Elizabeth Wurtzel (prozac nation) is dead at 52.

[Anonymous]

I did not love her writing, but I still feel sad about her death. She certainly opened the door to a whole new genre, which is still going strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

It's fine that you don't remember the book or that the topic didn't interest you. But you don't have to denigrate it as a "white woman thing." Think about what you are doing. Is anything that simply didn't cross your radar written off now as a petty bourgeois exercise in racism? Croatia? Must have been a white woman thing.

+1000
I’m almost 52, white, and hadn’t heard of her. Please stop dividing EVERYTHING up along racial lines.

In this context, it’s racial and cultural. That’s not a bad thing. It just is. Jesus.

Or it's just something some people are into and others not. I'm white, 39, and was in Wurtzel's law school class. Had civ pro with her actually. I never heard of her or her book until a classmate told me she was famous. I tried to read it and could not. Word vomit combined with really poor choices. She was a train wreck. I'm sorry she's dead and she had a tough life, but her later in life choices were her own. And yes, everyone knew she was not interested in practicing law, which to be fair was not particularly unusual at YLS. I know lots of other classmates who no longer practice law. Including a fair number who never did, and a few who never took or passed the bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

Yep. Just you.

Are you black? Seriously? I do not remember this phenomena. I vaguely remember the book but I don’t remember it being such a big deal.

Well, I'm a well-educated 50 yo white woman who never read this book or heard of her. I'm sorry for her death and her family and friends. Maybe I'm just not into navel-gazing stuff.

40s white woman, love memoirs and was a reasonably self-destructive young adult. I was aware of this book but never read it or saw the movie. It was not appealing in the same way that Eat, Pray, Love is not appealing to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

Yep. Just you.

Are you black? Seriously? I do not remember this phenomena. I vaguely remember the book but I don’t remember it being such a big deal.

Well, I'm a well-educated 50 yo white woman who never read this book or heard of her. I'm sorry for her death and her family and friends. Maybe I'm just not into navel-gazing stuff.

40s white woman, love memoirs and was a reasonably self-destructive young adult. I was aware of this book but never read it or saw the movie. It was not appealing in the same way that Eat, Pray, Love is not appealing to me.

I am 51 and never read her book or saw movies based on her life. I was peripherally aware of her name, because it was linked with wealth, NYC and heavy drug use. Not my scene at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the PP who went to law school with her. To be clear, Elizabeth was never particularly interested in studying the law (she got a 152 or something like that on the LSAT) - but no one at my school doubted she was extremely talented. And she wasn’t a vanity hire - David Boies was a fan of hers, from what I heard. That said, she was never going to be a partner at BSF or any other big law firm. My classmates are all very sad, she was an incredibly charismatic and magnetic figure.

That’s what a “vanity hire” at a law firm is so glad you could clear it up.

Lol whatever. That’s not a vanity hire at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the PP who went to law school with her. To be clear, Elizabeth was never particularly interested in studying the law (she got a 152 or something like that on the LSAT) - but no one at my school doubted she was extremely talented. And she wasn’t a vanity hire - David Boies was a fan of hers, from what I heard. That said, she was never going to be a partner at BSF or any other big law firm. My classmates are all very sad, she was an incredibly charismatic and magnetic figure.

That’s what a “vanity hire” at a law firm is so glad you could clear it up.

Lol whatever. That’s not a vanity hire at all.

So she was hired for her legal talent to bill on cases? No, she wasn’t. She also wasn’t hired for her ability to bring in clients. Pure vanity hire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

It's fine that you don't remember the book or that the topic didn't interest you. But you don't have to denigrate it as a "white woman thing." Think about what you are doing. Is anything that simply didn't cross your radar written off now as a petty bourgeois exercise in racism? Croatia? Must have been a white woman thing.

Oh my God. Get over yourself. You are projecting. No one is denigrating anything. There are definitely cultural differences. There are definitely some things that are white women things. If you don’t know that then you have not been paying attention for a very long time. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. I am sure that I can mention some things that are very prominent in the black women’s community that you would have no clue about. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. Clearly, the book may or may not have been interesting to me. I just didn’t realize that it was such a big deal. You are the epitome of being too PC. Some things have nothing to do with racism. There are cultural differences between black people and white people. For instance, have you ever been to a black Thanksgiving? It’s very different.

So your interpretation of my post is that I was insisting there is no such thing, ever, as a WWT because I believe PP was being dismissive? Good grief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

It's fine that you don't remember the book or that the topic didn't interest you. But you don't have to denigrate it as a "white woman thing." Think about what you are doing. Is anything that simply didn't cross your radar written off now as a petty bourgeois exercise in racism? Croatia? Must have been a white woman thing.

Oh my God. Get over yourself. You are projecting. No one is denigrating anything. There are definitely cultural differences. There are definitely some things that are white women things. If you don’t know that then you have not been paying attention for a very long time. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. I am sure that I can mention some things that are very prominent in the black women’s community that you would have no clue about. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. Clearly, the book may or may not have been interesting to me. I just didn’t realize that it was such a big deal. You are the epitome of being too PC. Some things have nothing to do with racism. There are cultural differences between black people and white people. For instance, have you ever been to a black Thanksgiving? It’s very different.

So your interpretation of my post is that I was insisting there is no such thing, ever, as a WWT because I believe PP was being dismissive? Good grief.

Did you read your post again? Your post said that I denigrated it to a white woman thing. I did no such thing. I was just curious. I’m still waiting for another black woman to respond to let me know if it was just me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the PP who went to law school with her. To be clear, Elizabeth was never particularly interested in studying the law (she got a 152 or something like that on the LSAT) - but no one at my school doubted she was extremely talented. And she wasn’t a vanity hire - David Boies was a fan of hers, from what I heard. That said, she was never going to be a partner at BSF or any other big law firm. My classmates are all very sad, she was an incredibly charismatic and magnetic figure.

That’s what a “vanity hire” at a law firm is so glad you could clear it up.

Lol whatever. That’s not a vanity hire at all.

So she was hired for her legal talent to bill on cases? No, she wasn’t. She also wasn’t hired for her ability to bring in clients. Pure vanity hire.

She was hired at least in part because she went to YLS. Most, if not all, of my classmates got biglaw associate job offers. She had the added name value to go along with it, but that doesn’t make her a vanity hire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

It's fine that you don't remember the book or that the topic didn't interest you. But you don't have to denigrate it as a "white woman thing." Think about what you are doing. Is anything that simply didn't cross your radar written off now as a petty bourgeois exercise in racism? Croatia? Must have been a white woman thing.

Oh my God. Get over yourself. You are projecting. No one is denigrating anything. There are definitely cultural differences. There are definitely some things that are white women things. If you don’t know that then you have not been paying attention for a very long time. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. I am sure that I can mention some things that are very prominent in the black women’s community that you would have no clue about. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. Clearly, the book may or may not have been interesting to me. I just didn’t realize that it was such a big deal. You are the epitome of being too PC. Some things have nothing to do with racism. There are cultural differences between black people and white people. For instance, have you ever been to a black Thanksgiving? It’s very different.

So your interpretation of my post is that I was insisting there is no such thing, ever, as a WWT because I believe PP was being dismissive? Good grief.

Did you read your post again? Your post said that I denigrated it to a white woman thing. I did no such thing. I was just curious. I’m still waiting for another black woman to respond to let me know if it was just me.

You mean the part where you said must have been a white woman thing? Did I misread?

[Anonymous]

Her first book made a lot of “literary” waves (both by being loved and hated), and paved the way for similar memoirs, including many by black women (Roxane Gay is a clear descendant). People of any race who are into that world would have been aware of it, but if you’re not big into navel-gazing literary controversies it easily could have passed you by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her first book made a lot of “literary” waves (both by being loved and hated), and paved the way for similar memoirs, including many by black women (Roxane Gay is a clear descendant). People of any race who are into that world would have been aware of it, but if you’re not big into navel-gazing literary controversies it easily could have passed you by.

She also helped put mental illness out there for discussion and worked towards trying to de-stigmatize it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

It's fine that you don't remember the book or that the topic didn't interest you. But you don't have to denigrate it as a "white woman thing." Think about what you are doing. Is anything that simply didn't cross your radar written off now as a petty bourgeois exercise in racism? Croatia? Must have been a white woman thing.

Oh my God. Get over yourself. You are projecting. No one is denigrating anything. There are definitely cultural differences. There are definitely some things that are white women things. If you don’t know that then you have not been paying attention for a very long time. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. I am sure that I can mention some things that are very prominent in the black women’s community that you would have no clue about. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. Clearly, the book may or may not have been interesting to me. I just didn’t realize that it was such a big deal. You are the epitome of being too PC. Some things have nothing to do with racism. There are cultural differences between black people and white people. For instance, have you ever been to a black Thanksgiving? It’s very different.

NP here. Why come on a thread and say “must have been a white woman thing”? Why turn a RIP thread into something else? It’s kind of rude....someone just lost a battle w/ cancer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This must have been a white woman thing. I'm 50 and Black and I do not remember this book. Is it just me?

It's fine that you don't remember the book or that the topic didn't interest you. But you don't have to denigrate it as a "white woman thing." Think about what you are doing. Is anything that simply didn't cross your radar written off now as a petty bourgeois exercise in racism? Croatia? Must have been a white woman thing.

Oh my God. Get over yourself. You are projecting. No one is denigrating anything. There are definitely cultural differences. There are definitely some things that are white women things. If you don’t know that then you have not been paying attention for a very long time. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. I am sure that I can mention some things that are very prominent in the black women’s community that you would have no clue about. That’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing. Clearly, the book may or may not have been interesting to me. I just didn’t realize that it was such a big deal. You are the epitome of being too PC. Some things have nothing to do with racism. There are cultural differences between black people and white people. For instance, have you ever been to a black Thanksgiving? It’s very different.

NP here. Why come on a thread and say “must have been a white woman thing”? Why turn a RIP thread into something else? It’s kind of rude....someone just lost a battle w/ cancer.

It is rude, but people love to post "Who?" on Entertainment forum threads. No clue why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her first book made a lot of “literary” waves (both by being loved and hated), and paved the way for similar memoirs, including many by black women (Roxane Gay is a clear descendant). People of any race who are into that world would have been aware of it, but if you’re not big into navel-gazing literary controversies it easily could have passed you by.

I think what triggered me was that the reviews suggested that she had such an impact on Gen X. I went to a women’s college and so that’s why I was really curious as a black woman. This is been so intriguing to me that I called a girlfriend who is also black. She had the same reaction that I did. I told her I was calling her because she was black and went to Harvard so maybe she had a different perspective. She didn’t. We have the same perspective. We laughed about it.