UK Literary Luvvies

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cee-bee said:
I went to the Peckham car boot sale a couple of weeks ago and it was overrun by pretentious hipster types, 10 years ago it definitely wasn’t like that.

it was weird because there was a mix of old school Peckham locals still selling but also new hipsters who keep house of sunny in business, wear huge scrunchies unironically and think putting their pronouns in their bio is a powerful political statement.

I guess it’s just the nature of the ever evolving London landscape. 10 years ago it was bearded hipsters in shoreditch now it’s tiktok activists in Peckham and home county hunnies in Brixton :LOL:

I feel like I go through literary luvvies insta accounts with a checklist;

• a reference to Nora Ephron somewhere (honestly the hold Nora Ephron has on these girls…)
• mentioning they wear vintage at least once.
• a shot of their living room with an insane amount of books in the shelves because, they are writers guys didn’t you know?
• a big up post to a fellow writer who is an absolute cookie cutter version of them
• a love of cooking (preferably pasta) or gardening
• a fringe. My god these gals love bangs.
• captioning a picture with a fairly obscure quote
• a [week/weekend/overnight stay] of [insert whimsical activity x 3] under a picture of sunlight streaming into a room AND/OR a quirky selfie
• cute childhood photo they pretend isn’t cute with a try-hard humourous caption
• probably follows babakganjei
• live in a victorian townhouse (usually converted to a flat) in London, obviously. Walls will be white with a feature fireplace and a cocktail chair. Fireplace will be covered in brass candlesticks and potted plants.
• picture of a book being held up - in case you missed the bookcase full of books. They’re writers guys remember? They’re bookworms and love to read, and don’t you forget it!
• a shoe selfie inexplicably because.. it’s ✨artsy✨
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Haha this is SO accurate, also how do they all afford such amazing houses / flats - books surely don’t pay THAT we’ll do they?
 
Mermaid456 said:
Haha this is SO accurate, also how do they all afford such amazing houses / flats - books surely don’t pay THAT we’ll do they?
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when your parents live in Sussex and probably own a property portfolio as a nest egg, it doesn’t really matter how much a book advance is. You’ve got that backing. Statistically, your parents are probably helping with a deposit and wedding costs etc.

that’s precisely one of the reasons it’s the reserve of the upper middle classes - it doesn’t pay well and take ages to establish yourself without connections. The result? People who won’t be getting a nice deposit from Mum and dad will chose a steadier (and possibly less fulfilling) career. The choice is just too difficult and only a very brave few decide to go down the harder route and many find out they have to make huge sacrifices their better-off colleagues don’t. Sacrifices like knowing you can’t afford a stable home, can’t afford holidays, can’t afford to socialise. Can’t afford children.

it’s an extreme privilege to be able to chose whatever career you want and know that you can also have a reasonable expectation of stability as well - whether that means financial assistance from mum or dad or just knowing you’ve got a large childhood bedroom to go back to if you need it, with a spare living room so it won’t be unbearably cramped etc etc.

queenamber said:
Just missing a ✨gallery wall✨ of their vintage prints!
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with a Matisse print from desensio, naturally

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jenmarks said:
Naturally, I’m a very early riser. I haven't set an alarm for about three years.

Just duck off please. And the bit where she wangs on about her bike being so, so cool??! Oh dear.
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Her bike shop ‘is like, a collective’

duck off it’s a bleeping bike shop

Someone once said to me

‘Everything and everyone in London makes sense when you finally realise their parents are paying their rent’

CORRECT
 
soph30 said:
Birdy’s based on Dolly’s friend Farly Kleiner from the book, the sidekick to Dolly, who ‘makes everything magic” :)

I said in the old Dolly thread that Bel Powley's not like that though, she's really glam, not sure why they made her so squeaky and annoying! Do be the sidekick to Dolly/Maggie I guess..
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ive see Bel in a couple of things where she’s playing a similar type of neurotic, ditsy character.

I find her acting style supremely annoying and it’s usually the same. She did the same thing with the character of Birdy and honestly, I think it’s 50% bad writing and 50% bad acting that makes the character so insufferable

Rereading Alice Vincent’s article again because I can’t believe how unashamedly pretentious it is

the name dropping from diptyque to ottolenghi, which to me, just demonstrates her classism and snobbery in ways she isn’t maybe aware. The candles are hella expensive and trendy. ottolenghi restaurants are hella expensive and trendy. His recipes are … the kind that definitely requires a trip to Waitrose because Aldi won’t stock miso paste.

my favourite gems;

“oh we don’t eat meat…”

“I read newspapers because I’m 🆒 and ✨quirky✨ And ⭐️well-informed ⭐️“

“supermarket wine? Ew what’s that, we shop independent”

“Oh we don’t watch TV, we are much too high brow and intellectual to descend to populist TV shows like Love Island like the other plebs. We’ll watch a well regarded TV show from the 90s because… quirky”

“Oh well I was brought up in the home counties but a lot of my circle are almost identical to me and we’ve managed to gentrify the entire neighbourhood so I pretend that being within asking distance of all of them is just my being a Londoner”

she could’ve saved herself a lot of time and word count if she just typed out “im a massive but very subtle snob with no self awareness and basically a huge idiot that masks my lack of intelligence with banal, clichéd attempts at originality”
 
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cee-bee said:
ive see Bel in a couple of things where she’s playing a similar type of neurotic, ditsy character.

I find her acting style supremely annoying and it’s usually the same. She did the same thing with the character of Birdy and honestly, I think it’s 50% bad writing and 50% bad acting that makes the character so insufferable

Rereading Alice Vincent’s article again because I can’t believe how unashamedly pretentious it is

the name dropping from diptyque to ottolenghi, which to me, just demonstrates her classism and snobbery in ways she isn’t maybe aware. The candles are hella expensive and trendy. ottolenghi restaurants are hella expensive and trendy. His recipes are … the kind that definitely requires a trip to Waitrose because Aldi won’t stock miso paste.

my favourite gems;

“oh we don’t eat meat…”

“I read newspapers because I’m 🆒 and ✨quirky✨ And ⭐️well-informed ⭐️“

“supermarket wine? Ew what’s that, we shop independent”

“Oh we don’t watch TV, we are much too high brow and intellectual to descend to populist TV shows like Love Island like the other plebs. We’ll watch a well regarded TV show from the 90s because… quirky”

“Oh well I was brought up in the home counties but a lot of my circle are almost identical to me and we’ve managed to gentrify the entire neighbourhood so I pretend that being within asking distance of all of them is just my being a Londoner”

she could’ve saved herself a lot of time and word count if she just typed out “im a massive but very subtle snob with no self awareness and basically a huge idiot that masks my lack of intelligence with banal, clichéd attempts at originality”
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Everything you have written here and previous is ABSOLUTELY BANG ON I couldn’t agree more and the way you articulate it is spot on!

They are all carbon copies of another. I’m sick of the sight of veja trainers and those weird loose coats
 
notdollybutmolly said:
Everything you have written here and previous is ABSOLUTELY BANG ON I couldn’t agree more and the way you articulate it is spot on!

They are all carbon copies of another. I’m sick of the sight of veja trainers and those weird loose coats
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I had a little skim of her insta and omg it both confirmed everything I knew I would encounter but still remained mildly infuriating.

For example, she goes to Cornwall but reps a podcast that talks about the gentrification of Cornwall… with zero self awareness that she *is* part of that gentrification of Cornwall and referencing a podcast and trying to be subversive doesn’t erase that fact or absolve her of it.

these people aren’t intelligent and don’t write anything other than drivel both in their personal lives and professional and it is honestly a tragedy that they dominate and gatekeep the literary world. We should be up in arms about it really.
 
Spilttea said:
Did Jane and Fi leave the bbc during the mass exodus? I have mixed feelings about these two. There are revered (((REVERED)))) by trendy londonistas a decade or two younger than them, but I grew tired of their particular style of podcast quite quickly.
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My feelings aren't mixed - I can't stand them 😂
Fi is still on the BBC I think? That Listening Project thing. Jane left Woman's Hour by choice (again I *think*). I was pleased as she managed to make every single item about herself in the most irritating self deprecating way eg re women's football 'oh I can't run anywhere' or cooking 'oh I can burn water'. Every. Time.
Their podcast seems the same. Both trying to outdo each other with how incredibly normal and relatable they are. Just comes across as massive humblebragging in the end.
 
Spilttea said:
Did Jane and Fi leave the bbc during the mass exodus? I have mixed feelings about these two. There are revered (((REVERED)))) by trendy londonistas a decade or two younger than them, but I grew tired of their particular style of podcast quite quickly.
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Oh god, is this me? I like FI and Jane. But I have wondered if they were as annoying as Dolly and her ilk when they were younger (although in fairness they did local radio and were not so Home Counties !)
 
skyehigh said:
Oh god, is this me? I like FI and Jane. But I have wondered if they were as annoying as Dolly and her ilk when they were younger (although in fairness they did local radio and were not so Home Counties !)
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I’m imagining their beginnings were much more humble? But they have completely bought into their own hype and what remnants of humble beginnings they had (maybe) have been replaced with faux ignorance of the real world around them whilst they womble on about a bun incident in John Lewis or something equally twee and “oh look at us aren’t we a bit silly despite being super smart accomplished women.
 
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