mena's month of media: june
May was mostly consumed by my road trip, and I didn’t have any notable experiences with media outside of it. But now we are back to the regularly scheduled round up of media/experiences that impacted me in the month of June!!
1-10: Incomprehensible & The Idiot
At the beginning of June I decided that if I really do want to be a good writer, I should start writing. I’ve been resolving to live slower and notice more for the past three new years, but I always forget about it during the year. For a month in freshman year, I carried around a mini spiral notebook everywhere so I could write down anything I saw or felt that I thought was worth writing about, but it ended up perpetually in the wrong pants pocket. In sophomore year, I got caught up by having actual conversations with people and forgot to write anything down. But this summer, while I wait around impatiently until I’m back in Minnesota and life begins again, I want to write. So far I haven’t written anything particularly remarkable, but it’s fun to sit in bed at night and write about the people I saw out the car window and the conversations I had with my mother and the curtains in my childhood bedroom.
In conjunction, I’ve listened to Incomprehensible by Big Thief practically every single day since it was released. I want to write paragraphs like Adrianne Lenker writes songs. I even got to drive through Ontario on my way east, although my experience was far less magical than hers. Ontario looked a lot like Michigan, and then it started to look like New York, except there were a lot more wind turbines. I remembered driving through Nebraska and seeing anti-wind turbine propaganda along the county roads, although I never figured out why; if it was politically-charged contempt or if they had a (more interesting) local place-based reason.
I reread The Idiot by Elif Batuman at the end of May, and with the fortune of more hindsight was able to see how well it described how it felt to be a freshman in college. I had read it at the end of my first year, and I remember resonating with how confused and out of place the main character felt. This time, I picked up on so many other little things: the frustration of not learning what you wanted to be learning, strange theoretical assignments for strange theoretical classes, and the way that everything that happened, however insignificant, felt like it consumed your life. I also read Either/Or, which is the sequel set in the main character’s sophomore year. I didn’t like it as much as The Idiot, because she’s more self aware and analytical, and tries to explain and smooth out everything that happens instead of immediately assuming it’s just the way life goes. Yet I can’t complain too much, because in my sophomore year I too realized I didn’t have to live life as passively as I had the year before.
10-20: Neolithic funerary rites
We got to New Hampshire and I caught a summer cold. I spent most of my time in the bunkhouse, in bed, surrounded by all of my favorite things: my computer, my books, my writing journal and my actual journal, cough drops, a vase of daisies that my mom picked for me. I felt like I was a Neolithic princess who died young and was buried with all of her prized possessions. If I died right then, what would future archeologists be able to tell about my life? Probably that all I ever do is produce and consume media.
The house was empty, but Mom and I filled it with our stuff and our long circular conversations. Every night we cooked dinner together and listened to Norah Jones and Big Thief and Pete Seeger, and then talked about college and getting a job and all of our family members. We went into Keene a couple times, to escape the cold and the boredom of the hilltop. One night, we saw The Phoenician Scheme at Keene Cinemas, which I really enjoyed. The plots of Wes Anderson movies never stick in my mind for very long, but I (like everyone) love the visuals and the soundtrack and all the other stuff that makes a good movie. And we saw it in a real movie theater! Where tickets were less than ten bucks! This greatly enhanced the experience. I will not stand any movie theater slander, everything is always better in person.
We went on walks and talked about politics, and we sat on the kitchen floor and talked about politics, and we went to the No Kings protest and talked about our neighbors. It was cold and windy and raining all week on the hilltop and in the outside world people were running their mouths and dropping bombs. I wish I didn’t feel so disconnected from reality when I’m here. All I can do is listen and think and think and think.
I made some progress on my capstone by reading Homesteading the Plains: Towards a New History, which was very straightforward and full of numbers and charts to prove historical arguments. I was amazed how confident people are that they can prove anything in history. Then I remembered that I am also full of that confidence, but I want to write history using stories and gossip and myths (much more fun that numbers!). But even just from the numbers and statistics and little snippets of biography, all of the Nebraskan homesteaders from the case study could have all been the main characters of a novel. Which means that everyone in the world could have a novel written about them and I know that it would be interesting. (even you! especially you.)
20-30: Village & Virgin
Then Village started, and I was flung back into the real, true New Hampshire instead of being isolated on our hill in the woods. All of our kids this year are so incredibly wonderful, and I want the best for every single one of them. I just don’t want any bad things to happen to them and I don’t want them to miss out on childhood by spending all their time on the internet. This summer we already have plans for a rocket launcher to send cats to space, a yellow submarine, and a mushroom-shaped house. Pete Seeger’s identical twin great-nieces are going to open a peep grocery/hardware store. The thirteen year olds are respectful and mature, and there isn’t nearly as much hitting-each-other-with-sticks as there was last year. In essence, Village is still a perfect microcosm that mostly only makes sense from the inside and is also exactly what these kids need.
Even better, Lorde released Virgin and now there are so many new things to talk about! I caved and bought tickets, adding to my long list of things I’m looking forward to in Minnesota. I first listened to the album alone in my car, driving through Dublin, up towards Hancock, and then finally back to Nelson (unfortunately assisted by Google Maps despite my best analogue efforts to get myself unlost). It was dark and I felt hot and free and closer to who I want to be. I loved Favorite Daughter and Broken Glass and the later I made Maisie listen to them multiple times while we drove to work. Maisie thinks Lorde is overrated and that there’s too many uh uh uh uh uhs in all the songs. I maybe tentatively agree on the latter.
Maisie and I also got hired to lifeguard at the Dublin Lake Club, where we sit and get sunburned and read our books if there’s nobody in the water, and next week we’ll get to do it all over again in the suits, sweatshirt and sweatpants they’ll buy for us. AI says the yearly membership fee is over $5,000. Their website is password protected for members only, so there’s no way of knowing who runs the place and what a country club is doing in Dublin, NH and most importantly where to park on your first day of work. But we got hired on the spot and put right to work and everyone seems friendly! Most importantly, we don’t have to do any behavior management or worry about the kids on the sand or even the sailboats far out on the lake, so it’s a pretty sweet job.
So that was June!
-Mena