A description of Kim Kardashian, in "Kim Kardashian Meeting Donald Trump in the Oval Office Is a Nightmare We Can’t Wake Up From" by Naomi Fry in The New Yorker.
I blogged that because when I read it I got a twinge of envy from the realization that if I'd wanted to write a description, I wouldn't have come up with those details.
Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
I mean, there's the photo. We can all see it, but can we string together words like that? And yet, what is it about those 2 sentences that makes me think other people are the writers — the writer writers?
1. "buttoned-up... tumbling... channelled... pushed up" — we're entertained with swirling action, even though it's a static, formal, boring posed photograph. How did Fry see all that stuff? How did she arrange it so it's up, down, around, and back up again.
2. We've got cultural references: Botticelli’s Venus (I know what that is) somehow merged with ("channelled by") Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (which I would have thought I knew who she was but the reference to the Calabasas Renaissance is telling me I am an idiot to think that).
3. Those sleeves! So much happening there: "her jacket sleeves pushed up in a gesture of can-do, eighties-style power-dressing." I would have thought the can-do gesture was rolling up your sleeves, and that bunchy push-up look was something casual that people did in the 80s because of Don Johnson on "Miami Vice" and that the power dressing of the 80s was something else, something more northeastern and businesslike, not a Floridian police-work fantasy.
4. Those "long, dark locks tumbling in abundant waves." I would not have dared to use all those words. Like Coco Chanel with her "Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off," I'd have looked at that sentence and felt obliged to strike one word out. One or three or four. And I couldn't bring myself to call hair "locks." Especially near "waves." I'd get influenced by the wateriness of "waves" and think of the locks in canals.
5. Why are we talking like this about a woman? She's a real human being. Is it okay to make her into some sort of clusterfuck of female iconography? I'd get stalled in some vague ethical cogitation and not save my time for
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112 comments:
Iowahawk identifies it as the Addams family.
Her sister is married to Kanye West, of pro-Trump tweeting infamy.
And where is Elvira nowadays?
Is Fry British? Because thats the British spelling of somber.
What stands out is Trumps smile.
That is glee.
This is very symbolic, politically.
Kardashian is influential (like that or not) and she is dealing substantively with Trump.
That's a lot of lower-class women of all races that got a positive vibe on Trump.
Sykes that is Mrs. West.
Morticia, is that you ?
1. Kim just threw on some clothes. She probably was paid to wear them. That's how that grifter family rolls.
2. Althouse exhibiting envy over the writing of a New Yorker employee? Please!
That's some very trite bodice-ripper style over-writing. Maybe it was intended as a parody.
@David Begley I’m analyzing envy.
If Kim and Kanye and Trump are talking about prison reform, something is going to happen with prison reform - unlike previously. It can easily a bipartisan issue AND Trumpian outreach to the inner city.
Want some more fun? Google image Naomi Fry. Then let's describer her.
I'll start.
"Ugh."
Not a fan of the Kardashian sisters.
However, anything or any person related to Kanye West that gives Trump a nice photo op, and probably moves 15,000 - 20,000 votes into his column is -- by definition -- a good thing.
Pardon Martha Stewart now!
she is Botticelli’s Venus as channelled by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark...
IOW, not at all like Botticelli’s Venus.
Calabasas Renaissance
I'm guessing that's something the Right People should know about - Renaissance Hotels in Calabasas CA
Waves and locks are mutually exclusive – it's one or the other.
Meanwhile, that's actually a really good picture of Trump. Most photos of him show him serious or even scowling. But that's the smile of a man who is enjoying what he is doing.
Her clothes look very normal actually.
Not different from hundreds of wealthy women out shopping in San Francisco.
Other women dressed like that wouldn't get a second look.
Maybe (probably) I don't get the subtleties.
So disappointed that we weren't treated to the picture of each tit on each one of his shoulders.
Althouse wrote: I blogged that because when I read it I got a twinge of envy from the realization that if I'd wanted to write a description, I wouldn't have come up with those details.
That's because you aren't crazy.
Tarzan no envy crazy. Tonto no envy crazy. Frankenstein envy crazy. Grrrrowl.
Google image Naomi Fry
She stands there, proud of her frumpyness; knowing that no amount of work would make her even marginally attractive. Her dull gaze shows a lack of awareness of her mediocre life
I’m looking at an unbuttoned jacket over a buttonless shirt and wondering whether “buttoned up” is supposed to be a euphemism for “none of her usual cleavage.”
The copy on the New York Post cover with this photograph was much better crafted.
I like the way her black dress echoes the dark blue of the Flag of the President.
Trump sometimes has that odd pale thing happening where his face and his face-colored hair disappear and all you see is the suit. He's like the Cheshire cat in Savoy row bespoke.
Botticelli’s Venus (I know what that is)
Well, duh! You've got a BFA!
What she means by "Calabasas Renaissance" is a bit beyond me. There are two "Renaissance Faires" near Calabasas, CA, one in Simi Valley and one in Irwindale. But neither is all that close to Calabasas. Anyone have a better idea about that strange reference?
For that matter, "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" was famous for black dresses with lots of cleavage and skirt slit to the top of the thigh, and Bottichelli's Venus is, famously, wearing a lot less. Kim Kardashian is in fact dressed very soberly.
Well, h8ers gotta h8, I guess.
Maybe it was intended as a parody.
It's virtue signalling disguised as euphuistic bullshit.
The descent of Naomi Fry into madness is an entertaining spectacle. I thank the New Yorker for having the courage to publish it.
Link to well-crafted cover-copy.
"Why are we talking like this about a woman? She's a real human being. Is it okay to make her into some sort of clusterfuck of female iconography?"
She has devoted her life to turning herself into some sort of clusterfuck of female iconography. She would not have it any other way. Well, except maybe a female icon of clusterfucking.
Save the fucks for a few bucks. Dysfunctional convergence.
I wonder if they discussed Planned Parenthood reform, torture coinciding with nervous system formation (around the first month), capital punishment sentences, and pardoning the wholly innocent boys and girls before they are disarmed and denied a voice to protest the wicked solution. Can they appeal their conviction?
Of course I was assuming that most people know what a Renaissance Faire is. Here's a link that explains it, for those who haven't been to one. See also the Wikipedia list of Renaissance fairs. I've attended the one in Crownsville, Maryland, a few times and greatly enjoyed it.
All of the worst elements of popular culture are wrapped up in that family of grifters.
Consider:
1. Dad becomes famous as friend and attorney for murderer OJ Simpson.
2. Dad dies. Mom marries Olympic champion Bruce Jenner.
3. One daughter becomes famous for a video of a blow job she gave some stranger.
4. Reality TV show.
5. Clothing lines.
6. One daughter marries an NBA player, divorces him and he goes crazy.
7. Youngest daughter parades around in see-through outfits.
8. One daughter marries no-talent rap star and gives birth to children. She gives them absurd names. Trademark litigation.
9. Jenner becomes a woman. Wrongful death lawsuit pending. Not sure if he was a man or woman at the time.
10 Now this. Get out of jail free campaign leads to Oval Office photo.
Apocalypse Now.
Trump is smiling like he just grabbed her by the pussy.
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark was played by Cassandra Peterson, no relation to Jordan, and she's still walking around at 66 years of age. Before Elvira she had a career as a Vegas showgirl, thanks partly to her generous poitrine. Her Wikipedia entry makes interesting reading, if that's the sort of thing that interests you.
The picture is disappointing compared to the description.
IOW, not at all like Botticelli’s Venus.
Bingo.
Naomi Fry doesn't know her art history. Not unexpected, really. The Nooyawkah has been downscaling its standards of scholarship for nearly three decades, primarily to be able to turn a purblind eye on the venality of the Clinton White House — unable to do anything else, in fact. She invokes Botticelli because it's the only Venus she can name. Totally inappropriate. The Botticelli is a willowy girl with chestnut locks. The only waves to be seen support her shell. If you're bound to connect Kim Kardashian to an image of Venus, it can't be any Renaissance effort. The only one that fits even approximately (no Venus looks like Kardashian) is the Campo Iemini. She's a bit more full-figured and her hair is definitely in waves.
You've really done it now, Althouse. Kim fecking Kardashian and still no trade policy post. wwww will frown. (Though personally, I'm more likely to give "Justin Trudeau & trade policy" a slightly higher "dismissable celebrity gossip" rating than "Kim Kardashian and prison reform".)
Wow. The author could get a paying gig writing articles that give conservatives schadenfreude. (Btw, blogger's dictionary thinks that word must be Scheherezade. Close.)
Shake it off.
The bullshit artists are always going to outwrite you in word count and word choice. Even if every word has nothing to do with the subject at hand. The moon isn't a balloon and never was.
Calabasas is where most of the Kardashians live/have homes.
The Professor is always at her most incisive when eviscerating women's fashion critics. I am surprised there isn't a hidden punkzine in the late '70s Athouse woodpile.
Why on earth is the fact of a public figure using her platform to advocate for sensible and humane sentencing reform "a nightmare we can't wake up from"?
Oh wait, maybe I get it.....
Locks in birth canals. I thought that was a myth.
Is it okay that she crafted herself into some sort of clusterfuck of female iconography? Sure, and don't feel bad for noticing.
She is visiting Trump which no real woman would do under any circumstance unless it was to slay him or deliver a mean hashtag. Therefore it is permissible to write about her in any negative way you can think of. The cattier the better.
Crafts in the lock, moving up the canal, which is no longer feckless.
Curious George:
Want some more fun? Google image Naomi Fry. Then let's describer her.
I'll start.
OK, I bit. This is what came up first.
Some days, the universe conspires to turn you into a human Onion riff.
Is it Mudshark week already?
I had to look up "poitrine". Agree.
I liked Elvira in the 80s. She was quite funny, and, of course, had nice bosoms. Much nicer than those ditzy, talentless, Kardashian sisters.
Alas, the Kardashians are multi-millionaires several times over, whereas Elvira most likely is not.
The unfairness of life.
(Eaglebeak)
Disordered comments:
1. I dislike rap, but Kanye West is not no-talent.
2. Donald Trump is on record telling Howard Stern that he does not admire Kim K's figure.
3. If their meeting gets people out of jail--people who have been in there far too long--that's a good thing.
4. Naomi is overwrought, needs to lie down, have a drink, take a pill, or something. Her writing about Kim reminds me of something Camille Paglia wrote once about one of Trump's girlfriends, only Camille is a terrific writer and what she wrote was enthusiastic, whereas Naomi is a lousy writer and hostile as all get-out.
5. The New Yorker REALLY has lost its mojo since the days of Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, S.J. Perelman, James Thurber, and E.B. White.
(Eaglebeak)
This is the Camille Paglia passage I was thinking of. Maybe The New Yorker should hire her instead of Naomi.
"Her midnight-blue evening dress opulently cradling her bare shoulders, Rowanne is all flowing, glossy hair, ample, cascading bosom, and radiant, lushly crimson Rita Hayworth smile. The hovering Trump, bedecked with the phallic tongue of a violet Celtic floral tie, is in Viking mode, looking like a triumphant dragon on the thrusting prow of a long boat. “To the victor belong the spoils!” I said to myself in admiration, as seductive images from Babylon to Paris flashed through my mind. Yes, here is all the sizzling glory of hormonal sex differentiation, which the grim commissars of campus gender studies will never wipe out!."
"I had to look up 'poitrine.'"
Me too. Perhaps the antiquated but still understood term of bosom would have worked just as well; or the old standby, huge knockers.
No Sesame. All Canal.
“ I'd get stalled in some vague ethical cogitation and not save my time for putting out crafting that kind of prose.”
It is easier to swashbuckle with words when you are conveying disdain about another: the snark glands get the juices flowing, and the desire to heighten humiliation of others makes the fruit of the thesaurus delectable and sweet to savor.
Often, the more verbose word-fruits are juiced by the bitchiest and fruitiest of writers.
Look at Gore Vidal, to name one.
Then look at who Gore Vidal bitched about: Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Wm F Buckley Jr — all of whom bitched back, in bitchy form. Of course, Mailer was butch-bitchy, and Buckley was erudite mellifluous WASP-bitchy, but still: bitchy.
The resulting words are an exquisite pastry. Baked in a Dutch Oven.
-LWL
Molly
Kanye West is no Marvin Gaye, Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Al Green etc. Not even a close question.
The Kardashian’s all live in/are from that area of LA so the Calabasas Renaissance is a link, through the Botticelli reference, to the Florentine Renaissance, it’s a new rebirth of a golden age and Kim is its iconic goddess. Or so I gather.
(Eaglebeak)
Dave--
You're quite right. He's not. But he's not no-talent
Marvin Gaye was a prodigious talent--few could match him. In general, today's popular (or whatever) music will never touch Motown.
I just think no-talent is an extreme characterization for Kanye, who is, I believe, very smart. Odd, but smart.
I see that as a veiled threat to Kim saying , " It is the fashion writers and cool glamour cult's opinion leaders who made you, and we can damn well break you if you become one of Donald Trump's cunts."
Forget Kim. There is nothing on that desk. Apparently Trump gets quite a bit done without doing any actual work. Good for him.
So is Trump going to give her what she came for? Or will he pardon Blagojevich first?
She was talking prison reform, Inga, so you stepped in it again.
"I had to look up 'poitrine.'"
So what ? I had to look up "euphuistic".
"A girl took a sudden dislike to me. She’d call me names in front of the other kids — Venus, Elvira, some sort of weird LA-area geographical reference."
I wonder if Kim Kardashian has any friends who are girls. I wonder if Naomi Fry has any friends who aren't girls.
Samantha Bee and her leftist scum ilk dare not trash talk Kim Kardashian!
"How did Fry see all that stuff?"
She didn't. It was all "creative writing."
Nothing to feel envious about.
Poitrine - isn’t that French fries covered with brown gravy and cheese curds?
I had to look up 'poitrine'.
Not a word that especially attaches to Kim Kardashian Perhaps callipygous?
I had to look up 'poitrine'.
Better to look down 'poitrine'.
Shut up and show your calabazas!
Blago is a democrat
Why should blago be imprisoned for decades and Hillary walks free?
The CNN asshole Acosta said she has no right to be there.
Well, on the bright side, at least the author didn't call Kim the c-word.
Seems a tad close to objectification......
I am amused by the juxtaposition of Kim's and Trump's facial expressions. Kim does have a sort of Wendy from Adam's Family feel.
-sw
Elvira, whose poitrine kept the boy-teen in the latrine.
Samantha Bee--Full-Frontal Lobotomy.
Lefties love that show. Kim is being warned to stay on the plantation.
What's going on with the windows?
It's like Starry, Starry Night behind them, and the one on our right is even stranger.
and the one on our right is even stranger.
Mostly reflections from inside the room.
Althouse, if it helps, I'm glad you didn't craft that prose. There were a lot of words used to say -- what exactly? Whenever an author or commentator spends so much time on what their subject is wearing (unless the author or commentator is a fashion reporter), it's a certainty that the trivial is about to be elevated above things of substance. Kardashian met with the President to discuss prison reform and sentencing -- matters of considerable weight -- and the author prioritizes what Kim wore over what she proposed and how the President responded?
This wasn't a creative writing assignment. Save such prose for a novel!
What would happen if the Democrats lost 25% of the African American vote?
Writing is a craft. You learn it over time.
Ironically lipsticked Naomi Fry, negotiates the problematics of oppression, her glasses, enormous yet political, glinting scornfully at monstrous but familiar outmoded archetypes, and her T-shirts, notorious for their grime and sweat making a contemptuous rejoinder to toxic masculinity, indeed to all masculinity. Combs are submission, she snarls, thrusting back her tangles. I am the new Venus, rising, she said, and thus I empower, she demonstrated, sharply elbowing the barista in his . It's OK, this is Strawbarks, and I'm socially justified, she sniggered. The barista said how welcome she was.
Kim does not pack the bustular gear to be in Elvira's class.
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts." - William Strunk, Jr.
Want good writing? https://amgreatness.com/2018/05/30/dear-ex-friends-in-the-resistance/
The Elements of Style - indispensable. A copy on my book stand.
Derek Kite said...
What would happen if the Democrats lost 25% of the African American vote?
Mass suicide.
Isn't Calabasas County where the frog is from in the Mark Twain story? Perhaps Trump is her frog....
What would happen if the Democrats lost 25% of the African American vote?
Expect a rehabilitation of the N word among the progs.
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
up in the sierras, where the gold was
not in the San Fernando valley, where the gold is now
Kim looks very feckable.
“She was talking prison reform, Inga, so you stepped in it again.”
No. Along with prison reform, she asked him to give clemency to Alice Marie Johnson.
“Kim Kardashian West has revealed details about her Oval Office sit-down with President Trump on Wednesday, in which she lobbied him to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother who is serving a life sentence in a federal pen for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense.
“I think that he really spent the time to listen to our case that we were making for Alice,” Kardashian West told Mic. “He really understood, and I am very hopeful that this will turn out really positively.”
Johnson, who has been imprisoned for over 21 years in Aliceville, Alabama, for a drug-trafficking charge, and Kardashian West has been trying for months to secure Johnson’s release.
Kardashian West has also paid Johnson’s legal fees and discussed the case with Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is leading the administration’s prison reform initiative.“
https://pagesix.com/2018/06/01/kim-kardashian-details-donald-trump-meeting-he-really-understood/
gilbar, yeah, she seems to be trying to look frumpy in those pictures. Maybe it's an ironic feminist statement, "Most women try to look more attractive than they really are. I will try to look less." I'll bet in real life, she is not unattractive at all.
tcrosse said...That's some very trite bodice-ripper style over-writing
--
Yep.
I think a better picture would be the two of them seated and talking. His smile here is better suited for a White House tour.
Play some Tango with it as you slowly read that description..
..I mean sentencing.
No
Yes.
Clemency for Blago would have been along the same line. So you stepped in it.
This is why I rarely look at a NEW YORKER, and then, only the cartoons. New Yorkers seem rather odd to me.
"...(a)n icon of the Calabasas Renaissance?"
This is foolish. Nothing in the Valley has had a Renaissance.
Talk about trashy. WTF does she know or he care about prison reform? It's just the flashy and the trashy all together in one big get-together of meaningless gaudiness, which is all he knows.
Trump is a moron.
I wonder how many impressionable young voters follow Kardasian.
Ritmo Brasileiro said...
It's good to know that the stupidest threads are just ripe for the threadjacking. I'll be sure to leave a trail of turds on every one of the brain droppings here that suit my fancy.
AZ Bob:
It’s a sneer. Calabasas is a rich area but it’s not Beverly Hills. The phrase to learn is infra dig.
"Kim Kardashian Meeting Donald Trump in the Oval Office Is a Nightmare We Can’t Wake Up From" by Naomi Fry in The New Yorker.
Just for the record, what's so nightmarish about personally lobbying the President for sentencing reform? Once upon a time, that would be the sort of non-partisan good government cause that socially prominent people would take up in order to get involved in politics without taking sides.
There are a lot of people in prison for very long times due to harsh mandatory minimum sentences. Should they be? Should we be more careful about sentencing people to life in prison without possibility of parole? Should we maybe go back and say that nonviolent offenders should get a chance for parole anyway?
Thinking back to all the celebrities that Obama hung out with, don't you kind of wish that one of them had put a bug in his ear about civil asset forfeiture, or eminent domain abuses, or overly harsh criminal sentencing guidelines?
“Kim Kardashian West has revealed details about her Oval Office sit-down with President Trump on Wednesday, in which she lobbied him to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother who is serving a life sentence in a federal pen for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense.
Arguing about specific cases is actually a good way to approach this issue, because it makes it harder to sweep uncomfortable corner cases under the rug. If you support the policy in the abstract, are you willing to apply it to Johnson's case in particular? Should there be exceptions for great grandmothers? For nonviolent offenders? For first-time offenders?
Maybe there should be a blanket policy that nonviolent offenders can't go more than five years without a parole hearing? Maybe ten years? Maybe judges should have more leeway in sentencing nonviolent offenders in the first place?
Maybe it's just me, but that seems like a really good thing to lobby the President about.
Blogger Curious George said...”Want some more fun? Google image Naomi Fry. Then let's describer her.
I'll start.
"Ugh."”
___________
Let me clarify: when a man harps on another man’s intelligence, the right thing for onlookers to do is to weigh their intelligence.
When a woman harps on another woman’ intelligence, the right thing for onlookers to do is to weigh those two’s intelligence.
When a man harps on another man’s appreance, the right thing for an onlooker to do is to weigh those two men’s looks.
When a woman harps on another woman’s appreance, the right thing to do is to weigh those two women’s looks.
Savvy?
That hair isn't hers.
And why do other blogspot bloggers have more identity choices?
Can you not understand? The writer feels a generational affinity with Kardasian, and cannot comprehend how 'one of us' could commit such a heinous act of betrayal as going to the White House to meet with Trump, much less being willing to pose in a photograph with him (thus legitimizing him). First Kanye and his dragon brother comment, and now this? The cognitive dissonance resulting from this photo is as beautiful to me as it is alarming and disturbing to Fry.
Yes, John Clifford. That's a writer in flow state. Those words flew our of her, and took us on a wild ride. It's passion. Fry writes about that picture like Kierkegaard wrote about The Present Age:
http://cliffarnold.com/thepresentage.pdf
Lets hear it from the Oak Ridge Boys!
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