The Tamesis
Qazi David likes to describe Delusion: grandeur, romance, progress (published today by St. Martin’s Press) has been called “The Perennial Crisis in Essays.”
The articles and crises take different forms, from painful meditations on her late 20s to Notes app postmortems of breakups (“My friend told me she saw you making out with the girl at the chicken shop in public”) and cataloging her accidental membership at an influencer-only gym. From the beach on Martha’s Vineyard, where she ponders her perennial situation, to the bathroom floor on the night of her 30th birthday, David mines his own experiences with poignant and cruel laughter.
What is her dream for this book? Readers (especially women) will read and relate to it. Her nightmare? Let anyone she knows read it.
Fashion: As early as Delusionyou liken writing a book to giving birth, in that in order for you to give birth again, your body has to erase painful memories. Have you forgotten what the pain of writing this book was?
Qazi David: Over the past two weeks, I’ve been reminded why it’s so scary. Obviously, you’re so lucky to have a book published, but it’s hard to know if it’s worth the pain. Talking about it is actually one of the worst parts.
When these articles appeared, did you know you were writing a book?
I started writing some articles that I felt so connected to through this theme of taking responsibility for my own destiny between my 29th and 30th birthdays. But the weird thing is, when you write a book, you have a place to put any of your observations and thoughts, and when you no longer have it, you don’t really know what to do with them.
Are there any recent social phenomena or social media trends that you’d like to write an article about?
I don’t know if I’ll ever write a full post, but I get a lot of health advice because I’m obsessed with health and I believe in all of it. I’m trying to remember when I watched a video where someone said: “Eat three kiwis a day this result. “This person doesn’t believe in eating three kiwis a day – this person believes in making a video about eating three kiwis a day. What’s the real motivation here? It’s not to get other people to eat kiwis. It’s just that they want something to make the video with.”
Have you ever found yourself doing something or wandering through an experience because you thought it would be nice to write it down?
It was the only reason I left home. Almost always, if I leave the house, I will think of something to write about. But, by the way, the idea always stems from something bad that happened. So, like, am I going to have a bad experience and write something about it, or am I going to avoid the bad experience?
Did you feel like it was turning into a bad experience when you were writing it, or did you know that at the time?
No, I knew it when it happened. Sometimes I know something before it happens.
The book is full of moments when you don’t quite recognize yourself—whether you’re going water skiing to impress your crush, editing Instagram photos, or throwing a 30th birthday party you don’t want to attend. Will you reread your book? If you reread it, do you recognize the authors of these books?
