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"Big 5 publishing will not allow nuanced male writing, which is why publishing is devoid of healthy masculine energy." What a terrible world to grow up in. That's why the Zac Smiths and Dolan Morgans abandon reality for their weird dream-worlds. Or Jordon Castro writes about going to the bathroom. They're not allowed to exist in or comment on the reality around them.

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Interesting point. I remember a similar observation about the turn of Soviet-era Russian writers (Kharms, Chukovsky) toward whimsical children’s literature.

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Damaged Women was a good read. I'll definitely have to check out Aesthetica, The Rabbit Hutch, and I Fear My Pain Interests You.

What I found really fascinating about the piece was how for the supreme avatar of the white Brooklyn tote-bag lady literature that Perez blasted in his Hobart interview, he actually points to an Asian American author, Celeste Ng, in the Mars Review piece. It makes sense, though, because imitators have to carefully and meticulously study their subjects, to the point where they can out-original the original, almost like a caricature. And no other group has model minority'ed more successfully than Asian Americans, especially elite Asian American women, in terms of becoming politically, economically, and socially indistinguishable from white people.

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Glad you liked. It's sister piece, " Burning Man," which reviews Cormac McCarthy, Bud Smith, Zac Smith, and Delicious Tacos is also excellent, though it's behind the paywall for now.

I think what you notice here is as much a consequence of the books he happened to be assigned to review as much as anything . Which isn't to say you are or aren't correct.

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Just realized Burning Man is in the same issue as Damaged Women (I bought the print issue months ago) and read it. Good read, though I found Damaged Women more interesting, personally. I've never read McCarthy, though I should. I've never read Delicious Tacos either, though he was a reader at an event I was at this summer.

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