to rate for her. She is against electricity. She is against travel. She is against teens explaining their morning routines on youtube. Mostly, she is against men. She sums up men early on:
“What riches there once were, what beauties! Raindrops on roses and crop tops on cuties. Now it’s just tear gas and water hoses, and Mexican children tied up with strings. These are a few of their favourite things. Quarry every mountain, wreck every stream.”

At times, it can be termed satirical. In by far her longest essay, she proposes a three strikes and you’re out series – of strikes against men. Her evidence of the need is with things like: “Men obliterate beavers so they can build their own dams! “

Strike one is withholding housework, since no man has any clue how to do it himself. Along the way, she declares a moratorium on discussing anyone’s looks. During the strike, there is to be no talking about anyone’s appearance for one year. “The beauteous would survive a slight lessening of attention and acclaim, and the rest of us could relax. After a year of such abstinence I’d bet we’d be cured of the habit and be much better conversationalists.“

Strike two is no more war work, which soon devolves into just no work at all. She specifies to “withhold women’s labour in the workforce, because after all, who wants to WORK?” (Her caps.)

Strike number three is the good old withholding of sex, from the playbook of the Ancient Greeks. Money for sex is the aim, a theme Ellmann comes back to in later essays as well. It’s all about the money, ultimately. She wants men to fork over all their money and let women run the world. This comes up throughout the book.
Three strikes and they’re out of wealth and power. And if that doesn’t work, there is a fourth strike she is holding in reserve: pizza. Ellmann hates pizza (too), and insists all women hate it. Men force it on them, whenever possible. Prevent pizza, and you can rule the world. Apparently.

That all this conflicts directly with her complaints about women spending so much time on fashion, makeup and jewelry, presumably to obtain favors from men, is not broached. We wouldn’t want sense to interfere with the essence of these essays.

This essay, called simply Three Strikes. is both improved and hobbled by an astonishing amount of footnotes. The footnotes are a good five times as long as the essay. It makes for very choppy reading, trying to make both streams work at the same times. The footnotes are full of references to books, websites, newspaper and magazine articles to back her anecdotal charges, which is good. But as literature, it needs work.

Things Are Against Us is the title of both the book and the first essay. The essay is about THINGS. The word THINGS is always capitalized, and appears seemingly hundreds of times, as virtually every little THING is grating, annoying, defective or malevolent. THINGS are out to get her, much like Woody Allen’s early battles with appliances. It is a jarring read, and brings up Ellmann’s mains stylistic tic – lists. She loves long lists of items to complain about. She can be creative with them, making them rhyme, or listing the items alphabetically, or adding something bizarrely irrelevant to break them up. But they do seem endless. The lists can be nouns, verbs or adjectives; doesn’t help. They quickly become predictable and forgettable.

She reminds me specifically of James Thurber, who used to do this in some of the hundreds of essays he published, mainly in the New Yorker. Thurber would write about a letter of the alphabet, or a topic of general interest, or of someone in his family. He would make lists; he would exhaust the subject. It got to be very unfunny and most tiresome.

Ellmann differentiates herself though, because she has created a persona to do all the complaining and expand on the bitterness. This nasty character can be as obnoxious as Ellmann wants her to be, and get away with it. The persona does not have to be rational, logical or even conscious of how obnoxious she is. She has created a distinct character. Think of Jack Benny being stingy. Or WC Fields hating small children. Or Bill Dana being a Mexican immigrant. Or Brent Terhune being a right wing extremist. Well done, Lucy Ellmann.

For Ellmann, a Midwesterner now living in Scotland, it began when she was a child, learning that Lake Erie was officially dead: no plants or animals could exist there any more. “This developed into a disdain for fashion, new buildings, the space program, tree surgery, polyester, pharmaceutical companies, men with short hair, witch-burning, and the Industrial Revolution.” It doesn’t have to make sense; a lot of people find this hilarious. You have to go with it.

Here and there she makes good points, of course. Men have trashed the planet (though she provides no evidence women would have done better). After that, they are going to Mars to do the same. Or this: “Who in hell cares about Robert Oppenheimer’s conscience, one of the tiniest things in the universe. Nuclear bombs should never have been produced. “

On the other hand, she seems to have some predilections that really need explaining. Pizza, for one. Crime fiction, she says, is an obscenity, and not reading it is a feminist act. She thinks everyone should stay home, because everyone now has the world at their fingertips: “You’re nothing as an artist these days unless you’ve spent a month in New Mexico, the Arctic, Trinidad, Tibet and Sumatra, and regularly attend the Venice Biennale. People forget that reality is wherever you are. It’s what you’re thinking about that matters.” So for Ellmann, Van Gogh would have been better off never discovering Provence and staying in rainy Belgium instead. In some way, this is both wacko and sidesplittingly funny.

There’s a very odd essay on teenage girls making youtube videos of their morning routines. Ellmann attacks viciously, as usual, calling them shallow, friendless shills for consumer products and so on. I’m sure she would have been one of them had it been possible in her time. I can’t imagine why she bothers to spend so much vitriol on these kids. Young people will reach for the stars however they can. Boys will go after sports scholarships, for a possible stint as a national sports star, for example.

(Maybe that’s Ellmann’s next subject? Oh, I can see it already: “These humongous sixteen year olds, strutting the streets with their thumbs hitting their sides, because their egregious upper bodies are so out of proportion their arms can’t hang properly. Their entire left arms are festooned with blue tattoos so dense their arms look like they’ve been mangled in one of those old-fashioned wringer washing machines men invented to keep women in their place. These boys’ necks are as big as my thigh, which is really saying something with all the pizza I’ve been force fed against my will over the years. They are proto-men, whose only thought is to induce severe concussion in other proto-men, are the future leaders of the world if we don’t stop them now.” That, in a nutshell, is what an Ellmann essay reads like.)

If social media is how young women see the fastest path to success, it’s because there is plenty of precedent. They are right. Good luck to them. The only reason I can think of for her cruelty is the laughs she will get from some readers. She’s like a Don Rickles of literature – the more vile the attacks, the funnier it all seems?

Another good fat target is available in A Spell of Patriarchy, yet another essay oozing hate: “Women now bring home the bacon and cook it too. And men praise us for our autonomy – which leaves them free to watch their requisite ten hours of porn a day, decide on gender quotas, and pollute rivers.” Here, once again, she slams the upper body strength of men, which is one of those THINGS that infuriate her throughout the book.

So while I appreciate the work Ellmann has put into creating this hateful persona, I don’t think I’ll be reading much more of it.

David Wineberg ( )
1 stem DavidWineberg | Jul 5, 2021 |
Viser 4 af 4
Ellmann’s polemic is a medley: a wickedly funny, rousing, depressing, caps-driven work of linguistic gymnastics hellbent on upbraiding the deleterious forces of the prevailing misogyny [...]
tilføjet af Nevov | RedigerThe Guardian, Catherine Taylor (Jul 3, 2021)
 
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"North American edition of Things Are Against Us, published by Galley Beggar Press in July 2021. Things Are Against Us is a collection of satirical essays. They treat subjects such as the obstinancy, incorrigibility, and recalcitrance of THINGS, which have a lot to answer for; Laura Ingalls Wilder's unimpressive descriptions of the construction of bobsleds, railways, and complicated dresses, and the astonishing amount of food Almanzo Wilder ate in a day; our efforts to stand on our own two feet, put our best foot forward, remain footloose and fancy-free, only inevitably to put our foot in it; the first suggestion the internet offers when you Google the word 'women' (spoiler: it's shoes); the nobility of buttons; and what the rejection of tourists by Jordanian donkeys should mean for global air travel. Ingrid Bergman and Jane Austen come into it somewhere (Helen Gurley Brown was forcibly removed). Early versions of some of these essays appeared in international outlets of record, but others are brand-new. Primary concerns are feminism, antifascism, and environmentalism, and the intersections between them. Many of the essays were previously published in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, the Irish Times, and elsewhere. The first essay begins with a reference to the 2021 Capitol riot. Many allude to or are inspired by the lockdown experience and related pandemic concerns"--

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