Hello! Firstly, thank you for all your feedback after our last issue. It’s SO helpful to know what you’ve been liking so we can figure out how to give you more of that. When we started this newsletter almost eight (!!) months ago, we wanted to create a space for our ideas to stretch out, to mull and pore over things without feeling beholden to the trend cycle. And it seems like that’s what you have really responded to.
In order to do more of that, and to give ourselves space and time to do it better, we’re changing it up a little. Hot-take culture is seductive, and we’ve found ourselves veering towards its vortex… so we’ve decided to double down on slowing down.
Starting from next week, we’ll be splitting the two sections of our newsletter — the Muses and the Musings — into two separate send-outs. You’ll still hear from us as frequently, just differently.
In the first newsletter of every month, we’ll share our usual Muses, as well as a taster of the Musings to come. We will introduce the idea we’re going to chat about, share some links and try to articulate how it came to take up space in our head. Then! Before launching into a discussion and scrambling for a “take” we will… (and this feels quite quirky and original!) pause. We’ll dwell, percolate, read around the topic and see where it leads us.
A fortnight later, we’ll send out the second newsletter for that month, which will include our Musings in full: an edited transcript of our discussion about our chosen topic.
We’ve decided on this format for a few reasons. First, we got the strongest response to the Musings section of The Fuse. We want to go wider and deeper, and this takes time. We want to be able to live our lives with an idea simmering in the background, and to see how the way we interact with the world — in conversations, in what we read, in what we watch — changes or influences those initial thoughts. We also hope that by sharing our initial ideas with you before we have our chat, you can engage more with it yourselves, too.
While the Muses will continue to remain free, we’ll be putting the Musings behind a paywall. Thank you to everyone who has pledged a subscription in advance before we even did this — your support means the world. To everyone else, we know that there’s a lot of content out there that’s competing for your attention and your $$. We hope you consider subscribing to the Musings, but regardless of whether you decide to, we are so grateful to you for being part of this community! And we hope you continue to enjoy the content we publish, in or out of the paywall.
Also! If you’d like to be a paying subscriber but aren’t in a financial position to be able to do so, just email or DM one of us and we’ll comp your subscription, no questions asked.
Onto the muses…
What’s inspired us this past fortnight…
Divya
Object: I’m currently writing a feature on the colonial associations of colour in fashion. How did black become synonymous with ‘chic’ and beige the signifier of taste and wealth in the Western world? The theorist David Batchelor writes that the West has long associated colour with the ‘uncivilised’ and emotional, whereas blacks and muted shades are logical, serious and ‘proper’. “It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that, in the West, since Antiquity, colour has been systematically marginalized, reviled, diminished and degraded,” he writes. “...As with all prejudices, its manifest form, its loathing, masks a fear: a fear of contamination and corruption by something that is unknown or appears unknowable.” Obviously, this makes me want to only wear more colour. A pop of red, some bratty green. On that note: how cute are these SandraAlexandra necklaces? And anything Vic Montanari wears?
Taste: It must reflect the state of the economy that tinned fish and beans are some of the most trendy ingredients right now, but as an ardent fan of both, I’m not complaining. Have you seen ‘dense bean salads’ all over TikTok? They’re exactly what you think! This is the best one I’ve tried so far.
Experience: I’ve recently revisited Ann Patchett, one of my all-time favourite novelists. She writes without self-consciousness, without trying to do anything other than tell a really good story. Re-reading State of Wonder brought back the joy of sinking into a book without feeling the author pulling strings and manufacturing metaphors and lining up plots. Of course, they still are, but the artifice is gone, for a moment. It was the perfect palate cleanser after Miranda July’s All Fours, which I know everyone raved about but I found insufferable! (I did however love that the Guardian called it an example of “hot-flush noir” lol.)
Diana
Object: I recently signed up to a print magazine. It’s called The Fence but I would just like to defend having print magazines (any magazine!) turn up at your door. They’re such lovely objects to have around the home, they make me feel oddly grounded and important (like, I must really live at this address) and, if you’re after some brain-rot of an evening, a magazine promises to be so much more varied and exploratory than old-fashioned screentime.
Taste: I’ve been an Alison Roman fan for ages (haven’t we all) but this Buttered Turmeric Rice is my absolute go-to. I had it for the first time at a friend’s place, I’ve served it for countless friends… it is just the perfect dish to add to any big spread. Much like the perfect host: she’s charming, effortless, and a little bit cheeky. Although, the linked website recommends 6 tablespoons of butter which is, dare I say, too cheeky. I find more than 3 starts to overwhelm the other flavours.
Experience: I just have to get off my chest that a book I found insufferable, which everybody else raved about, was Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Wow, that left me cold. Like, colder than a winter plunge in the eponymous Tom Lake. Honestly regret finishing it. I will have to get some other Ann Patchett recs from Divya to salvage her for me. (Note from Divya: Tom Lake is actually the only Ann Patchett book I haven’t liked!! There’s hope for you yet.)
This one is for London-based readers. One of my favourite plays I’ve ever seen, The Flea, is having a second run at The Yard (v small indie theater in Hackney Wick) and I, for one, will be seeing it a second time. It’s smart, funny, nuanced historical fiction and so well-acted in a very intimate space. I laughed and cried and cried and cried.
What’s on our minds and what we’ll be discussing next newsletter…
We’re thinking about modern friendship. ‘Strong female friendship’ has become a cultural trope over the last few years, almost to the point of becoming a cliche — particularly in the case of, let’s say, a main character choosing to prioritise platonic love over romantic love. Many books have been published with this coda as the clincher (Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love is probably the most popular). The Cut, which we would consider a relatively gender agnostic publication, recently dedicated a week to stories about friendship, and almost all of them were about women: ‘Will your friendship survive the bridesmaid test?’ and ‘Why are friendship breakups so brutal?’.
So what is so tricky about friendship right now? Is it because social media has made friendship feel harder and less organic? Is it our age? Is it really that gendered?!? Are women ‘better’ at friendship, or do they just like to talk about it more? Is it even still radical to prioritise friendship over romantic love?
And does any of this — community, gender roles, cues taken from pop-culture — even have that much to do with modern friendship, or are all of these struggles timeless?? We’ll be talking about all of this in two weeks! Join us then.
Super excited for this new direction but I have to say, I never feel you guys have been overdoing hot takes on the topics you explore. I think what helps is it’s a discussion between two people, not just a solo essay. I’ve started to get turned off from video essays on YT (and even some on Substack) because they feel very clickbait-y. Thanks as always for a great round of recs 💞
Highly recommend listening to Ann Patchett + Meg Mason on the Sydney Writers Festival podcast - it's a joyous conversation where Ann admits to thinking about 'Tome Lake' for three years before she started writing it x