Milking Your Sister At Target! Social Media Takeovers! Black Joy!
Dear Pulpettes,
Have you ever read Ross Gay’s “Book of Delights”?
If you have not, let me take a minute. If you have, please revel with me in what an incredibly revolutionary book it is. Gay, who is a modern ecstatic poet driven by the pursuit of joy, conceived of “Book of Delights” when, on his 42nd birthday, he decided to try to write a mini essay everyday for one year about something that delighted him. He wrote:
“It didn’t take me long to learn that the discipline or practice of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the development of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study.”
This book, which delights in everything from bee-covered flowers to the body to the intimacy between strangers, is honestly one of the most joyful texts I have ever had the pleasure — true pleasure, in this day and age! — of reading.
Which got me thinking — why is it that the daily practice of pursuing delight, of noting it, must be such a practice? And why does it feel so extraordinary in times like these?
It is informed, I believe, by Gay’s Blackness, definitely, for we don’t see many media representations of Black Joy and Delight. In addition to that, pre-pandemic our world was a fast fast fast one. Who had time, between hustles, to really think about the truly pleasurable?
Now that we are home, now that the tree branches of our bodies and hearts are reaching towards whatever light is available to us, there is more space for the pursuit of absolute joy.
Take it in. Hold it in your body. Write it down. And tell us about it.
So much love & delight for you.
July (+ Katie)
Our Social Media Is Where It’s AT
Want to know what delights we’re pursuing? We have a new Social Media Director, Rossella Laeng, who is helping us get the PULP community amped and involved. Nearly every day, a member of our greater community takes over our Instagram and shows us their lives — their loves, their skills, their pets, the contents of their hearts. Follow us to see our daily joys — and contact us if you want to do a takeover.
Quick & Dirty: That Time I Milked My Sister In A Target Bathroom, by Miranda
“It’s winter 2015. Beth and I run out to Target while her husband stays home with their two-month-old baby, Rose.
We’re browsing the baby aisle when Beth begins grabbing her breasts and cringing, complaining that she’s in pain from too much milk. My sister has never been one to hide her bodily functions from the world.”
The Ambiguous Smile, by Sevindj Nurkiyazova
“For the rest of the evening, I kept wondering what has prompted him to believe that I might want to have sex with him.
Only one possible explanation came into my mind. On the subway, when our eyes first met, I did what I usually do: briefly — for a split second — smiled at him before looking away.”
