Pathological Relations: Lucy Weisner
Questions on reading
Lucy Weisner (@lulunot4uround2) is co-founder of the store Café Forgot (@cafe_forgot) and pursues interdisciplinary research across film and art history. Her recent essay, “I Know It When I Hear It: Ekphrasis and Audio Description Pornography,” was published by University of California Press in Afterimage’s September 2024 issue. Lucy holds an MA in cinema studies from New York University.
The last thing you finished reading
I just read an incredible book called Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, by the literary scholar Robert Pogue Harrison. He also has a podcast called Entitled Opinions that I’ve been listening to for some years. On the podcast he interviews academics on various (mostly historical) humanities topics and intermittently does monologues. I felt it was time I read one of his books. Forests is a literary history of forests in the western canon. I might describe the methodology as Nietzschean in the Birth of Tragedy sense because of its periodization.
Anyways, I was enamored with the book and decided to read it very slowly so that I could savor it—a couple pages a day for a couple months. I think I started it in December and finished only a couple weeks ago.
The last thing you abandoned reading
I started reading this book called That Bowling Alley on the Tiber: Tales of a Director. It’s a compilation of short stories by the filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni. He’s one of my favorites. But for some reason I only read the intro and first short story. It’s fascinating to glimpse how his brain works, from where his films emerge. BUT, I have trouble following through with fiction. I seem to always abandon it. I’m sure I’ll pick this book up again though.
Next on your list
Right now I’m really into the 19th century. I’m interested in reading more by Nietzsche, Kant, Schopenhauer, LOL. I’m also researching medieval and Renaissance portable shrines so reading various articles on that topic.
Something on your list but you never begin
I just moved apartments and all of these books I’ve been meaning to read are in boxes packed up so there’s a bunch on my list that, sadly, I can’t access. Hopefully soon.
Something in which you have no interest
Any sort of pop contemporary fiction. I’m happy for people that enjoy that but I truly couldn’t care less LOL. I do have a penchant for clickbait articles so I’m not trying to sound pretentious but I’m not interested in reading a book on that shit.
Worst thing you’ve read cover to cover
Probably The Clique or something I read in middle school. Do you remember those books? I kinda love them but they are kinda trashy.
Something you reread
A couple years ago I decided to read the entirety of Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. I had read parts here and there but never the whole thing. It was great but incredibly dense. I now find myself returning to different chapters. Most recently I reread one on Benjamin Disraeli in the antisemitism section.
Conditions in which you read best
I really love to read in the morning. My favorite morning routine is to get up, make coffee and get back into bed with a book. I keep my phone on sleep mode.
Conditions in which you read most often
I’m pretty consistent and routined. I read more when in school.
Conditions in which you cannot read
If it’s noisy or there’s things happening around me. I need something as close as possible to a library. I can’t really read books in distracting places.
A favourite author
Can’t really choose, but I think Isaac Bashevis Singer is an amazing writer. I CAN actually read his fiction.
A favourite genre, form, theme
My favorite genres are history and philosophy. I love a biography too. I don’t really like anything that’s “too” contemporary. I also love poetry.
A favourite nostalgia read
Crime and Punishment, LOL. That book meant so much to me in high school and I love it.
Something that turns you off in a text
When writing is excessively jargon-y or sentences are muddled. I like writing that’s really clear, maybe even a bit didactic. That said, Derrida can be fun from time to time.
Do you annotate
Yes. I can’t read without annotating.
Do your books tend toward any condition
They are definitely somewhere in the middle, dog-eared and annotated but never destroyed.
Do you have any books that are prized possessions
I have pages from a medieval manuscript. I can’t decipher the text but the pages are beautiful.
A text that surprised you
I was surprised by this biography called Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life. Not a topic I gravitate towards but found it fascinating.
A text that disappointed you
Females by Andrea Long Chu. Interesting but lacking depth IMHO.
A text that altered you somehow
Most recently, Origins of Totalitarianism.
Open up a text and copy a line at random
“In the design of pavements / in the cracks of barracks / in the seclusion of gymnasiums / a disease is glowing…”
Thanks for playing:
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