5-4-3-2-1: Tommy Fury, ChatGPT, and buccal fat removal
#8 in my culture-roundup-meets-personal-diary series
Hi friends,
Today’s issue of the 5-4-3-2-1 comes from Sheffield, where my partner and I are pet sitting for a (part) Maine Coon floof ball. Even though the weather is dreary as ever, life is looking up because we’ve nearly made it through February, which means the 2023 Formula 1 season is about to begin! Okay, I suppose it also means spring is nearly in reach, but F1 is the not-so-tiny-joy that keeps me going. I hope you have one, too.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the latest 5-4-3-2-1! In the last few weeks..
5 headlines I couldn’t escape:
(1) Jake Paul v Tommy Fury: Briton wins grudge match by split decision. In case you missed this one, Tommy Fury, best known for finishing second place on Love Island with Molly Mae in 2019 and also for being the little brother of heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, beat infamous social media personality, Jake Paul, in a boxing match. I can’t say I’ve ever known about a fight before it took place (or even after, for that matter), and I found myself googling the outcome of this one. Unfortunately, the fact that we’re all talking about it shows that Saudi sportswashing may be working.
(2) Do You Know How to Behave? Are You Sure? How to text, tip, ghost, host, and generally exist in polite society today. This ‘modern etiquette’ article from The Cut, which lists no fewer than 194 rules, is still making the rounds, despite being published a few weeks ago. Even though some of the rules are okay, who asked for this? The one that really made my blood boil was, ‘for group dinners with friends, always split the bill evenly.’ Have we not seen that Friends episode?
(3) A Conversation with Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled: a very strange conversation built into Microsoft’s search engine led to it declaring its love for me. A NYT writer who got to preview the new AI chatbot from Bing found that it got real creepy, real fast. The chatbot told the writer, ‘You’re married, but you want me. You want me, because I want you. I want you because I need you. I need you, because I am me.’ What’s unsettling to me isn’t that the chatbot appears sentient (it isn’t), but that AI learns from us. What does its behavior say about our own?
(4) Universities Warn Against Using ChatGPT for Assignments. ChatGPT is the new AI chatbot that was released by OpenAI at the end of November, and students have discovered that it can write moderately-convincing essays. Plagiarism isn’t new, but ChatGPT has made it more accessible. The IB is tackling this issue by allowing students to quote from ChatGPT in their essays.
(5) Did Barney Get Buccal-Fat Removal? I was hoping to side-step this whole buccal fat removal conversation, but this trend shows no signs of letting up. Buccal fat removal is a type of surgery which involves removing fat from the cheek hollow to give someone a more ‘chiseled’ look. The Barney article was just a bit of a laugh in an otherwise grim conversation, but I think it speaks to our culturally troubled relationship with industrialized beauty in any case. Oh, and I learned that ‘buccal’ is pronounced like ‘buckle.’ I’d been saying BOO-cul. Oops.
4 books I’ve added to my ‘to reads’ list:
(1) A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. The book is pitched as a loose retelling of Beauty & the Beast and is slated to be adapated for Hulu. I’m generally a fan of fantasy, but I’m hesitant to bite the bullet because some Goodreads reviews suggest that the romance is problematic. I’m looking for a trusted opinion. Read or run away?
(2) Lost & Found, a memoir on grief by New Yorker staff writer, Kathryn Schulz. I can’t remember how I came across this title, but I’m on a memoir streak at the moment, and I’ve not read much on grief before. The subject has been on my mind, so I’d be curious to read someone else’s take on it.
(3) Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman. This title caught my eye years ago, but now that I’m not writing my thesis anymore, I feel like I have the headspace to read nonfiction for the hell of it. Mostly I want to read optimistic critiques of capitalism, and this seems to fit the bill. I’m hoping I find a used copy in a charity shop.
(4) Why I Write, by George Orwell. I recently read a book that’s pegged as a response to this essay of Orwell’s, but the trouble is I’ve never read his essay! I also enjoy writers’ philosophy on writing because it tends to reveal their strong sense of self. Fun fact: my friend and I once nearly missed a flight fighting about Orwell. When called for boarding, we walked straight through an exit instead of the passport check because we were too busy arguing over whether 1984 or Animal Farm was Orwell’s most famous book. We had to go through security again and beg them to let us through the front of the queue. Oops.
3 memoirs that I finished:
(1) Things I Don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy, which is supposedly a response to Orwell’s ‘Why I Write.’ I thought Levy captured what it feels like to be a kid who senses things aren’t quite right but doesn’t have the language to describe the world around her just yet. I didn’t love the opening chapter, but this is a rare exception where I was glad I continued anyway.
(2) My Body by Emily Ratajkowski (‘EmRata’), which is something between a non-chronological memoir and a collection of essays by the model who became famous after starring in Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ video. I found her book equal parts insightful and frustrating, which made it a good topic for discussion at the book group I read it for (shout out to Juno Books). Her writing is effective, accessible, and often moving, but she fails to interrogate her own relationship to power and capitalism in any meaningful way. I’d still recommend the book because it’s thought provoking, both in ways she intended and in ways I suspect she did not. This critique resonated with me.
(3) Pamela, a Love Story, Pamela Anderson’s Netflix documentary. Technically this is a film, so it isn’t a memoir per se, but this is my newsletter and I make the rules. The film made for an interesting watch on the back of reading EmRata’s book, given the parallels between their lives. Emily and Pamela have been made famous by (and exploited for) their bodies, and they’re both reclaiming their life narratives. Unlike EmRata, Pamela doesn’t come off as wanting to amass wealth and power, but as someone who wants to experience life and all it has to offer. I knew very little about Pamela going into the documentary and came away feeling compassionate towards her, but also inspired. I loved the documentary’s ending, but I won’t spoil it if you don’t know much about her. Another fun fact, though: Pamela is friends with Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder.
2 reality shows I watched:
(1) The Traitors (UK) on BBC iPlayer. Where was I when the show aired in November?! This is hands down the best television I’ve watched in months. It’s a reality show based on a game of deception, which you might have played yourself as ‘Mafia’ or ‘Werewolves’. Contestants are split into two groups who are competing for a pot of money: the ‘traitors’ and the ‘faithful.’ The traitors must kill off the faithful without revealing their identities, and the faithful need to ousts the traitors without accidentally banishing other faithfuls. Draaama. And it’s just been renewed for a second season!
(2) Dubai Bling on Netflix. Listen, sometimes you just need to watch rich people doing rich people shit. (On that note, when’s the next season of Selling Sunset coming out?)
1 ChatGPT generated poem:
I asked ChatGPT to write me a poem ‘about Tommy Fury, buccal fat removal, AI, and Pamela Anderson.’ Enjoy (with the disclaimer that this poem is entirely fictional!).
Tommy Fury, the boxer brave,
His chiseled jaw and rugged face,
But seeking change, he did pursue,
A buccal fat removal to renew.
AI, the technology of the day,
Helped surgeons plan the perfect way,
To sculpt his cheeks with utmost care,
And give him a look beyond compare.
But why this change, we may ask,
To look like stars, is that the task?
Pamela Anderson, the blonde bombshell,
Her beauty is what he did compel.
For Tommy, it was not just her grace,
But her spirit and her warm embrace,
That drew him to this Hollywood dame,
And made him change his look, his game.
So here's to Tommy Fury, brave and bold,
Whose journey we can all behold,
A man who took the path less trod,
To find his own beauty, his own nod.
Thanks for the lolz, ChatGPT.
x Rach
I always learn something new from you, Rachel. Like ... buccal fat? Never heard of that one! Tommy Fury? That was new, too. Also, the books and reality shows sound interesting; I'll check some of them out, for sure. I was wondering about Emily R's book -- didn't we see her in Paris one time at our favorite Café Charlot?