The Monday Media Diet with Dalya Benor
On Solvej Balle, Ghost, and Insight Timer
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Dalya Benor (DB) is a writer and also puts together thepleasurelists. -Colin (CJN)
Tell us about yourself.
I’m a writer from LA, currently based in NYC. I write about art and culture, and lately have been writing lots more about design, travel, food and other aesthetically-inclined pursuits. My work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, The Art Newspaper and others. You can read more of my work here: dalyabenor.com. I also do editorial projects and copywriting for brands in the luxury and fashion space. Last year, I completed my master’s degree in Journalism from the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at NYU and try to still read and write as much as I can.
I also run a newsletter and project called The Pleasure Lists, a community-oriented prompt for notes on pleasure, inspired by a poem by Bertolt Brecht. You can follow, learn more, and submit a list at The Pleasure Lists ts.
Describe your media diet.
It’s a mix of heavy newsletter reading, both on Substack and in my email inbox, groupchats, important stories and headlines I’ll see on Instagram and then the usual news media cycle of checking the WSJ, NYT and Washington Post news apps. I try to read a book in the morning on the way to work and at night before I go to sleep. I also usually watch a movie a day on Criterion. Ask me for my recs.
What’s the last great book you read?
Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume Books 1 and 2. It was recommended to me by Mikaela Dery, a dear friend who just started a fabulous reading series called Fashion Fiction. On the Calculation of Volume is such an unexpected and engaging page-turner: it’s about a woman who wakes up on November 18th and keeps repeating the same day over and over again. Balle is a Danish writer whose spare, to-the-point prose is not at all flowery, but still stylistic and engaging. The story has momentum and the writing feels so clean, it carries you from page to page, bobbing like a raft down a lazy river.
I tend to go for realistic fiction or personal essay / memoir, so this is a nice way of bringing in an element of unreality into a setting that is otherwise very close to real life.
The Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott and Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy were two other favorites I’ll never stop talking about.
What are you reading now?
Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume Book 3. Lynne Tillman’s Motion Sickness. Susan Sontag’s On Photography. Janet Malcolm’s Forty-one False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers.
What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?
Front to back, credits included. I’m a detail freak — I’ve always loved knowing who did what and following their bylines and credits to other stories and work.
Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?
Besides the authors listed above, I’ll say Kate Braverman, Natalia Ginzburg, Virginie Despentes, Rebecca West, Colombe Schneck (a recommendation from my professor, Katie Roiphe).
What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone?
Open or Insight Timer — they both have great meditations.
Plane or train?
Trains! There’s no better way to get from the center of one city to another — without any security hassle or luggage check.
What is one place everyone should visit?
The Hunterian Museum in London. It’s a museum of surgery and one of the coolest places I’ve been to. I found it by simply stumbling into it — it goes to show that travel is best when you allow yourself to find hidden gems and not just sticking to a list of recommendations.
Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.
Oh, this is a good one, and very typical of me. I was interviewing Alexandre de Betak for The Slowdown, and while doing research, I came across an article where he said he started out doing fashion show production for the New York designer, Ghost, in the 90s. I had never heard of the brand, which I thought was strange for me. The next day, a very chic friend was wearing the most beautiful black broderie shirt and I asked her where it was from. She said it was vintage Ghost and told me it was an iconic boutique in Soho that everyone cool (and their moms) shopped at. Murphy’s Law?? I immediately went down an internet rabbit hole of Ghost, fascinated by this brand I had never heard of and NEEDED to know more about.
It turns out it was actually a London brand that became popular for their iconic slip dresses.
I…
….Listened to this podcast with the designer and founder of Ghost, Tanya Sarne
…Read this article on the history of Ghost by Lynn Yaeger in Vogue
…Looked at photos of the old NYC store on NY Mag
…Bid on as many vintage Ghost items as I could find
I still would like to hear more from first-hand Ghost-wearers, shoppers and devotees during its heyday. Drop me a line? (DB)
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