Anya Taylor-Joy's Favorite Book Is A Staple Of Feminist Literature
When the world went into lockdown in 2020, many of us had more free time than ever before. Even if we were fortunate enough to keep our jobs during those early months of COVID-19, socializing (at least face-to-face) became impossible with everything shut down. Because of this, the world pursued other things like baking bread, which became a huge trend. People also got to delve into things that their usual busy lifestyles didn't allow for, like reading, writing, and other creative endeavors.
It was in 2020 that actress Anya Taylor-Joy posted a steady stream of books she was reading under the "Quaranreads" highlight on her Instagram. And, based on the number of books and the frequency at which she posted them, it might be safe to say that Taylor-Joy out-read all of us in 2020. "Once I learned how to read — I'm sure it was the same with you — I was off," Taylor Joy told Vanity Fair in April 2021. "I was just never bored or lonely again." She also said she reads about three books a week.
Of all the books that Taylor-Joy has read, many could be on the ultimate feminist reading list. One writer in particular that she loves and mentioned in the Vanity Fair article is Eve Babitz. If you've never heard of Babitz and are looking for a feminist read to add to your collection, "Sex and Rage" is a good place to start.
It's about a woman living her most authentic life
1979's "Sex and Rage" is essentially Babitz's autobiography. The heroine Jacaranda Leven comes of age in southern California where she parties hard, is sexually free, and does things on her terms. It was an interesting time for women. As much as the majority of the U.S. was still hanging onto the puritanical ideals of the '40s and '50s, the second wave of feminism was making its cultural impact, offering women new ways to take up space in the world.
"[It] was an exotic time for all of us who were there ... It was a time of freedom and, seemingly, little consequence... I did say 'seemingly,'" Babitz told Los Angeles Magazine in 2019. "We found out later there were plenty of consequences... But everyone was having sex, taking drugs, listening to or making great music. There were no words like 'trigger' or 'PC.' If you didn't want to join the party, you took yourself home, and you were responsible for doing that."
Eventually, Jacaranda (like Babitz) stops partying and moves to New York to become a writer, instead of settling down into marriage and having a family. In NYC, she achieves her literary pursuits by doing things her way. A real-life example of this is Babitz's first attempt at getting published in which she sent a letter to the author of "Catch-22," Joseph Heller. It read: "I am a stacked eighteen-year-old blonde on Sunset Boulevard. I am also a writer."
Babitz has become a feminist icon
Although Babitz's writing wasn't completely unrecognized in the 1970s, it was the reissuing of "Sex and Rage" in 2017 that introduced Babitz and her work to a new generation. When asked what she thought about actress Emma Roberts calling her a "feminist icon" by Los Angeles Magazine, Babitz said, "It makes me happy. I don't totally get it, but it's thrilling to be a hero. I'm humbled by it."
Whether it's "Sex and Rage," "LA Woman," "Slow Days, Fast Company," or any of her other books, Babitz's work speaks to the type of woman who prefers to thumb her nose at gender conventions, as well as conventionalities as a whole. "She was writing about women in a way that doesn't exist anymore," her agent Erica Spellman Silverman told The New York Times in their obituary of Babitz in December 2021. "A new generation is responding to her abandon and her grit. I think women no longer have that kind of freedom. Eve never saw herself as a victim. She was a free spirit and living her life the way want she wanted to."
It takes a lot of courage to break out from the pack and choose the path less traveled, especially if you're a woman, but that's exactly what Babitz did her entire life. She also made sure her characters did the same with equal gumption, fearlessness, and a lust for life. That was her gift to us.