Miranda July on rethinking everything - marriage, sex and hormones

Changes with Annie Macmanus

Annie Macmanus

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Miranda July’s staggering new novel ‘All Fours’ might just completely change the way you think about your life.

Miranda is not one for sticking to the rules. An LA based artist, writer and award-winning filmmaker, she has been creating unapologetic, boundary pushing work since her involvement in the Riot Grrrl feminist movement of the 1990s, where she gained recognition for her zines and performance art. She has gone on to create across many mediums, including her breakthrough 2005 feature film debut, "Me and You and Everyone We Know," which she wrote, directed, and starred in. The film garnered critical acclaim, winning the prestigious Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

You might have noticed Miranda July’s name popping up all over the place since the release of ‘All Fours’ last month, and there is a reason why. This book is astonishing. It takes everything you think you know about what it means to be a woman in mid life, a mother, a lover, a friend, and makes you rethink it all. The story follows a woman in her forties who embarks on a physical and metaphorical journey of rediscovering herself.

In this episode Annie and Miranda unpick some of the brilliant themes from the book including the institution of marriage, motherhood, perimenopause, hormones, sex, as well as real experiences from post menopausal women (positives and negatives). They also discuss Miranda’s upbringing, her personal changes and how her life bleeds into her work. Listen to this episode and then go and buy this book immediately.

Warning: this episode discusses suicide, please be mindful if this could impact you.

Buy a copy of 'All Fours' and find out more about Miranda and her work here:

https://mirandajuly.com/all-fours/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm David Badeel, I'm a writer and a comedian and a Jew.
0:04.0	I'm Saeed Avarsi. I'm a businesswoman and a politician and a Muslim.
0:08.0	Jews and Muslims always seem to be in the news or on the news.
0:11.0	Most people talk about us and this is us talking about ourselves.
0:14.0	The kind of things that people say don't touch, we are going to go there.
0:18.0	I mean I think Jews and Muslims are talking about these things but I think they're not talking
0:21.6	about them together because they're
0:22.8	worried that if they do sparks might fly a Muslim and a Jew go there find us
0:27.6	wherever you get your podcast.
0:30.3	Before we get into the episode a word of warning that there is some sensitive topics
0:36.2	discussed so do check the you? Hope you're doing
0:49.6	good. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen a couple of weeks ago that I shared a book which and I cannot
0:56.8	stress this enough could change the way you think about your life.
1:01.2	It's not a kind of how-to book. It's not a self-help book. It's quite a quirky novel about a woman in middle age trying to make sense of the world.
1:10.8	It's called All Fours by Miranda July. of the
1:15.0	main protagonist in the book is staring into the abyss of midlife
1:20.0	and decides to drive from LA to New York rather than her initial plan of taking an airplane.
1:26.0	Her journey allows her to explore her capabilities, sexual desires, the institution of marriage, motherhood, and all the presumptions made of women at a certain age.
1:37.0	It's a phenomenally astute and radical take on midlife, which makes you question things and also laugh out loud because it's
1:45.6	completely hilarious. The observations about feelings, relationships and friendships as a woman
1:51.2	are astoundingly good.
1:53.0	I have wanted to talk about it to everyone I know.
	...

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