Episode 49: Ottessa Moshfegh with Holly Friend

*Subscribe to the STARGIRL Patreon!* Announcements: 1. STARGIRL in-person event is happening! Sunday, July 28 at 10am in Williamsburg (exact location details will be emailed out), a meetup and all-levels yoga class in NYC! Fill out this Google Form to RSVP Space is limited, so serious responses only please 2. Submit your Rants and Raves! Record a 0:30 - 2:00 hot take on a Stargirl of your choice, and email it to me at [email protected]. I’ll play my favorites in forthcoming episodes! Show notes: This week, I’m joined by Holly Friend, a writer and trend forecaster based in London. We delve into the perverted world of Ottessa Moshfegh, one of the most commercially successful fiction writers of the last 10 years. We discuss how she unwittingly predicted / defined a cultural moment with My Year of Rest and Relaxation, her apparent obsession with self-mastery and anti-victimhood, unique sobriety narrative, and how her gross, sensory world compares to Sally Rooney’s romantic, cerebral one. Holly Friend is a writer and futurist based in London. She makes sense of the world through identifying trends and narratives, which does as a freeland cultural strategist for brands, and as a fiction writer. Follow Holly on Instagram! Discussed: Diva Discourse, a Beyoncé podcast by my friends Shaan and Enzo Kim is producing and featuring in an upcoming docuseries on Liz Taylor “#TurnOutForWhat” Rock the Vote campaign video (2014) Books by Ottessa: Eileen, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Lapvona, Homesick for Another World “Ottessa Moshfegh Is Praying for You” Andrea Long Chu in Vulture Ottessa on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast Interview with Ottessa in the Guardian “Jailbait” essay by Ottessa in Granta