Last night, in front of a packed house of Brooklynites and "cardiganed gentlemen," Miranda July and Lena Dunham met at BAM to talk shop: writing, media, drugs, sex, and shit.
More on this list later. The two friends were in conversation (or as July wrote on Twitter, "interviewing the f*ck out of me") about July’s just-published novel The First Bad Man. (A case of friends helping friends—back in October, Miranda was a guest on Lena's book tour for Not That Kind of Girl.) Part surrealist alter world, part love story, The First Bad Man focuses on two characters: an older, single woman named Cheryl, and a 20-something bombshell Clee, who moves in and takes over Cheryl’s life.
The media has largely characterized July as twee and quirky—the original indie darling—but this novel is dark, humorous, and unabashedly graphic. “The thing about my movies, is that thus far, there was always a character kind of like me,” said July, “and I’m not a fantastic actress, so I can’t play, like, a working-class British woman.” So this novel was her chance to stray from the character peg: “If you’re waiting for your soulmate, and you’re like, let him be Jewish,” she said, “You have this laundry list of things you need him to be. So for this book, it was like, let it be slightly surreal, but grounded in reality, with no characters that I can play myself.”
True, none of these characters resemble the writer, although Dunham did note that she could see Cheryl as dolled-up July, i.e. with a wig. “Just wait until you try writing a novel girlie,” July told her. “Same thing will happen to you.”
See below for five other solid takeaways from the evening.
1. You can completely misread someone, if you want to badly enough
July said she was largely inspired by woman at a 10-day silent meditation retreat. “The woman in front of me had short gray hair, and I just got so obsessed with this butch woman… I wanted her fingers, like, in me,” she said. “I didn’t know if it was mutual, because we weren’t allowed to make eye contact, so I was staring at the back of her neck a lot.” She continued, “On the last day, she walked out after changing into our normal clothes, and she was wearing a pink sweatshirt with an applique design, mom pants, and some white tennies, and she just hopped into a minivan with her husband. And I was like, heartbroken. There were so many emotions. I think that was the kernel of Cheryl: You can completely misread someone, if you want to badly enough."
2. Miranda July's life has been turned into a Portlandia sketch
“Carrie Brownstein just reminded me that I had already told this story years ago, and they had made a Portlandia episode about it,” July said. “There was a meditation retreat, and this lady… I remember I watched it, and was like, 'Oh that happened to me!' And she was like, 'Yeah we got it f
More on this list later. The two friends were in conversation (or as July wrote on Twitter, "interviewing the f*ck out of me") about July’s just-published novel The First Bad Man. (A case of friends helping friends—back in October, Miranda was a guest on Lena's book tour for Not That Kind of Girl.) Part surrealist alter world, part love story, The First Bad Man focuses on two characters: an older, single woman named Cheryl, and a 20-something bombshell Clee, who moves in and takes over Cheryl’s life.
The media has largely characterized July as twee and quirky—the original indie darling—but this novel is dark, humorous, and unabashedly graphic. “The thing about my movies, is that thus far, there was always a character kind of like me,” said July, “and I’m not a fantastic actress, so I can’t play, like, a working-class British woman.” So this novel was her chance to stray from the character peg: “If you’re waiting for your soulmate, and you’re like, let him be Jewish,” she said, “You have this laundry list of things you need him to be. So for this book, it was like, let it be slightly surreal, but grounded in reality, with no characters that I can play myself.”
True, none of these characters resemble the writer, although Dunham did note that she could see Cheryl as dolled-up July, i.e. with a wig. “Just wait until you try writing a novel girlie,” July told her. “Same thing will happen to you.”
See below for five other solid takeaways from the evening.
1. You can completely misread someone, if you want to badly enough
July said she was largely inspired by woman at a 10-day silent meditation retreat. “The woman in front of me had short gray hair, and I just got so obsessed with this butch woman… I wanted her fingers, like, in me,” she said. “I didn’t know if it was mutual, because we weren’t allowed to make eye contact, so I was staring at the back of her neck a lot.” She continued, “On the last day, she walked out after changing into our normal clothes, and she was wearing a pink sweatshirt with an applique design, mom pants, and some white tennies, and she just hopped into a minivan with her husband. And I was like, heartbroken. There were so many emotions. I think that was the kernel of Cheryl: You can completely misread someone, if you want to badly enough."
2. Miranda July's life has been turned into a Portlandia sketch
“Carrie Brownstein just reminded me that I had already told this story years ago, and they had made a Portlandia episode about it,” July said. “There was a meditation retreat, and this lady… I remember I watched it, and was like, 'Oh that happened to me!' And she was like, 'Yeah we got it f