Elizabeth Wurtzel: Dud or DUD?

a lot has been made of her 'hyperintelligent' style of writing: she is intelligent and yes, she has a flair for writing but nothing she says ever makes sense beacuse there is never any real logic behind it. i mean, what the hell is Bitch? it starts off as an essay on the reclamation of the Bitch archetype into a type of feminism and ends up with her wittering on about buying heroin at 3 in the morning and fucking tattooists on parlour floors.

occassionally it seems that her 'amazing ability' to flit from one topic to another is nothing more than a particularly exaggerated form of obsessive compulsive disorder.

i've always thought it'd be interesting to see her have a go at writing a film, was she involved in adapting Prozac Nation?

man, how irritating is that film going to be..

prozac nation whips the shit outta bell jar any day of the week...

and fuck anyone who thinks it isn't cool to listen to patti smith when yr 11

(PN sucked, BTW.)

We all have moments of selfishness, but she takes it to a level that's beyond description. After reading the New York Post article, I thank God I've never spent a penny on this woman.

Not read anything else of hers by the way but now I am so NOT inspired.

Liz is the new Peggy Lee! "Is that all there is? Is that all there is to the collapse of two skyscrapers and the murder of 3,000 people a few blocks from where I live? Then let's keep daaaaancing." I don't know, those quotes were so fabulously idiotic, they're the best thing I've ever read by her.

[Judge]: (*sentences EW to a lifetime of dispensing free meals at soup kitchens, thus prospect of noticing others less fortunate causing her to throw herself from 12th story window. Spontaneous celebrations erupt in the streets. Day is declared an international holiday and exceeds all others in popularity. People buy each other EW Day ties and Salad Shooters, which are then immediately returned...*)

Out of curiosity, how many of your friends still talk to you?

So, does this work? I've never been seriously depressed or addicted to anything but cigarettes. I tried reading Prozac Nation once and couldn't stand it. So the theory holds up so far. Mind you, I never got anything out of The Bell Jar either.

Hmm.... I do this. But I still thought I was happy! Maybe I'm just deluding myself.

(Do not feel obliged to respond.)

Nuttin special.

Well I think the rest of this thread answers your question, Sarah.

Yeah, I do. Perhaps it's because I was in the hospital from 7 MAR 2002 to 13 MAR 2000 for major depression that was ultimately diagnosed as bipolar II.

Perhaps it's because my ex-girlfriend who broke up with me right after valentine's day weekend had recommended "Prozac Nation" to me long ago. I didn't have any interest in reading it... which is to say I was scared of reading it. The night she and her boyfriend took me to the hospital (and you must remember I was not in the best of states) I asked her to bring me the book to read. Once I was in a state to read, the book did not leave my hands and the nurses kept having to make me put the book down every time they wanted to have a group. It's the only book I've ever read that's ever touched me, except that might change because I'm reading "More, Now, Again" right now and it seems like its geting at what "Prozac Nation" only hinted about her.

Perhaps it's because when I read her books I feel like I'm closer to someone who understands and can express what I can not. Which is truly a talent and truly brave.

And perhaps it's because I think if I actually had a conversation with her she might say many things but I don't think she'd say "Gottcha."

So yes, I like her.

And btw, you should remember one thing. Both Elizabeth Wurtzel and I are sick. Or am I the only person who still thinks mental illness IS an illness?

And no depressed person I've ever known would've made those idiotic comments about the WTC. I think that reveals a huge flaw in her personality that goes way beyond the sort of clinical depression that others experience.

One of the probs of depression is surely that, absent a major life tragedy as, well, "hook", its proximate reasons in any given person can actually SEEM (ie to them) trivial, hence the (possibly) damaging stiff-upper-lip/keeping-it-in syndrome... and then it gets (medically) worse not better. I think one thing I got from PN was that telling myself that my reasons for depression were trivial rubbish (so snap out of it, you idiot) actually meant i hadn't yet grasped the nature of depression (which is that the reasons you give are rarely the actual reasons).

It's been so long since I've read PN I don't think I could give a coherent critique of it. I hadn't even noticed her in years, until she started flapping her lips about how beautiful the WTC's collapse was, so I think I'm just feeling some residual frustration that someone who's so often painted as a spokesperson for people my age should be such an idiot.

tbf if i lived in a basement apartment anywhere i too would be miserable

but c'mon the line where she says "i, too, am in storage" or whatever was a brilliant kicker

laverne & shirley were totally happy!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rLAup9Rwp6Y/TUwlnXKuHYI/AAAAAAAAADk/LG0iTJLJFQs/s1600/tumblr_kxifg55z3G1qzbqvao1_500_large.png

A parlor floor is not a basement, btw, it's the nicest level of a brownstone and it's at least half a story above street level.

Oh nm just got to end of article. That was a lot of words for the number of ideas in them.

Has she been introduced to our friend Momus?

I made it maybe halfway through that NY Mag thing.

Possibly the two most infuriating things I've read by her:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/16/elizabeth-wurtzel-antisemitism-israel-gaza
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/health-wellness-articles/looking-better-at-45-than-25#slide-1

Actually, the latter is more surreal than anything.

I made it maybe halfway through that NY Mag thing.

Me too, then I skimmed to the bottom in the hope that there might be some kind of pay-off. Nope. What a self-regarding pile of self-regard. (Also thought the backhand at David Remnick was odd, but probably he's turned down a lot of pitches from her.)

I mean, who even writes like this?

I am a free spirit. I do not know any other way to be. No one else seems to live as I do. In a world gone wrong, a pure heart is dangerous.

in fairness, there's nothing wrong with the WAY that is written; it's the sentiment that is off-putting

I want everyone to try as hard as I do to please be gorgeous, because it's not that hard, girls. Looking great is a matter of feminism. No liberated woman would misrepresent the cause by appearing less than hale and happy.

LOLWUT

OTOH that first sentence Nicole just quoted is constructed terribly

I mean, who even writes like this?

I am a free spirit. I do not know any other way to be. No one else seems to live as I do. In a world gone wrong, a pure heart is dangerous.

teenage girls in the 70s is the correct answer

in fairness, there's nothing wrong with the WAY that is written; it's the sentiment that is off-putting

True. What I really mean is, who even thinks like this?

xp m coleman otm

http://d188rgcu4zozwl.cloudfront.net/content/B00A7IOVDC/images/1570583990.jpg

I am a free spirit. I do not know any other way to be. No one else seems to live as I do. In a world gone wrong, a pure heart is dangerous.

--bob marley

In a world gone wrong ... a pure heart is dangerous!

This spring, Anna Paquin IS Elizabeth Wurtzel

in

FREE SPIRIT

In a world gone wrong ... a pure heart is dangerous!

This spring, Anna Paquin IS Elizabeth Wurtzel

in

FREE SPIRIT I CRY A LOT

I should probably track down a copy of Prozac Nation just to satisfy my circa-2002 curiosity/Ricci-crush.

I mean, who even writes like this?

I am a free spirit. I do not know any other way to be. No one else seems to live as I do. In a world gone wrong, a pure heart is dangerous.

teenage girls in the 70s is the correct answer

haha the correct answer is that jean-jacques rousseau is a teenage girl in the 1770s

huh learn something every day. is j-j r responsible for this chesnut too

http://winterlyrics.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/not-meant-to-be.png

^^on every late 1970s female college dorm room wall ever

I lost lots of helium balloons that way...

its funny how she gets all up on finance for ruining new york and then shes... a lawyer

i mean she did the thing every ambitious directionless person does and went to law school and somehow tries to paint it as an act of pure fuck up love, lady youre not lost youre doin the same shit as everyone else

lol i just read this

it was pretty good

had to just scan the last third, it kinda dragged

"If you need somebody, call my name
If you want someone, you can do the same
If you want to keep something precious
You got to lock it up and throw away the key
If you want to hold onto your possession
Don't even think about me
If you love somebody, set them free"

-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

wurtzel's prutzels

i always think wurtzel is the author of the popular wurtzel-bat series.

" I like Mumford & Sons a lot, but I don’t own any complete albums. But maybe that just proves I am more of the times than I care to admit"

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/128313/in-bed-with-bob-dylan

http://theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/i-refuse-to-be-a-grown-up/274918/

I used to do cocaine and go running; now I just go running.
I used to do cocaine and go running; now I just go running.
I used to do cocaine and go running; now I just go running.

how to not grow up: stop doing drugs, go to law school, exercise

how to not be self involved: submit yr inner monologue for publication

Nothing is more bracing than not being concerned about what other people think. I have no idea why anyone cares. Trust me: No one is looking. I know: I am looking. People are self-involved. They are all waiting for you to ask about how gifted their kids are. I wish people were judging each other a great deal more, and more carefully, but they are not. Knowing this, I have no trouble being myself. It works well. I will die screaming.

dear EW, can you hear me rolling my eyes?

I like how she doesnt care about what people think about her being obsessed about what other people think. It's an intriguing paradox thats at the center of all her recent work.

'intriguing'

I just think it's like, an aporia in the logic of her texts that give them a certain tension, or vulnerability, that is mildly compelling, which is why she manages to be both very readable and insanely self-centered.

I fully expect to be the only person who thinks this.

But my answer to the thread title is dud, i guess, but i read her pieces when i stumble across them and think she has a distinctive voice.

more like elizabutt squirtzel

dude, that pun is the worstzel

From Led Zeppelin to Breaking Bad: The Lamest Generation
by Elizabeth Wurtzel
Kids used to take big changes, but the crazy energy of youth seems to have subsided. Elizabeth Wurtzel on why today's youth need to take a page from Led Zeppelin.

she suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks so haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrd

a page from led zeppelin

yeah I read that article it's such fucking terrible shit garbage that it's not even worth engaging individual "points"

@LizzieWurtzel 20m
I am terrified by the cardboard signs beggars now have, like we don't know, and of course we do not. They say too much or not nearly enough.