Wednesday, June 1, 2022 — 3 
 
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘Conversations with Friends’ 
isn’t the new ‘Normal People’ 
and that’s okay

Heralded as the “voice of a 
generation,” critically renowned 
for 
her 
uncanny 
knack 
for 
capturing the zeitgeist of millennial 
malaise and certainly well-loved 
by the writers at this publication, 
Sally Rooney has quite rapidly 
become a household name. In 
what the internet affectionately 
refers to as the “Sally Rooney 
Cinematic 
Universe,” 
Rooney’s 
various creative endeavors include 
collaborations 
with 
everyone 
from Phoebe Bridgers to Phoebe 
Waller-Bridge (and no, they’re 
not the same person). The TV 
adaptation of Rooney’s debut novel 
“Conversations 
with 
Friends” 
is simply the latest addition to 
her already substantial imprint 
on contemporary literature and 
greater popular culture. 
“Conversations with Friends” 
follows two university students 
— Frances (Alison Oliver, debut) 
and Bobbi (Sasha Lane, “American 
Honey”) — and a married couple — 
Melissa (Jemima Kirke, “Girls”) and 
Nick (Joe Alwyn, “The Favourite”) 
— as they navigate the relationships 

developing between the four of 
them through discussions of love, 
art, theory and politics. 
While the success of Hulu’s 
adaptation of “Normal People” 
set the bar high for bringing 
Rooney’s source material to life, 
this second television venture 
remains aesthetically on par with 
its predecessor. The soundtrack 
effectively mirrors the romantic, 
melancholic and self-deprecating 
mood of Frances, floating through 
varying degrees of aloofness with 
tracks 
like 
Phoebe 
Bridgers’s 
“Sidelines” or CMAT’s “I Don’t 
Really 
Care 
for 
You.” 
The 
production design of Nick and 
Melissa’s house acts as a window 
into the character dynamics at play, 
as age and class differences bleed 
into Frances’s perception of it; the 
warmth it holds early on as the site 
of her affair with Nick juxtaposed 
to the later coolness of her fraught 
relationship with Melissa. At a 
granular level, the show’s energy 
feels authentic to the environment 
Rooney crafts on the page and 
makes the viewing experience akin 
to that of living inside of a Rooney 
novel. 

SERENA IRANI 
Daily Arts Writer

U-M’s 2022 creative writing thesis writers — the 
collections

Every 
Creative 
Writing 
and 
Literature major in U-M’s Residential 
College has the option to write a 
thesis over the course of their senior 
year, working with a faculty advisor 
to produce a polished body of work. 
These theses can take the form of 
novels, novellas, collections of poetry, 
short stories or essays. The 2021–2022 
school year saw 11 students take on 
the challenge. We’ve heard from the 
novelists and poets; last up, the short 
story and essay writers.
Grace Andreasen, “Endangered 
Species”
Grace Andreasen always knew what 
her short story collection was going to 
be about. In an interview with The 
Michigan Daily, she said, “I always 
knew the title of it. That was one of the 
first things I came up with. I applied 
for the honors thesis, and then I got the 
email a few weeks later saying I’d been 
accepted, and the first thing I had in 
my mind was the title of it.” That title, 
“Endangered Species,” is a reference to 
her subject matter: “young women and 
women navigating the world.”
Her interest in portraying these 
“difficult women … who aren’t doing 
so well in life, maybe, and have a lot 
of different sides of them and deal 

with the stickier situations in life” was 
sparked by a gift she received when 
she graduated high school: a collection 
of short stories called “Difficult 
Women” by Roxanne Gay. She wanted 
to similarly create a collection by 
women, about women and for women 
— something that portrays women’s 
full humanity and doesn’t shy away 
from all the good, bad and messy 
in-betweens that accompany life. But 
she also thinks that “anyone can read 

it and get something out of it,” which is 
the “beauty of fiction: anyone can find 
something.”
In 
pursuing 
this 
ambition, 
Andreasen 
also 
pointed 
to 
her 

“ultimate inspiration,” Toni Morrison, 
who is her “favorite author of all time.” 
Reading Toni Morrison’s “Sula” in 
high school was the first time she 
read something and thought, “‘Oh my 
god, this is so amazing that a human 
being can write like this and can make 
these beautiful sentences and weave 
this story.’” She has since read many 
of Morrison’s other books and gushed 
that “every sentence is just the best 
sentence you’ve ever read, and it’s just 

so well done.” She came out of all this 
reading thinking, “‘I’m going to do 
that.’”

BRENNA GOSS
Daily Arts Writer

Design by Jennie Vang

Kendrick Lamar looks inward on ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’

Kendrick 
Lamar 
has 
been 
the king of emotionally fraught 
storytelling for almost a decade 
now. 
Across 
his 
unmatched 
discography, the Compton rapper 
has masterfully fused diaristic 
tales of his upbringing with sharp 
social commentary. Five years after 
his Pulitzer-winning fourth studio 
album, DAMN., Lamar returns 
with Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, 
a sprawling and vulnerable project 
proving the rapper still has plenty 
of personal layers to reveal.
Instrumentals have never been 
a weakness for Lamar, but they’ve 
never been an obvious strength for 
him either, often overshadowed by 
his otherworldly lyrical abilities. 
While Lamar’s rapping is still the 
main attraction on Mr. Morale, his 
instrumentals 
provide 
nuanced 
emotional backdrops for his lyrics, 
which ties the project together in 

a stunning way. From the album’s 
first track, “United in Grief,” 
Lamar’s 
instrumental 
evolution 
is immediately obvious: The song 
begins with short, ominous piano 
chords that grow into a smooth, 
jazzy texture before immediately 
being replaced by a frenetic drum 
break. Later in the album, on “Auntie 
Diaries,” Lamar describes his path 
to accepting the gender identities 
of two transgender relatives with a 
powerful instrumental that grows 
from a glitchy, lo-fi beat to a glorious 
orchestral 
chord 
progression. 
Yet, Lamar’s message of personal 
growth is undercut by his repeated 
use 
of 
homophobic 
slurs 
and 
misgendering of his uncle and 
cousin. These charged lyrics have 
caused some serious contention 
amongst fans and raise the question 
of whether true allyship can result 
from such heavy-handed language. 
What serves as Mr. Morale’s 
guiding star is Lamar’s forthright 
discussions 
of 
personal 
relationships 
and 
history 
of 

family trauma. The rapper has 
been remarkably private about his 
personal life since entering the 
public eye, making this in-depth 
exploration 
of 
romantic 
and 
familial hardships almost a novelty. 
We hear from Lamar’s fiancée and 
the mother of his two children, 
Whitney Alford, on the track 
“Father Time,” as she declares, 
“You really need some therapy,” to 
which Lamar defensively replies 
that he doesn’t “need no therapy, 
fuck you talkin’ about?” Across 
the album, he admits his infidelity 
towards Alford, tracing the roots 
of this behavior back to an unstable 
relationship with his father and 
subsequent indulgence in sex to 
cope. Lamar speaks through these 
moments with unabashed candor, 
revealing the therapy session-like 
narrative structure of Mr. Morale. 
As 
the 
album 
nears 
its 
midpoint, Lamar begins to express 
vulnerabilities far deeper than 
his 
disconnect 
from 
modern 
pop culture. The song “We Cry 

Together” depicts a fiery domestic 
argument between Lamar and a 
woman, portrayed in the song by 
actress Taylour Paige. Above a 
dissonant piano line, the argument 
devolves into the woman blaming 
Lamar, and all men, for electing 

Donald Trump in 2016, and Lamar 
accusing all women of being fake 

feminists without real virtues. It’s a 
difficult listen due to the emotional 
weight behind the words of Paige 
and Lamar, but it’s also peak 
storytelling from Lamar, rivaling 
the powerful narrative of 2012’s 
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.

NORA LEWIS & JACK MOESER
Daily Arts Writers

Design by Abby Schreck

Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com

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