Happy Friday!
This time of year—the changing seasons, the approaching holidays—instills me with a case of what my sister calls the “I Wants.” I want a shaggy coat the color of butterscotch, and an ankle-grazing floral dress to wear under it. I want a new blender. A Moroccan rug. And so on.
I often blame social media for these desires. Everybody’s outfits—and soups!—look so smooth. And then, I beat myself up for falling into the trap of Instagram envy, beautifully captured by Sarah Nicole Prickett when it was still a new affliction. I should know better!
For the launch of Quartzy this week, I took a deep dive into the “I Wants,” starting with Instagram envy and unwinding the historical concept of luxury. It turns out Socrates saw all this coming some 2,400 years ago, when he coined the phrase “the luxurious State” (only, you know, in ancient Greek) to distinguish a society where citizens had comforts beyond the basics—sofas, incense, cakes, and beyond. The philosophers were right to predict people would want such luxuries, and great thinkers have examined (and exploited) these wants for thousands of years since. Adam Smith might well have been conjuring Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner when he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments. And Kanye was really onto something when he called Kim a modern-day Marie Antoinette.
It was reassuring to realize these desires aren’t just a condition of living in a capitalist or superficial society (at least not entirely). They’re a condition of being human. In 381 BC, personal luxuries assured citizens of the “luxurious state” that they were more than animals. In the productivity-obsessed 21st century, they might remind us that we’re more than machines. I’m going to resist that shaggy coat for the time being, but only to make more room for smaller luxuries, like Manhattans in Manhattan next week. I’m only human, after all.
Wait—did you say the launch of Quartzy this week? Yes, that’s right! Quartzy is now a new edition of Quartz’s website, available to you all day, every day.
It features stories from the Quartz reporters who often appear in this newsletter, plus a few additions to get excited about: Rosie Spinks on travel, Annaliese Griffin on food, and Noël Duan on fashion and beauty. They are based in London, Vermont, and New York City respectively. But you can find us all at quartzy.qz.com (Bookmark it!), Facebook, and Instagram.
Chanel goes to Chengdu. Chanel showed its ancient Greece-inspired Cruise 2018 collection (which debuted in Paris in May), in the Sichuan province capital of Chengdu, China this week. Our new fashion writer, Noël Duan, happens to hail from Chengdu, which makes her one of what’s known in local parlance as lamei or “spice girls”—an homage to the locals’ “beauty, fiery personalities, and, of course, ability to eat spicy foods.”
“Outside of China, Chengdu is known for its panda conservation efforts and numbingly spicy hot pot—within China, it’s considered the epicenter of modern art, hip hop, and buzzy tech startups,” writes Noël. “In 2011, UNESCO finally designated Chengdu as a ‘City of Gastronomy,’ even though Qing dynasty emperors regularly employed imperial chefs from Sichuan over 200 years ago. In other words, the people of Chengdu were known for their good taste long before they became social media influencers.”
In addition to a “mind-numbingly spicy hot pot,” she says, Chengdu also boasts “dewy mountain air.” It sounds like a nice place to visit.
One way to get there. Food writer Annaliese Griffin has never been to Sichuan province (where these chilis and Mapo tofu are pictured), but has virtually traversed the country thanks to A Bite of China, a masterpiece of state-sanctioned food porn, available with English subtitles on YouTube.
“You’ll soar over Tibetan mountains and frozen lakes, and wade into muddy water where workers harvest lotus roots,” she writes. “You’ll zoom in on a father-and-son team in Yunnan who cure nuodeng ham using salt they evaporated themselves. You’ll hover over black clay cooking vessels in which matsutake mushrooms sizzle and curl, browning in golden yak butter.”
If you’re in the US and want to escape the pressure of Thanksgiving prep, Annaliese prescribes an episode or two, to be taken with a grain of artisanally evaporated salt—it is, after all, Chinese state propaganda.
Try reading this in a deep squat. I spent much of the past week alternating between a desk chair and a chaise. So I was interested to read Rosie Spinks’ assertion that we denizens of the “luxurious state” could benefit from the forgotten art of squatting. As in, keeping your feet on the ground and your back lengthened while you lower your butt toward the floor—a position people all over the world take to give birth, pray, cook, eat, use the toilet, and just hang out. (If you have kids, they probably do it too.)
In parts of the world where a squat is seen as undignified—and just plain uncomfortable—writes Rosie, we’re missing out on a position that is essential to our joint health, flexibility, and overall well-being.
But how do you do it? Start standing with your feet slightly wider than your hips and toes turned slightly outward. Then, fully bend your knees while keeping your back as straight as you can and lowering your bum towards the ground. If you’re a beginner, your heels probably won’t reach the floor. For support, wedge a rolled towel or yoga mat beneath them—this helps protect your knees—and make sure you’re not collapsing in on your arches. Put your palms together at your chest, and press out your inner thighs with your elbows for leverage. Take some deep breaths, lower your chin slightly to lengthen your spine, and tap into some ancient joy.
“In a world where we spend so much time in our heads, in the cloud, on our phones, the absence of squatting leaves us bereft of the grounding force that the posture has provided since our hominid ancestors first got up off the floor,” writes Rosie. “If what we want is to be well, it might be time for us to get low.”
Have a great weekend!
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If you’re already through Stranger Things and bereft with nothing to watch, Adam Epstein is here for you with 16 hidden gems of the streaming services that didn’t get much hype—I’ve literally seen none of them—but Adam deems excellent. The last thing he recommended to me was the outstanding movie Lady Bird (Go see it!), so my trust is deeper than ever. I’ll probably start with American Vandal, because the premise sounds so amazing: a mockumentary in the tradition of Serial, where the mystery at a California high school is who spray-painted penises on cars in the faculty parking lot. It’s making me laugh already.