It's Ottessa, bitch

2 weeks ago | ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh

Send your writing-related questions to: [email protected]. Each week I'll pick a question at random and answer it here. Dear Ottessa,Can satire still be effective when the audience doesn't know that it's satire—and does that ambiguity make it funnier or more dangerous? xoxo,Ted BundyDear Ted,First of all, thank you for the question. It reminds me of an interview you gave the night before you were executed. One might see your performance as a satire, but I’m not sure that was your intention.

3 weeks ago | ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh

“Apparently half the population was working for the secret service and the secret service was just like any other secret service: one word and you would disappear. I think my father was very lucky to be declared a lunatic. Whatever he said it was just like, look who’s talking, the man is nuts. There was just no reasoning with him.”In 2011, I interviewed a random woman about her past. Then I edited her answers into a monologue, as if she had written her own history.

3 weeks ago | ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh

At some point one spring, I quit school and decided to open a punk bar with Xu Liang and my boyfriend. Bands from all over China came to play at the bar in those first few months and word spread about it very quickly. It felt like an important thing was happening. I drank a lot and learned how not to take things personally. It was over one hundred and ten degrees every day this one summer. I had moved into my boyfriend’s apartment which was down the road from the bar.

4 weeks ago | ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh

Hi!Every month I invite paid subscribers to a live chat about writing fiction and other stuff. (People ask me questions and I answer them. So far it’s been fun and even kind of heart-warming.) So, today I’m unlocking the transcript from the very first live chat. *I’m just kidding about knowing how to write a New York Times bestseller—I just wanted you to click on this post.

1 month ago | ottessathisottessathat.substack.com | Ottessa Moshfegh

Hello,Reminder to join us tomorrow at noon PST/3 pm EST for a chat. My face is broken this week, so it’ll be ye olde chat room Q and A. And next, as promised…Here’s another composition notebook from my high school days. I graduated in May 1998.