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Anytime Chris and I need a laugh, we read this. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/t-magazine/natalie-portman-jonathan-safran-foer-emails.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/1...
Their 15 years of emails were "mysteriously lost." This is the premise. Like we& #39;re supposed to believe that Jonathon Safron Foer (objectively annoying writer) and Natalie Portman had been exchanging fabulous and intellectual emails for years.
Then they & #39;start anew& #39; for this NYT Profile. There are a lot of introductions. And talk of Foer& #39;s guinea pigs. And a lot of pictures of Portman in a bikini and oddly named sweaters ("The Elder Statesman") throughout. Ah, la vie boheme!
We learn about the trials of acting - and also that England is like some dark circle of the world where Portman must live without sun and work through the night - "I’m night shooting. It’s 3:30 in the morning and the sun rises at 4:50 here in England — when it rises at all."
We learn Foer defines "profiles" as stalker-like experiences - " it became clear we weren’t going to be in the same place for long enough to allow for a traditional profile — me observing you at the farmer’s market, etc."
Foer spends A LOT of time talking about garbage days and recycling days and then asks Portman (somewhat suggestively if you ask me) - "what has cleared your Wonder Line in the past couple of weeks?"
What is wrong with Foer and his creepy prompts: "Are there places where you feel a “something else”?& #39;
We learn of a fun nickname Portman has: "An ex-boyfriend of mine used to call me “Moscow,” because he said I was always looking out the window sadly, like “Moscow,” like some Russian novel or Chekhov play. "
Post Anna Karenina revelation, Portman actually has beautiful insights into language and the Jewish diaspora: " earth (adama), man (adam), blood (dam), red (adom), silence (doomia). Etymology might seem dry, but the connections between words feel to me like the connectedness"
Here& #39;s a poem by Foer: "Not even Shabbat can stop the clock — two have moved from the future to the past in the course of our having this exchange — but every now and then the broken-down time machine that is Hotmail can cough itself back to life. "
The exchange ends with Foer MIRACULOUSLY finding the very first email of their exchange, back in 2002. What are the odds? Anyway. I& #39;ll let Natalie close out this thread: "It is our engagement in the process, our helping the creation of the piece, that makes us feel the story."
