Chloe Cullen's Blog, page 6

Happy 250 birthday to the anonymous spinster, Jane Austen

Welcome to Lesson #1, the column for paid subscribers where we discuss the biographic and historical context around this week’s novel.

To discuss Jane Austen’s Persuasion, we have the below sections:

the life & death of the unmarried queen of romance

class is in session—and it’s the socioeconomic kind

a quick pivot for Napoleon

the writers Jane Austen loved

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From August 8, 1815 to August 8, 1816, Jane Austen wrote Persuasion as her health declined.

At this point in her career, she’s publ...

The Best of 28: A 2024 round-up from the first days of being 29

When I graduated from a master’s program at 23, I would send reverent prayers to the person I would be in five years. Please, I would pray, please have this all figured out by then.

In the last five years, I did figure it out. I had my dream job in the right city with the right partner. I wrote a book. Then, by 28, this idealized life shifted, and I pivoted to focus on my writing. I was used to working within an institution that could tell me what to do. On my own, I was basically thrown upside ...

The Digest: Delayed December Gratitude

At Thanksgiving dinner, my sister put my boyfriend on the spot.

“Luke, tell us what you’re grateful for,” Tara said. “Then let’s go clockwise.” She sat to Luke’s right, counter-clockwise.

For some families, this might be the expected tradition for a Thanksgiving dinner. Not mine. We are much more of a quality time/acts of service group vs. words of affirmation crowd. Most of our self-talk involves “stuff that down and deal with it later.”

Given that Luke and Tara have the oddly filial dynamic of ...

Self-Taught 2: How To Read Well

December is my favorite time of combined optimism and laziness, of hot and sweet coffees and fat blankets.

Rarely has the drive come with a wave of bliss when you consider that it can happen in a month, at the top of next year.

And with that, I present you the 2025 top-of-year ambition:

In January, Self-Taught is back, baby!

My cooking experiment was one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. Period.

And I carry those lessons every day. I’m a different person now that I learned to cook.

It also he...

Does SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE dislike women?

I’ve got three sub-thoughts for you today, scattered across books, movies, tv, and comedy (as always). Let’s get into it:

#1: At Netflix, comedy is so back.

The Man On The Inside is the #2 top watched TV show on Netflix as of this writing.

Michael Schur, the showrunner behind some of the most iconic 21st century comedies like The Office and Parks & Rec, reunited with The Good Place star Ted Danson for this the show about an older widow hired as an undercover retirement home spy.

The Good Place,...

ANORA Is A Body Comedy

When Ani, an exotic dancer in Brighton Beach, arrives at Ivan’s mansion, he slides in his socks across the floor to open the door like that scene in Risky Business. Before they sleep together, he rips off his clothes and somersaults backwards onto a bed. She smiles at the right times, playfully fluffs his ego, handles the cash he gives her.

He’s a young boy with a crush. She’s a professional.

Sean Baker’s latest film, Anora, exists in the body of its characters through their physical responses to...

Where do we go next? (here & elsewhere)

My friend from high school, Katherine, was in town. On a walk, she asked if my friends from different chapters of my life—high school, college, post-grad—would use the same characteristics to describe me. Have I been the same person?

Lately, my therapy sessions are exorcisms. In the last few months, each session is another heavy realization about how I …

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Toxic Relationships Speak The Same Language

Today’s newsletter reviews two novels where the characters experience abusive relationships. However you’re feeling today, please give yourself the space to skip if you need it.

My therapist asked me why I read dark, heavy books. I had confessed I read two books back-to-back about toxic affairs. Why do I stick with a book that requires emotional white-knuckling to reach the last page?

There is a part of me that thinks if a read is difficult, it is hard-earned. There is more to learn through suffe...

WE LIVE IN TIME & On Junk Food

The full court press on Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s WE LIVE IN TIME worked. I entered an AMC on Friday with too buttery popcorn, a ginger ale lemonade with enough fluid ounces to fill six bladders, and my friend/cultural event +1 Nora.

“I feel like I’m gonna cry like this is a cancer movie,” I said before the show.

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I took a beat.

“Wait, this is a cancer movie, isn...

Meet Lee: 90 Memories for My Grandpa’s 90th

1.     My grandpa is the first one to read my newsletters, or my book, or anything that goes out on the Internet with my name on it.

2.     I know this because he emails me with his thoughts. I have a folder of emails strictly from my grandpa.

3.     Most people start to become their mothers when they get older. I have her quiet laugh and quiet observation. I also have my dad’s wit and hazel eyes. But I also notice as I get older my grandpa in me, though we grew up in completely different worlds.

4...