Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i Vanity Fair

Emily St. John Mandel (The Glass Hotel) recommends MIGRATIONS by Charlotte McConaghy “McConaghy’s Australian—this book is her American debut. It’s set in the near future; a gorgeously written, moving, absolutely riveting and harrowing novel about a scientist traveling around the world to track the last flock of Arctic terns. I was so impressed by it.” Jonathan Lethem (The Arrest) recommends THE MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE by Kim Stanley Robinson “While many writers approach the climate as allegory—often brilliantly!—only Robinson, to my knowledge, has tackled it as a panoramic epic, the best science fiction–nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” C Pam Zhang (How Much of These Hills Is Gold) recommends A HOUSE IS A BODY by Shruti Swamy “In this strange year, I turned to these ruminative stories with their equal parts…

BETWEEN THE COLLAPSE of newspapers, the misfortunes of digital media, and the economic wreckage of the coronavirus pandemic, writing for a living can feel like a cold, dreary, morale-sucking march to the unemployment office. And yet, there’s a hopeful sentiment heard lately in journalist circles: It feels like the beginning of the gold rush. That gold rush is Substack, and the man handing out pickaxes is a 33-year-old Silicon Valley techie named Chris Best, who serves as CEO of the au courant publishing platform for email newsletter scribes. Substack newsletters are growing in influence and numbers, and in many cases, they’re becoming a no-brainer for marquee writers and reporters who want to make a comfortable salary—quite possibly a very comfortable one—without having a boss. “If we succeed in our ambitions,”…

ANDRA DAY REMEMBERS being 11 years old and hearing Billie Holiday’s music for the first time. “I was like, What?! This is nothing like Whitney Houston!” she recalls with a laugh. “It really transformed me as a singer.” Now the Grammy-nominated artist is set to play Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, directed by Lee Daniels (Precious) and written by playwright and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks. The drama, due out February 12, delves into the Federal Bureau of Narcotics’ quest to imprison Holiday on drug charges as retribution for her singing political songs like “Strange Fruit” and her dedication to integrating audiences. Day will be making her feature acting debut opposite Moonlight breakout Trevante Rhodes as Jimmy Fletcher, the undercover agent who switched allegiances after falling for the singer.…

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Floating in a river full of fat trout. What is your greatest fear? Danger to my children. And tidal waves. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Gluttony. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Selfishness. What is your greatest extravagance? My Precious Moments porcelain figurine collection. What is your favorite journey? The 3 a.m. trip from the bathroom back to bed. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Pride. On what occasion do you lie? To avoid hurting feelings. What do you dislike most about your appearance? Being subject to it. Which living person do you most despise? Donald Jessica Trump. What is your greatest regret? Not spending more time with my grandparents. What or who is…

Kiese Makeba LAYMON “ALONE, TOGETHER” P. 42 As he describes in his column this month, Laymon developed a lot of new obsessions over the past eight months to help pass the time. “I started wondering, really wandering, about how absolute changes in the world might necessitate new or absolutely different pathways to pleasure and sentimentality,” says Laymon. “I wanted to work to a different kind of horrifying ‘happy’ conclusion.” Michelle RUIZ “BECOMING AOC” P. 44 Ruiz witnessed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s star power firsthand at an event in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. “Women were coming up to her crying, hugging, and asking for selfies,” says Ruiz, recalling a staffer who likened her to Beyoncé. Still, there’s work to do with her younger constituents. “When I asked a few little kids…

IT’S BEEN A LONG four years since the emergence of the Access Hollywood tape in the fall of 2016. That gross, utterly dispiriting snippet of video was just one of the starting points of a national nightmare, which has included a raging pandemic, the celebration of white supremacy at the highest levels of government, crimes against humanity at the border, and flagrant, endless corruption. As demented as it sounds, on the anniversary of that truly crappy event, I’m here to offer you a ray of hope. Before you whisper “Oh, fuck off,” please understand that this sliver of guarded, vulnerable hope is one that I acquired through enormously difficult personal and professional experiences. One of those very hard things: In the fall of 2014, almost exactly a year after my…

EARLY THIS MORNING, my mailman read me a story. Two stories actually. I met my mailman, Shawn, in July. While sitting on my porch, Shawn had walked up and asked if Biggie Smalls was my favorite MC. Before I could answer, Shawn said he noticed the portrait of Biggie in my sunroom. Shawn placed my delivery on the steps and asked why I had so many books delivered. I told Shawn I was a teacher and writer. Shawn told me he’d never taught but that he was a writer too. I sat out on that porch listening to Shawn rap one and a half songs about his “old life” in Kansas City and recite the synopses of two projects he needed to finish. “I’m not sure if they’re screenplays or…

NOT SO LONG AGO, CHLOÉ ZHAO WAS RUNNING BACK AND FORTH FROM ONE END OF THE EMPTY DISNEY LOT TO THE OTHER. SHE’D WORK ON THE SOUND MIX FOR NOMADLAND, THEN DASH OFF TO EDIT ETERNALS. YET WHAT STRUCK THE 38-YEAR-OLD FILMMAKER AS SURREAL WASN’T THAT SHE WAS MAKING AN ART FILM AND A GLOBALLY ANTICIPATED TENTPOLE at the same time—it was that the squirrels of Disney were starving. “Usually people at lunchtime are feeding all the squirrels,” says Zhao. “And now the squirrels are like, ‘Where did all the people go?’” These days, during the most highflying year of her professional life, the director has been grounded. No jaunt to the Venice International Film Festival, where her movie Nomadland took the top prize. No trip to Toronto, where it won…

THE SUMMER I FIRST listened to my father’s scratchy vinyl of the original West Side Story cast recording, I was particularly taken by Tony’s opening number, “Something’s Coming,” in which he revels in an almost cosmic feeling of anticipation. The tragedy is, he doesn’t know he’ll be dead by the end of the second act. But in the glorious few minutes of the song, when Tony croons sentiments like “There’s something due any day,” the world of the show—and the world of a young listener—teems with poetic possibility. What joy, to trust that something grand and clarifying is just around the corner. Steven Spielberg’s new film version of West Side Story, one of the 20th century’s best musicals, has been delayed, pushed from its December 2020 release date all the…

Hard-boiled Hollywood mysteries usually start with a woman. This one was was 19, with big eyes, blond hair, and the ability to turn on the charm when she wanted something. And what Charlotte Sophie Kirk wanted more than anything was to be a movie star. It was 2012, and Kirk had just landed in New York City “to network,” as she told a friend. Which is how she’d met the older man at her side. He wanted to help her with her career, so he introduced her to a lawyer named Ray Markovich who had produced a few low-budget movies. One look at Kirk, and Markovich wanted to get her work too. “I needed someone for one scene,” he says. “And she said, ‘Great!’ I tried to help. I just…

It’s not exactly a fairy tale to find yourself on the floor of a Midtown hotel room being shocked with fake electricity, but that’s where we enter this story. Take off your shoes, Shaman Durek told me, gesturing to a little patch of carpet patterned to look like wood in a suite he’d rented at the Mondrian on Park Avenue in New York City. Shaman Durek doesn’t rely on medicine or plants or earthly tools. He goes right to the top, to the spirits themselves, so that he can clear communication in times of breakdown—to help, for a fee, his clients restore some peace and balance. He doesn’t tell you how to live. He wants to help you get out of your own way. So when he told me to…