Tessera

The Flytrap @theflytrapmedia.com · 7d ago

it's ASK THE FLYTRAP day! this week, @nicolefroio.bsky.social advises a reader on the endless screaming of it all

This week, @sesmith.lol wrote about how some books get deluxe multiple special edition treatment and what that says about publisher priorities. Art by @meowwwls.bsky.social!

A Forest of Special Editions and Influencers

What happens when books become aesthetic objects?

f.mtr.cool

This is a piece I really enjoyed thinking about and working on—I absolutely love this kind of books culture features. And given that The Flytrap is, sadly, not my full-time job, I would be DELIGHTED to hear from culture editors looking for more like this, esp. on a column basis. ~ manifesting ~

This week, s.e. smith writes about too many special editions of books, book influencers, and what that says about the publishing industry. https://f.mtr.cool/hvjqmsawzm

Illustration of a person wearing glasses reading a special edition but also keeping an eye on her phone. In the background there's a bookshelf full of pretty books. On the bottom center, it says THE FLYTRAP EXCLUSIVE.

nicole froio @nicolefroio.bsky.social · last wk.

here's me talking about how hard it is to navigate... all of this!!

it's ASK THE FLYTRAP day! this week, @nicolefroio.bsky.social advises a reader on the endless screaming of it all

This week, s.e. smith writes about too many special editions of books, book influencers, and what that says about the publishing industry. https://f.mtr.cool/hvjqmsawzm

A combination of manufactured scarcity and naked capitalism is overcrowding book shelves and draining bank accounts for the completionists who want to track down each rare variant—even if there’s nothing materially different between editions.

For me, the escalation in special and exclusive editions and the surrounding ecosystem of book boxes, bookstore chain exclusives, and influencers raises questions about what happens when functional items, like books, are turned into aesthetic props.

It has me thinking about this horrible empty time we are living in where everything feels overwhelming and fake and we just want a little treat, trying to convince ourselves that we can buy ourselves out of misery if we just purchase one more thing.

It has me thinking about how all of these things are sold to us, who is doing the selling, and who is doing the buying.

Our forest isn’t dead yet, but its keystone species are not doing well. The problem here isn’t the endless parade of special editions; it’s the fact that the lead titles often selected for this treatment increasingly feel like more of the same, chasing the formula that, with a nudge from the publisher, will blow up on social media, because that is where the money is now. Everything else is left to fend for itself.

Last week, @thefrankiedlc wrote about what the sports world could learn from BDSM and kinky communities. Read the piece at the link: https://f.mtr.cool/ruzkqpjdxw Illustration by @nicolefroio

While the BDSM world has language and norms to have these kinds of conversations [about consent and training styles], the sports world largely doesn’t. How does one bring the lessons learned in kinky spaces onto the sporting field?

If talking about sex, especially kinky sex, were less taboo, the sporting world could learn from the BDSM community in myriad ways, particularly around consent, negotiation of physical and psychological boundaries, and aftercare. But, as Cowart found, many athletes bristled at the idea of being associated with the concept of masochism.

When researchers Christopher R. Matthews and Alex Channon wanted to explore how consent functioned in combat sporting spaces; there was so little previous research on the topic that their study “dr[e]w on insights from sex research to theorise consent as a communicative social practice.”

it's ASK THE FLYTRAP day! this week, @nicolefroio.bsky.social advises a reader on the endless screaming of it all

Ask The Flytrap: I'm Angry and Afraid Because Everything is Shitty

I feel like screaming all the time, but I'm apparently not supposed to?

theflytrapmedia.com

A few people have mentioned that we ended up in their promotions or spam folders this week! If you're a subscriber and didn't receive this, check those places. 🌱

Larisa LaBrant @larisa-labrant.bsky.social · last wk.

Happy Flytrap Tuesday! Today @sesmith.lol is writing about how some books get the deluxe multiple special edition treatment, what that says about publisher priorities, and how books are becoming, for some, aesthetic performances and collectors' items. Art by @meowwwls.bsky.social!

Really enjoyed this thoughtful piece on special editions, and the uneven everything around them:

FYI, the checklist I mention in the book for organizing information about your financial accounts, identity and legal documents, and other matters is up on my website now. Plan ahead so your survivors have all the info they need, organized in one place. www.realsesmith.com/the-list

ALL MY DEAD CATS AND OTHER LOSSES, my book about grief; who is allowed to mourn and how; and why people want to pathologize the experiences that make us human, is available now in print, ebook, and audiobook formats, wherever fine books are sold (or loaned, shoutout to libraries).

All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning

"Both a grief book that doesn't read like a clinician's notes and a memoir wrapped around a bigger subject, All My Dead Cats takes grief from the taboo to the universal." — BooklistHave you suffered a...

bookshop.org

ALSO, my piece for @theflytrapmedia.com earlier this year about the continuous flood of Harry Potter fanfic that's being repackaged and sold, repeatedly landing on the NYT list.

Parry Hotter and the Six-Figure Book Deal

"Pull to publish" adult fantasy based on Dramione fanfic is funneling money to one of the world's most notorious transphobes.

theflytrapmedia.com

HAPPY FLYTRAP TUESDAY! This week, @sesmith.lol writes about the trend of special editions in the publishing industry, book influencers, and why that leaves diverse books out of the market. www.theflytrapmedia.com/a-forest-of-...

A Forest of Special Editions and Influencers

What happens when books become aesthetic objects?

theflytrapmedia.com

A Forest of Special Editions and Influencers

What happens when books become aesthetic objects?

theflytrapmedia.com