Rachel Kushner on Style, Friendship, and Don DeLillo | Fashion Neurosis

Personal Style and Vacation Dressing

• 👖 Rachel Kushner discusses her denim shirt and silk pants, noting how vacation settings can influence clothing choices, creating a desire to assimilate while remaining distinct.
• 💡 She shares an anecdote about a French shopkeeper's comment on vacation dressing, highlighting the subtle goal of being "marginally better" than others.
• 👠 Kushner also describes her Maison Margiela heels as transcending fashion, evoking a "sexy secretary" aesthetic reminiscent of Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde.

Attention, Writing, and Self-Perception

• 🌟 Kushner reflects on being perceived as the "prettiest girl in the class" equivalent in the writing world, a position she doesn't see herself in, preferring to be adjacent to those who are.
• 🧠 She views attention as potentially unwholesome, fearing it can hinder the capacity to listen and be curious, which are crucial for a writer.
• ✍️ Attention is seen as a means to an end – enabling a career in fiction – rather than an end in itself, with a fear of becoming addicted to external validation.

Childhood, Parents, and Style Influences

• 👨‍👩‍👧 Kushner describes her parents, influenced by the Beat Generation rather than the hippies, as organized despite outward appearances of a bohemian lifestyle.
• 🧵 Due to financial constraints, her mother sewed clothes for her and her brother, using fabric from her grandfather in the textile industry.
• 📺 A Farrah Fawcett t-shirt from the county fair and white bell-bottoms purchased with paper route money were key childhood fashion items, reflecting a desire to assimilate.

Friendship, Email, and Connection

• 💌 Kushner and Bella Freud discuss their friendship, which began through email after Freud reached out upon reading Kushner's essays.
• 🤝 Kushner values Freud's curiosity and affirmative communication style, seeing her as an inspiration for how to connect with others through writing.
• ✉️ The slow, deliberate nature of their email correspondence is likened to a "19th-century type of correspondence," fostering a deep connection.

Intelligence, Fashion, and Creativity

• 🤔 Kushner ponders if intelligence can hinder a "good outfit," questioning if making a concerted effort with one's look is perceived as less serious.
• 🎨 She embraces the idea that "more is more" in fashion, challenging the notion that less is more, and discusses the boldness of putting her picture on the cover of her essay collection.
• 📚 The conversation touches on shared literary tastes, including admiration for writer Dennis Johnson.

Don DeLillo, Mentorship, and Writing Process

• ✍️ Kushner describes her relationship with Don DeLillo, whom she considers a mentor, highlighting his generosity with younger writers and his serious approach to correspondence.
• 😂 A key aspect of their relationship is making each other laugh, and DeLillo's punctuality is noted with the quote, "I can't imagine the confidence that would be required to be late."
• 🎭 Kushner feels a "father figure component" to DeLillo, noting shared sensibilities with her own father, including sideburns and an interest in jazz.

Fiction Writing and Character Creation

• 🧠 Kushner discusses the solipsistic enterprise of writing a novel, likening it to digging until hitting water that only she would recognize.
• 🎯 In her novel The Mars Room, she created a character, Sadi Smith, who instrumentalizes her body, drawing inspiration from women working in strip clubs.
• 🎭 Kushner emphasizes the difficulty of writing in the first person, requiring a deep understanding of the character to avoid mistaking them for oneself, as she is more interested in exploring other people's experiences.

Competition, Prizes, and Winning

• 🏆 Kushner shares advice on treating competitiveness as a game, finding it helpful for managing feelings of inadequacy.
• 😔 She has a deep instinct to expect nothing to avoid disappointment, though acknowledges that winning is more fun.
• 🤝 Kushner finds it better to be happy for the winner and offers a "tiny victory" by correctly predicting a winner.

Attraction, Fantasy, and Emotional Landscapes

• 💔 Kushner admits that if someone's fashion choices clash with an initial projection or fantasy, it can kill attraction.
• ⛷️ She recalls a past experience on a ski team where a ski patroller's attractiveness diminished when he changed out of his uniform into something that didn't fit the projected image.
• 🗺️ The title Creation Lake was inspired by a map of emotional states, and Kushner identifies her emotional landscape as being on the borders of love and ferocity.

Friendship, Love, and Dolly Parton

• ❤️ Kushner expresses a deep appreciation for friendship, viewing it as a symphony where different friends bring out different aspects of herself.
• ✨ She believes people have a "star quality" and that loving others and being present for them allows one to inspire them to be better.
• 🌟 Dolly Parton is admired for her self-knowing, camp style, and her ability to embody something American that is not divisive, representing beauty, intelligence, and acceptance.