What is the mood
that is the only question today
The mood is we absolutely do not have time or energy to be jerks, to be cruel to each other for no reason. Do the right thing and do it right the first time. Double check your work.
The mood is we do not comply. We especially do not pre-emptively comply like fucking cowards.
The mood is Zoloft + Wellbutrin together for treatment-resistant depression.
The mood is the secret misdeeds of those in power are coming to light. We are blowing our whistles. The day of reckoning is upon us!!!
The mood is Daniel on this season of Love is Blind, “just sitting patiently while his fiancé made up Instagram drama because she was freaking out that he was short” (h/t my friend Sonia Williams-Joseph; if you need physical therapy in Philly check her out). We cannot get flustered each time they do something categorically and catastrophically stupid and dangerous. We must remain calm.
The mood is you literally only have one life and the clock is ticking. For me this looks like finally, after years of saying I was going to do it, actually starting to do power lifting—I can now bench 75 pounds, let me live—and doubling down on being 100% self-employed.
The mood is even self-employed people can plan our finances and hire people to help us think through money. The mood is writers need to unionize. The mood is swapping writing skills for other services we need instead of paying money for them.
The mood is making a GiveInKind page when you need help and clicking the link when your friend sends one to you. When someone asks you for support, don’t flake. Send them $30 to order dinner or drop off some soup. Everyone is struggling right now. Everyone is just a few steps away from the edge.
The mood is they are trying to take over our cultural institutions because the Nazis took over cultural institutions (h/t Sara Novic).
The mood is prose writers writing poetry. The mood is give the full-time teaching job to the person who actually loves teaching, not the writer with the shiniest CV.
The mood is Yael Van Der Wouden’s response to winning Best Debut Fiction at the 74th Annual National Jewish Book Awards: “I wrote The Safekeep as an ode to love and reconnection in the aftermath of genocide and dispossession, topics that, to me, are now all the more more important in the face of violence worldwide but especially in Gaza and the West Bank. As a Dutch-Israeli author I find that histories of oppression are never too far off, and never quite in the past, which makes this acknowledgement all the more moving.”
The mood is I have been doing my own nails because I am soon to have my first ever MORTGAGE. My partner and I are moving to a different neighborhood in Philly. Watching nail videos is my main source of pleasure at the moment. They are ART. This is obvious, but I was raised with a certain white artistic-class racist and femme-phobic disdain for long and/or complicated nails. Also nails are to women and femme people what sports are to men. You can talk to literally any woman who has her nails done about them, regardless of politics and class, and she will have something fascinating to say that can cement a bond. This is what I talk to any woman in medical settings and weed dispensaries about. At the moment I am favoring checkerboard press on nails from Chillhouse and iridescent polish from Moon Cat. But I also want to try this eyeshadow nail hack.
The mood is there are days that are just shot, where we are just grinding. The mood is scheduling out several weeks to have five days in a row for me to work on my short story collection revisions without interruption. No appointments, no lunches, no evening plans, no therapy, just me + Fat Swim.
The mood is karaoke. I was always too scared but now (see above) life is short. If you are an alto like me, some suggestions: “Teenage Dirtbag,” “Hand in My Pocket.” Don’t just sit there. Take a gummy if that’s a thing you do, or screw your courage to the sticking place. There are few things in this world better than expanding your diaphragm as far as it will go via singing.
The mood is spring cleaning. 🧹 Before modern heating and air conditioning, homes heated with wood, coal, or kerosene would accumulate soot and grime during the winter months, the internet tells me. Spring cleaning was a way to address this buildup when warmer weather allowed for opening windows and airing out the house.
The mood is mopping my basement. The mood is opening the doors and letting the air in even just for a moment.
Writing exercise: what is the mood for you? Begin your response with “The mood is…” Do it now, leave it as a comment below.
Toppings
I’m teaching a few classes in April & May: a class on plot for Poets & Writers. And a class on getting up the courage to write fiction for the first time for Tin House.
I’m also bopping around doing a few events this spring. Sadly (?) I will NOT be at AWP after all for personal reasons, but please go show support for the panel I organized on Thursday March 27, Big and Bodied: Writing Against Fatphobia with
, Mecca Jamillah Sullivan, Isle McElroy, , & Megan MilksNOLA! I’ll be at the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival March 29-30
Western Mass! I’ll be speaking at Amherst College on April 3 at 7pm
Baltimore! I’ll be at the Dreamwood Series on April 11 at 6:30pm, follow that IG link and DM for address
I’m doing two Philly events I’m v v excited about. I’m in conversation with Jeanne Thornton on April 4 at Wooden Shoe to launch Jeanne’s new (brilliant!) novel A/S/L and in conversation with Lisa Ko on April 10 at Asian Arts Initiative to celebrate Memory Piece being out in paperback.
What I’m reading: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte. It’s not quite a collection of stories and not quite a novel in a troubled way and it’s just VERY fun. Cackles before bedtime, etc. Very in line with the MOOD of this newsletter.
xx,
Emma
If you liked this newsletter, feel free to share it with other people, to subscribe to this newsletter as a free or paid supporter, or check out my novel Housemates.
Emma! Omg, I love this. The MOOD is life is short; the mood is reading Emma’s brilliant and refreshing newsletter in bed while you let your kid babble about his stuffed animals for 10 minutes bc why tf did he wake up this early! The mood is he had hot chocolate for dinner last night and I regret nothing! The mood is being kind enough to ourselves that we have the energy to throw a fucking rock in the gears of the machines coming to flatten us. The mood is quesadillas with our friends!
The mood is going outside and getting some fresh air. The mood is seed starting as a step toward self-sufficiency and a way of generating hope for things to come. The mood is composting, turning trash into treasure. The mood is listening to birdsong as the world comes back to life. The mood is remembering life was always there, whether we noticed it or not. The mood is noticing it.