On August 6, the Candes Bushnell book, Is There Still Sex in the City ?, a continuation of the legendary collection of articles by her authorship, Sex and the City, went on sale in the United States. However, now the narration is conducted not on behalf of Carrie Bradshaw - Alter Ego Bushnell - but on behalf of the writer herself, who shows the intimate side of life in New York through the eyes of a 50-year-old woman.
“Having let him watch the intimate rituals of the Manhattan elite, innovator Candace Bushnell is releasing a new book about the savagery and baseness of sex and dating after fifty,” they promise in the annotations.
In a fresh collection of ten chapters, Bushnell tells readers how she and her friends personally test the achievements of plastic surgery and the beauty industry, master modern technologies and, in principle, learn to live in a world that is gradually capturing a new generation.
The writer actualizes her knowledge and old observations - for example, she “classifies” representatives of the opposite sex according to the realities of 2019. So, readers will learn about men like "flock rat" who love to "ride in a group with other men."
“As a rule, he’s not rich, but he’s quite capable of paying $ 2 thousand for a bicycle. And he can also afford to spend several hours a week on his “hobby” while his partner is busy at home. Pros: trying to take care of himself, which means that it is possible that he wants to take care of others as well, at least until he is busy with riding. Cons: pretty annoying wife. At first I didn’t infuriate, but now it infuriates, because both of them are getting older, the children are already teenagers, and he is riding his fucking bike somewhere! ”Bushnell writes.
As a journalist, Bushnell tries to explore what surrounds her. One of the key points of the book was an experiment with Tinder: the editor of the magazine Emma (from the so-called “generation of millennials”) wants to learn “the whole truth” about an application that spoils the life of her friends. Bushnell finds a common language with the girls, whose views on Tinder differ: someone likes to correspond, someone wants to quickly meet live; some like to send emojis, others find finding a guy as boring as finding an apartment. Only in the case of the dating application is it the woman who becomes the product, and the presence of a man in a relationship comes down to a demonstration of animal instincts.
- Candace Bushnell
- AFP
- © Monica Schipper / Getty Images
Bushnell decides to get acquainted with the application, but she is disappointed, firstly, with a paid subscription, and secondly with ageism: the writer is offered men over fifty by default. When Bushnell chose the category “from 22 to 38”, the situation improved, and soon the author “coincided” with the “suitable instance”.
“Jude appeared immediately, and, let’s say, in life he was taller and prettier than he looked in the photo. Really I got a unicorn in Tinder? ”Writes Bushnell.
The journalist also tried to answer the question - if someone does not like the application, why do not they delete it? Bushnell's answer is prompted by a girl who accidentally met her on the street with a Russian accent: when a person signs up for Tinder, everyone immediately subscribes to his Instagram. She assures us that women themselves do not know what they want. This episode can be found thanks to the subtitle The Russian explains it All.
By the way, Russian heroes have already figured in the stories of Carrie Bradshaw (take at least one of Carrie's men - artist Alexander Petrovsky, who was played by Mikhail Baryshnikov in the series). The current collection of this nation has a less significant, but noticeable role. So, they reappear in a chapter entitled “Cream for 15 thousand, Russians and I”.
In the middle of the street in a prestigious district, girls and guys with a Russian accent invite Bushnell to a cosmetics store and persuade them to undergo anti-aging procedures, and then buy miraculous funds for fabulous money. This time the Russians are using aggressive marketing.
However, they can’t be called scammers, since creams, ampoules and other products really made the author younger and happier at least outwardly. And she had to reconsider the internal guidelines. It would seem, who spends thousands of dollars on some jars? Bushnell admits: it's her.
However, sometimes the struggle with time takes extreme formulas. At fifty, the writer learns about a new word in surgery - laser intimate rejuvenation (chapter "Operation Mona Lisa"). It turns out that the operation does not affect all women, but it causes a storm of emotions in men when wives leave them for young men. Such methods are alien to Bushnell, but push her to certain thoughts: if women in age could, like their male peers, enter into relationships with people younger than them by ten years old, would they do so?
- © Shot from the series “Sex and the City” (1998)
“Yes, they would. So says my girlfriend Ess. Especially when it comes to women who are in the "golden percentage" (like Essa herself) and, according to the same essay, who spent many years trying to remain attractive in the eyes of their husbands. “Diets, yoga, thousands of dollars spent on Botox and fillers - why, after all this, is it worth going through another laser correction?” She argues. Indeed, there are frequent cases when a husband gives his wife a laser plastic of the intimate zone as a gift in honor of his fiftieth birthday, ”the writer shares his revelations.
Bushnell monitors not only the latest technologies, but also changes in society: according to her, now men are increasingly entering into relationships with their mothers of the same age, such relationships are no longer isolated cases, but a general trend (at least among New residents York).
The series, films and a new adaptation
The bestseller Sex and the City was first published in 1997, but the story of this book began even earlier.
For many years, Candace Bushnell wrote stories on female topics for various magazines. In 1994, the newspaper The New York Observer invited her to lead her own column, which the writer called Sex and the City. In it, Bushnell talked about herself and her friends, about the nightlife of New York and the problems of relationships between the sexes. Three years later, the articles were published in the form of a collection, and later - transferred for the adaptation of HBO.
Many fans of “Sex and the City” know the story of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte from the HBO series of the same name. He went to the USA from 1998 to 2004, and then was shown in Australia, Germany, Japan and Russia. In adaptation, the characters of the heroines were changed, but the plot and the general message of the book were preserved.
The plot of the series was built around the conversations and adventures of four friends: Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. They were successful, were not afraid of their age “over thirty” and, of course, wanted to find love and happiness. For them there were no forbidden topics and insurmountable difficulties. According to the writer, the main character - Carrie Bradshaw - is largely copied from herself: both are engaged in journalism, love a beautiful life, are not friends with technology and even sign with the same initials - K.B.
In total, six seasons of the series were released. Over the years of filming, the leading performers - Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall - have received several Golden Globes, also on the account of the authors of the project - Emmy and Globe for the best series and the Guild of Actors for the best cast.
In 2008, the full-length film of the same name was released, and in 2010 a sequel appeared, “Sex and the City - 2”. However, both tapes disappointed critics: the last part received only 15% of positive reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes website. In 2013, a new series was released (this time - a prequel to the original story) called “The Carrie Diaries”.
It is known that according to the book “Has Sex Remained in the Big City?” The series will also be shot: Paramount Television has already received the rights to its adaptation.