The book reviewer, Alexandra Jacobs, adds: "Maybe, contra Dunham’s mentor Nora Ephron, not everything is copy? Or at least … everything needs a copy editor? The Keebler elf makes a second, sexualized appearance; 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' is invoked twice; and Jack and Lena share soup from a 'terrine.'"
Points if you know the difference between a terrine and a tureen.
How could Dunham not know about the Mock Turtle's beautiful soup? Especially since the book's cover seems like an allusion to Alice:
Dunham is nearly 40 years old, so you tell me why she portrays herself like that.
***
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54 కామెంట్లు:
Why does Lena Dunham think she is famous?
As far as I know, she's a writer with tats and is mentally ill. No real talent.
I had an immediate visceral dislike of the phrase "unusually unfiltered memoir." It's cute but troublesome. And like so much else today prompts the query, "How would you know?" Maybe the reviewer graduated from reading Trump's mind to reading Lena's. But really, how could you possibly know, as in have first-hand knowledge of, the memoir being unfiltered by its author?
As of April 2026, Lena Dunham has at least 13 known tattoos, though the exact total may be slightly higher as she often adds new ink to her collection.
The tat on the back of her neck is "sick" and it is written in script.
Going by the face shot you showed the other day, and the absence of tats, I'd say that pretty much can't be her. I think her need for attention pushes her into 'mentally-ill' territory, especially when I see the delight she seems to take in the reactions from the normies.
My sister in law gave me a soup tureen for Christmas years ago. I joked about the soup latrine - but it didn't go over well.
If commanded, I now am the bringer of soup.
https://www.elitedaily.com/entertainment/celebrity/lena-dunham-chest-tattoo-rihanna/1812028
I already despise most of Hollywood.
More reasons why. The self-obsessed.. the whining... the boo hoo. The "I'm such a victim"... ugh. and they all support the mob.
"Why does Lena Dunham think she is famous?"
She's famous. You're in denial. "Girls" ran for 6 seasons.
Click my "Lena Dunham" tag (on this post). And here — https://althouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Girls — I have a "Girls" tag too.
I've been blogging for 22 years, and within that period, it is one of the most important TV shows.
You're not the demographic for it, but it had a big impact on women. It followed up on matters that had been in explored in "Sex and the City."
"Going by the face shot you showed the other day, and the absence of tats, I'd say that pretty much can't be her...."
You're probably right that she did not pose for that photograph, but we are certainly expected to see the girl in the photograph as representing her.
The soup tureen was one of Teh Doubtful Guest's favorite resting spots.
“Famous” implies broad public recognition, often with acclaim or popularity, while “well-known” means familiar to many, but not necessarily in a high-prestige way”.
I’d downgrade her to “cult icon”: “admired by a small, dedicated, and passionate fan base, rather than by the general public”.
And, drinking from a terrine: that’s nonsense aiming for cheeky, missing terribly
A couple years ago, I read Alice In Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass with my kids. After we read the part with the Beautiful Soup song, I searched on YouTube to see if anyone had set it to music, but the best (weirdest?) thing I found was Gene Wilder as the Mock Turtle in a made for tv version of the movie from the 90’s, singing it. Very odd, somewhat slightly “off” as you could imagine. The best part is how annoyed my kids get when I decide to remind them of it either by singing it myself or putting it on unexpectedly on a car ride. It’s very easy to find on YouTube!!
I think Mrs. Maisel is important. Really funny and entertaining. Found that one thru you, Ann. Thanks.
'You're not the demographic for it, but it had a big impact on women. It followed up on matters that had been in explored in "Sex and the City." '
What do you think the impact on the women who watched was? Was it negative or positive?
What do you think the impact on the women who watched was? Was it negative or positive?
Emily Jashinsky, who is a conservative Millennial woman, has talked favorably about the show Girls and Lena Dunham. Emily has said that the show actually does a decent job, unlike "Sex and the City," at showing the negatives of pursuing that kind of non-traditional, urban, cosmopolitan lifestyle.
There's an excerpt from her memoir in 4/6 issue of The New Yorker. It was quite readable and interesting. On the printed page she is far more engaging and appealing than as a screen presence....It augurs ill for our civilization that Emilia Clarke regrets her nude scenes Lena Dunham is proud of them.....I don't know if she knows how to make lemonade or if she's the overseer of a lemon plantation.
I couldn't tell a tureen from a spitoon
"Please don’t write about this immediately. I know how you work, and that you will. But please, just not right away."
and...
"Dunham is nearly 40 years old, so you tell me why she portrays herself like that."
Just focusing on all the allusion to time.
ai: "In Martin Heidegger’s philosophy, time is not just a background against which events happen; rather, it is the very structure of human existence. Heidegger argues that humans do not merely "have" time but are time—a process he calls temporality."
I still get confused by tureen and terrine but ask me about pate and pâté and i know exactly which one belongs kept under my hat and which goes upside down on an earthenware platter.
Spitting chewing tobacco is so gross.
I know people who thrive off of being "sick" - it is its own sickness.
Ann: Kindly please inform us about the impact of the show "Girls" on women.
Was it a good impact or a bad impact?
Was it more liberal trash?
Wiki, "The show's premise was drawn from Dunham's own life, as were major aspects of the main character, including financial isolation from her parents, becoming a writer, and making unfortunate decisions.[1] The series is known for its commentary on postfeminism and conversation around body politics and female sexuality."
Her parents cut off the money two years after Oberlin and that's a big deal?
“She's famous. You're in denial. ‘Girls’ ran for 6 seasons.”
“Rick and Morty” ran for 8 seasons. Where are they now?
Looks to me that Dunham is famous amongst a small group of young East Coast liberal women.
Thankfully, this woman has no children.
Say what you want about Lena Dunham -- I can't believe a the New York Times' reviewer is blaming the writer for the fact that this book wasn't properly copy-edited. I doubt anyone has ever written a book without typos, repeated references, or other language issues. Fixing them is supposed to be the publisher's responsibility. It used to be that any major publisher (in this case a huge one, Penguin Random House) would provide excellent editors, among other services, in exchange for taking the lion's share of a book's profits. And these particular mistakes could have been caught if they had just run the copy through AI. The fact that they didn't bother says more about the publisher than the writer -- a fact the New York Times, which is probably the world's most influential outlet for book reviews, should know perfectly well.
I think Girls was mostly positive in its influence on its intended audience. It was honest about the downside of casual sexual experimentation, abortion, postponing adulthood, and crappy boomer parenting.
It wasn't written for the audience here. But I've come to respect Durham for just telling it like it is, however unpleasant.
Her pervert father has a lot to answer for. To her credit, she considers her affection for him while remaining their version of a dutiful daughter.
Think of all the morally lazy pervert male auteurs you guys love and excuse.
" ...including financial isolation from her parents."
Dave Begley - "Her parents cut off the money two years after Oberlin and that's a big deal?"
FINANCIAL ISOLATION OH THE HUMANITY!!
What parents usually do when you actually grow up and move out is framed as a sort of abuse.
Ann: Kindly please inform us about the impact of the show "Girls" on women. Was it a good impact or a bad impact? Was it more liberal trash?
Always amusing to watch an attempt to pound the square peg of prejudice into a round hole. As someone noted upthread, Dunham’s show is a critique of urban liberal feminism.
Why that picture? Well, the woman in the picture is thinner in the picture than Dunham is today. Also, her show was "Girls," not "Women" and was largely about not growing up and the difficulties in growing up. For some reason, I thought of Alice in Wonderland looking at the picture, and AI confirms that vague impression:
Lena Dunham's 2026 memoir, Famesick, features a cover image from an Alice in Wonderland series by artist Anna Gaskell, symbolizing the confusion of navigating fame and the struggle to "rejoin the living". The imagery represents falling down a rabbit hole and questioning reality, reflecting her personal journey from "girl to woman".
But I didn't get all that from the picture.
I watched a few clips from the show. It didn't grab me at all.
oh no!
The best known example of a terrine is SPAM.
I had a marvelous tureen, made in the form of a comical fish. I lost it in a divorce and miss it far more than the missus.
"Her pervert father has a lot to answer for."
What is his perversion? What did he do?
Reading through the thread now, I realize why I may have thought of Alice in Wonderland.
Carroll Dunham painted a lot of sex acts and crude nudes. Female mostly, but not entirely. Very crude.
Lena made a point in the special features of explaining that her father on the show wasn't based on her real father. Jesse Peretz was a frequent director on the series, so I wondered how much Lena's TV father was based on Jesse's father, Marty Peretz, the former New Republic publisher.
Isnt she on minute 16:15
Didn't she molest her younger sister?
A memoir? From a 39-year-old?
Howard, I'll be careful not to eat soup at your house.
“Rick and Morty” ran for 8 seasons. Where are they now?
Dan Harmon also created Community. Justin Roiland was caught up in a metoo incident and has been effectively cancelled. Charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence, but his reputation has still suffered. So far, neither one has written a memoir.
Like Portlandia, Girls was a show written by a progressive(s) that effectively highlighted the downsides to progressivism.
I’m sure this level of candor is meaningful to Dunham, but as a reader I find it hard to see why it needs to be public. At a certain point, the relentless focus on private struggles resembles oversharing without a clear payoff. Not every personal revelation carries broader meaning, and this kind of inward-looking narrative reflects being self-involved. And while I’m glad Dunham has found a path that seems healthier and more grounded for her, I’m left wondering what, beyond the author herself, we’re meant to take away.
Ms Trent writes: “I think Girls was mostly positive in its influence on its intended audience.”
Very astute comment.
Girls captured a particular time and place of what it was like to be an urban, art-adjacent millennial, lacking in boundaries and not yet understanding the delicacy of friendship. The characters didn’t have full arcs but they were still worth writing about and it was fun to watch the mess.
Girls was unique in that there is partial growth but nothing big enough to remember. There’s lessons and insight but no big behavior change— “Are you a Hannah, a Marnie, a Jessa or Shosh” remains a valid / clear question without referring to the season.
Big change required too much discipline and urgency for the characters of Girls, and that was the point. This feels true to life. People muddle along, aware of their faults, but not able to majorly change.
SGT Ted said...
'You're not the demographic for it, but it had a big impact on women. It followed up on matters that had been in explored in "Sex and the City." '
What do you think the impact on the women who watched was? Was it negative or positive?
4/15/26, 10:00 AMYeah, that raised my eyebrows. I do think it is sad state that anyone is being 'influenced' by such a show. Sex and the City included.
When the cabin port-holes are dark and green
Because of the seas outside;
When the ship goes wop (with a wiggle between)
And the steward falls into the soup-tureen,
And the trunks begin to slide;
When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap,
And Mummy tells you to let her sleep,
And you aren't waked or washed or dressed,
Why, then you will know (if you haven't guessed)
You're "Fifty North and Forty West!"
- Rudyard Kipling, Epigraph to "How the Whale Got His Throat"
Many of our friends have 20-something daughters somehow in 2026 still emulating the Girls lifestyle: the financial dependency, the career uncertainty, the inability to find a decent employed boyfriend, the body tattoos, the emotional lability, the unwillingness to grow-up and be an Adult.
Don't get me started on our friends with 20-something sons.
I'm not a woman, not yet, but I know a lot them, young and old. I'm surrounded by them almost constantly, and never heard a single one talk about Girls the show. I'm sure they know it exists and they watched at least some Sex in the City, I have too, but the demographic for Girls is much smaller. Maybe liberal urban women, or college educated women, but "women", whatever those are, is a broad category, so to speak.
She's famous. You're in denial. "Girls" ran for 6 seasons.
TV show famous. She's got the fame of Don Knotts or Henry Winkler.
I didn't even recognize her in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.. And that was a tiny part.
What has she done in nine years? Hollywood has chewed her up and spit her out. If she was more honest, she would call her book, I Used To Be Somebody.
"Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!"
Sgt Ted: he is a painter whose subject was huge canvases of vaginas, staged all over their home. He forced the young Lena, like four, to go to live sex parties and watch. And he made her believe this was normal and good. That's why I suspect she emulated him by molesting (as a very young child herself), her sister. He was obsessed with vaginas, and his sleazy wife abetted him. She had to be sexually exhibitionist from an early age to please him.
Sex in the City was a women's show. Emily in Paris, too. I didn't get that vibe from Girls. It was more a show for the HBO audience than for one limited by gender. It wasn't a bad show, and for all Lena's (and Judd's) undoubted leftishness, it wasn't pushing a leftist political agenda.
Like I said in the other thread, not everyone is Carrie Fisher.
Am I the only one who finds that book cover creepy?
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