Constance Grady
@constancegrady.bsky.social
Senior correspondent at Vox. Culture, books, celebrity, and gender. Miserable people cannot afford to dislike each other.
I have seen some people arguing that the sex purge movie premise is inherently conservative and anti-sex, and this is driving me nuts. The driving force behind such a ridiculous concept is that restrictions make things sexier. It's an excuse to get Darcy's hand clench into the 20th century.
Julia Jacobs did a great job talking through the very tricky angles of what's going on with Ariana Grande at the NYT — I was glad to get to weigh in on the fan culture aspect www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/a...
Ariana Grande and the Debate Over Health, Privacy and Celebrity (Gift Article)
The pop star has long pushed back on comments about her weight loss, urging fans to be “gentler.” As her fame reached new heights, so did the scrutiny.
nytimes.com
Happy Friday everyone, as promised, here is my personal theory on this. I think Redwall takes place in our world, after an apocalyptic event of the nuclear variety caused rapid but varied growth of all animals, including humans, leading to our extinction and their mental development. Okay? 🧵
Nora@lighthousenora.bsky.social · 2w agoi would love your historical architecture take on the relative size of redwall abbey to its natural surroundings and inhabitants. like are we talking a tiny abbey in a tiny forest or what
I asked the question on everyone's lips 🐒 defector.com/can-a-monkey...
Can A Monkey Have A Pet? | Defector
In the spring of 2004, researchers monitoring a population of wild bearded capuchins in a Brazilian woodland saw an infant clinging to Chiquinha, one of the adult female monkeys. The baby was not a ca...
defector.com
Please get in touch if you’d like to join the cultural critics group at the Freelance Solidarity Project. We have to look out for one another. open.substack.com/pub/freelanc...
A Statement on Industry-Wide Cuts to Cultural Criticism
2025 has been a year of devastating disinvestment across arts and culture criticism.
open.substack.com
Jason Bailey@jasondashbailey.com · 5d agoWell, it’s invoicing day, and since they’re really apparently not going to pay me for something I wrote for them two months ago, I guess today is the day to post about how @vulture.com fucks over its film freelancers. Long (sorry) thread, with receipts:
You guys. Emily Wilson is correct about Nolan's Odyssey: it leaves behind the themes that make the original work pleasurable. There is no need to be defensive if you like the movie. It's a perfectly enjoyable film, which Wilson also says in her essay.
had so many opinions about The Blue Heron I am forced to start a Letterboxd, having resisted lo these many years
workshopping a hot take that the current baking newsletter at the paper of record is too Insta-friendly
“If you want to know how Banks views capitalist tech billionaires, you don’t have to hunt very hard… a capitalist tech billionaire is the literal devil, only he couldn’t be bothered to build hell himself.” – @constancegrady.bsky.social on how techbros misread the Culture www.vox.com/culture/4135...
Why does Elon Musk love this socialist sci-fi series?
The broligarchs share a favorite author, but they might be missing the point entirely.
vox.com
Nolan fully justifies his reading of The Odyssey as a story about trauma, but I miss all the pleasure he ditches in the process — the wit and the sensuality, and especially Odysseus's delight in his own cleverness. It's a reasonable adaptation but it sacrifices a lot.
If you've ever tried one of those wardrobe cataloging apps like Indyx, I would love to hear from you! Asking for a story.
me when the book opens with the girl turning into a leopard: yes … yes … haha, yES!!!! me when the girl reveals she never turns into a leopard again: well that fucking sucks. what the fuck.
I researched the Hollywood trope of having everyone in period/fantasy movies speak The Queen's Latin. Spoiler: It's about British imperialism! www.vox.com/culture/4955...
Why does Odysseus have a Boston accent?
The American accents in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey have a lot to tell us about power.
vox.com
For your convenience, the Pride and Prejudice live-posting super-thread 📚
Trung Le Nguyen@trungles.com · 2mo agoSo I’ve started Pride and Prejudice, and already I feel bad for Mrs Bennet.
hello, it is I, the lady who wants you to read all the classics! currently back on my bullshit in: re The Odyssey www.vox.com/culture/4949...
Is it time to finally read The Odyssey?
If you’ve never read the 2800-year-old epic (or only skimmed it in high school), here’s how to get into it.
vox.com
when your mind operates at the level beyond galaxy brain
i believe that the the entire "binge watch" model of releasing television series is based on a faulty premise, and that faulty premise has significantly devaluated television as an art form. stick with me on this one...
bluesky is truly at its worst during a fun gossip event, my god
This is my favorite piece I've worked on in a minute! For the 250th, I went through five of the common candidates for Great American Novel to figure out what they say about the US. www.vox.com/the-highligh...
5 books that define America — for better and for worse
The great American novels know that this is not an innocent country.
vox.com
the right is obsessed with Citizen Vigilante being a hit because they want to prove that everyone secretly agrees with them www.vox.com/culture/4937...
Why Elon Musk is so obsessed with this violently xenophobic Armie Hammer movie
Citizen Vigilante, the bizarre movie that took over Elon Musk’s brain, explained.
vox.com
I really enjoyed watching Disclosure Day, but I do think the movie is missing some connective tissue between the childhood flashbacks being sources of trauma and horror in the first two acts and sources of transcendent awe in the last act.
The masculinity stuff going on with Mamdani is lowkey fascinating—I went into it here www.vox.com/culture/4934...
Democrats say they need manlier candidates. Doesn’t Mamdani qualify?
If liberals believe masculinity is the key to winning, they could embrace the biggest bro they’ve got.
vox.com
I've been thinking about this since I saw a production a few years ago that cast Romeo and Juliet as a married couple in their 60s. The director's idea was that this choice would allow the audience to drop the question of whether R and J's love is real and focus instead on the tragedy of it.
Jessica Ellis@baddestmamajama.bsky.social · last mo.I really, really hate this take. First of all, it’s set in 14th century Italy, when marriages at those ages were common, in fact if you did *actually read it*, you’d know a subplot is Juliet’s parents marrying her off to Paris. Secondly, if you don’t buy the romance, the tragedy doesn’t work.
you guys, should I start a newsletter where I review all 66 Agatha Christies
