Festival News And The Best Flawless Summation Yet [#20]
See you in Austin at one of the best book festivals in the land!
Annyeong from LA!
Writing with the exciting news that I’ll be at the Texas Book Festival in my former hometown of Austin, in November. When I lived in the Texas capital, I looked forward to two events the most: the film festival part of SXSW and the Texas Book Festival, where authors take over various committee rooms and legislative chambers of the Capitol building itself, to talk about books. What a thrill to return to the fest … as an author! I can’t wait to hear from (and meet) authors I’ve long admired, and discover the work of those I don’t know yet.
And I’ll share more details about the session when I get it.
He Summed Up Flawless Better Than I Could
Crazy thing happened last week. Technologist
, who attended a Flawless book event in LA, finished reading the book and posted an overview on his newsletter, . Included in his epic post about the artificial gaze, he sums up Flawless’ proposals for addressing unrealistic beauty standards and the seemingly endless “optimization” of our looks. I found it revelatory — it’s better than I could have summed things up myself:Regardless of how synthetic images shape social inequity and appearance labor, Elise Hu offers three ideas to help us turn the corner.
The first is embodiment. Hu sees our entanglement with unrealistic beauty standards as “a struggle for self-determination and our claim to bodily and spiritual integrity,” and I couldn’t agree more.
The second idea Hu writes about is mutuality. We need to recognize that individuality doesn’t get us where we want to go. The trick of succeeding in our current system, as Hu writes, is that “winning through self-optimization in a hyper capitalist system is a precarious way of life for those at the top. And it relies on the aspirations of the underprivileged to give it power.” This means the only way to change the terms of ‘success’ (e.g. what it means to be beautiful) is through collective action. If we each stop aspiring to what is sold to us from above, we can begin to dismantle beauty standards. Our individual actions shape community expectations.
The third idea —and for Hu, this is the most important one — is worthiness. As Hu beautifully writes, “If you ask me what my dream is, it’s not for everyone to believe they’re beautiful but instead to believe they are worthy, flaws included.” So we need to abolish these underlying societal standards and by extension the idea that our worth is tied to something outside of us.
Press Links
I haven’t written in a minute so here are some highlight interviews that I’ve gotten to do for the book, ICYMI…
Vox’s Today Explained, with Sam Sanders, who still doesn’t wear sunscreen regularly so I recommended some favorites if you’re interested.
- in an interview feature we snuck in just before the birth of her adorable baby girl.
Books on Tumblr! Tumblr, like TikTok, has a big bibliophile community. Big thanks to the team there for featuring a conversation with me.
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s big English language paper, with Kavita Daswani
THE YELLOW PAGES with
, who also made a list of her favorite K-Beauty products for a separate post about Flawless.I wrote on the hottest non-invasive procedures in Korea these days, for the Sunday Times Magazine’s big fall fashion issue.
Mizzou magazine’s fall issue…if you pick this up in print, we’re also featured on a page full of Mizzou alumni books this year.
Of course toasted ravioli makes the subhead.
Stray Notes
Grateful that you’ve sent photos of Flawless spotted in far flung places like Berlin, and Amsterdam, and an hour north of here, in Ojai. :) Tag me if you see our girl or just text or email a snap. My friend Sira saw Flawless was the third most popular book sold at the prettiest airport in the world, Singapore’s Changyi Airport … but they didn’t take a pic! FOR SHAME.
Book clubs gearing up? Share these discussion questions with your book club or other people’s book clubs.
And another reminder as you finish reading Flawless to post online reviews! They make the book more easily discoverable. If you're a member of Goodreads, pop that review in Goodreads, and here's the Amazon page. So long as you're logged in, you can write a review today.
Thank you for being a friend and believing Flawless’s message of mutuality. We’re in it together.
E
P.S. HALLELUJAH my kids are back in school! I made them take part in the annual tradition of holding up blank pieces of paper on the first day so I can troll them if I want.
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