Julie Powell's untimely departure
November 1, 2022 5:42 PM Subscribe
Julie Powell is dead. Her manic and maniacal cooking of the entire oeuvre of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol I was at one time the best of the web. While Julia Child herself did not approve of the tone or struggle of the project, foodies, weirdos, and weird foodies flocked to read Julie's updates. [SLNYT]
The cause was apparently sequelae of COVID, at least according to her Twitter.
Archive link.
The cause was apparently sequelae of COVID, at least according to her Twitter.
Archive link.
Most news sources seem to say "cardiac arrest" without mentioning COVID.
"She was 49. Her husband, Eric Powell, said the cause was cardiac arrest" - NYT.
I hadn't heard of her follow up book, Cleaving (AV Club review) or her narrative and struggles with addiction (I'm not going to ghoul through her twitter feed but I guess sex addiction from her own quotes elsewhere?)
I recall this early work starting the brief era of blogs being hot properties. I'm sad she died what seems to be pretty young but working on herself.
posted by abulafa at 5:52 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
"She was 49. Her husband, Eric Powell, said the cause was cardiac arrest" - NYT.
I hadn't heard of her follow up book, Cleaving (AV Club review) or her narrative and struggles with addiction (I'm not going to ghoul through her twitter feed but I guess sex addiction from her own quotes elsewhere?)
I recall this early work starting the brief era of blogs being hot properties. I'm sad she died what seems to be pretty young but working on herself.
posted by abulafa at 5:52 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
I thought her cook-them-all quest was an amazing, gutsy project. I grew up in a house where food was super important and I own a copy of MtAoFC -- and always found it intimidating. Her commitment to just doing it all was inspiring.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:13 PM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 6:13 PM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
Please, for the love of God, get boosted and keep wearing masks in public, or we're going to see a lot more of this.
We're still in a pandemic, and it's killing and disabling young and healthy people at an alarming rate.
posted by schmod at 6:48 PM on November 1, 2022 [23 favorites]
We're still in a pandemic, and it's killing and disabling young and healthy people at an alarming rate.
posted by schmod at 6:48 PM on November 1, 2022 [23 favorites]
I read both books, and while the butchery part of Cleaving was interesting, the relationship stuff had the misfortune of making her seem…hmm, maybe self involved but not in a relatable way for me? The dial switched about how I felt about her and her writing, even though I did like the first book . And in the movie her stuff was so uninteresting compared to the Julia Child stuff.
Anyway, I’m glad she had her success and it sucks that she died so very young. We’re very close in age, which I didn’t quite realize.
posted by PussKillian at 6:49 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
Anyway, I’m glad she had her success and it sucks that she died so very young. We’re very close in age, which I didn’t quite realize.
posted by PussKillian at 6:49 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
Though we were only a few years apart in age, her salon blog made me look up to her as the kind of adult I wanted to be: fierce, messy, a little monomaniacal, a little debauched, and only just barely able to hide her tender heart under a mountain of snark (and butter).
Thank you, Julie.
posted by minervous at 7:10 PM on November 1, 2022 [8 favorites]
Thank you, Julie.
posted by minervous at 7:10 PM on November 1, 2022 [8 favorites]
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Reading this with my son, both of us vaxxed, masked, boosted, and isolating with COVID is chilling.
posted by doctornemo at 7:38 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
Reading this with my son, both of us vaxxed, masked, boosted, and isolating with COVID is chilling.
posted by doctornemo at 7:38 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
What a loss.
I remember her blog, and Gordon Atkinson's Real Live Preacher, as two of the great blogs that emerged from Salon's wide-open blogging offering. And just yesterday I was going somewhere and the weight of my bag was causing the strap to slip off my shoulder, and as always I thought about Julie describing that phenomenon in one of her keenly-observed catalogues of moments of daily life.
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posted by brainwane at 7:46 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
I remember her blog, and Gordon Atkinson's Real Live Preacher, as two of the great blogs that emerged from Salon's wide-open blogging offering. And just yesterday I was going somewhere and the weight of my bag was causing the strap to slip off my shoulder, and as always I thought about Julie describing that phenomenon in one of her keenly-observed catalogues of moments of daily life.
.
posted by brainwane at 7:46 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
The cause was apparently sequelae of COVID
I think it's pretty irresponsible to make this claim based solely on her having had COVID a couple of months ago. I don't know what the cause of her cardiac arrest was, but I'm pretty sure you don't know, either.
posted by praemunire at 8:34 PM on November 1, 2022 [55 favorites]
I think it's pretty irresponsible to make this claim based solely on her having had COVID a couple of months ago. I don't know what the cause of her cardiac arrest was, but I'm pretty sure you don't know, either.
posted by praemunire at 8:34 PM on November 1, 2022 [55 favorites]
Gordon Atkinson's Real Live Preacher
Thank you for solving a decade long mystery for me, brainwane. I have been trying to remember the name of that blog/who the blogger was for ages and I don’t think I would have come up with it otherwise.
49, oh my god. Way too young. RIP Julie.
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posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:00 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Thank you for solving a decade long mystery for me, brainwane. I have been trying to remember the name of that blog/who the blogger was for ages and I don’t think I would have come up with it otherwise.
49, oh my god. Way too young. RIP Julie.
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posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:00 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:18 PM on November 1, 2022
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:18 PM on November 1, 2022
I don’t want to mire the thread further in cause of death speculation but I’m not sure there’s an escape from it without just contextualizing it up front:
She had a tweet in September saying she’d just gotten over COVID and saying that her doctor had suggested a three month wait to get the booster. Somehow this immediately became a vaccine conspiracy rallying point despite the fact that it’s been, uh, six weeks. Presumably this tweet and that reaction are the root of this being a thing to speculate about.
But she has subsequent tweets referring to another respiratory illness and her very last tweet is also about a health problem. So I am not sure that this is a mystery we are going to get to the bottom of right here.
posted by atoxyl at 9:20 PM on November 1, 2022 [12 favorites]
She had a tweet in September saying she’d just gotten over COVID and saying that her doctor had suggested a three month wait to get the booster. Somehow this immediately became a vaccine conspiracy rallying point despite the fact that it’s been, uh, six weeks. Presumably this tweet and that reaction are the root of this being a thing to speculate about.
But she has subsequent tweets referring to another respiratory illness and her very last tweet is also about a health problem. So I am not sure that this is a mystery we are going to get to the bottom of right here.
posted by atoxyl at 9:20 PM on November 1, 2022 [12 favorites]
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One of my favorite ever niche movie reviews came from MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey, of Julie and Julia. Excerpt:
One of my favorite ever niche movie reviews came from MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey, of Julie and Julia. Excerpt:
I wanted to see this because I was intrigued how one even goes about making a movie about a blog.posted by Kattullus at 10:48 PM on November 1, 2022 [82 favorites]
It did a pretty good job showing how the Julie character decides to do a blog and what it's like to write daily about yourself and how that can sometimes hinder your offline relationships. The concurrent storyline of Julia Child seemed truthful and sincere and overall I enjoyed it and left the theater feeling uplifted and inspired to cook.
But there was this one scene. Julie is in her cube and she's ecstatic that a post got 53 comments and she high fives her coworker, and moments later her husband calls and says he just noticed she's #3 on the most popular Salon blogs list and her arms shoot up out of her cube in victory and I began to cry tears of joy.
I sat in the theater thinking about my little blog and how it became a community large and a business small. I remembered walking into a coworker's office in December 1999, arms in the air, as I exclaimed "100!!! One hundred people hit my web server today! 100!!!"
Julie was less than four months older than I am. Yikes.
posted by orange swan at 10:48 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by orange swan at 10:48 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I loved her writing. I loved her courage. Way, way too young.
A vodka gimlet to her memory: 🍸
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posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 6:11 AM on November 2, 2022
A vodka gimlet to her memory: 🍸
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posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 6:11 AM on November 2, 2022
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posted by interogative mood at 7:26 AM on November 2, 2022
posted by interogative mood at 7:26 AM on November 2, 2022
Just FYI there is an epidemic of a pretty terrible strain of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) at the moment. It might not have been covid. It is generally mild in adults, but in my case it kicked my ass.
posted by interogative mood at 7:37 AM on November 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by interogative mood at 7:37 AM on November 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
I always felt bad for Julie Powell because she got famous enough from the blog to get a book (I read it, it was pretty good) and a movie, and all I ever heard was "We love Julia! We hate Julie!" and I never got why, other than she was...a normal modern person? Who wasn't Julia? Geez, people.
This is too early.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:52 AM on November 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
This is too early.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:52 AM on November 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
Her husband was my editor for a decade before I finally figured out the connection. Tragic.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:13 AM on November 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by gottabefunky at 8:13 AM on November 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
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why oh why did I click on the twitter link? if you're like me and sensitive to these things, please save yourself the angst. antivax ghouls in the comments to her last tweet saying that the vaccine killed her. this is why i deleted my twitter :(
posted by microscopiclifeform at 8:38 AM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
why oh why did I click on the twitter link? if you're like me and sensitive to these things, please save yourself the angst. antivax ghouls in the comments to her last tweet saying that the vaccine killed her. this is why i deleted my twitter :(
posted by microscopiclifeform at 8:38 AM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
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Re: cause of death - yeah she could have simply... had a heart attack. It happens.
posted by eschatonizer at 9:27 AM on November 2, 2022
Re: cause of death - yeah she could have simply... had a heart attack. It happens.
posted by eschatonizer at 9:27 AM on November 2, 2022
Frank Bruni has a nice reminiscence of her and her place in the food-writing world.
When I started my first popular food blog, people outside the food world used her as a touchstone for what I was doing. "Oh, maybe it'll be a book like Julie & Julia!"
She was not the first food blogger ever, of course, but maybe one of the first that regular people knew of. That's a big place in history for people in a certain niche. She did a lot to democratize/popularize access to The Food World for our generation.
It's a cool legacy and she had a cool ride and her life was over too soon.
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posted by fruitslinger at 10:07 AM on November 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
When I started my first popular food blog, people outside the food world used her as a touchstone for what I was doing. "Oh, maybe it'll be a book like Julie & Julia!"
She was not the first food blogger ever, of course, but maybe one of the first that regular people knew of. That's a big place in history for people in a certain niche. She did a lot to democratize/popularize access to The Food World for our generation.
It's a cool legacy and she had a cool ride and her life was over too soon.
.
posted by fruitslinger at 10:07 AM on November 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
.
posted by carrioncomfort at 10:23 AM on November 2, 2022
posted by carrioncomfort at 10:23 AM on November 2, 2022
And as an indicator of the reach she and her story had, I just ran across an obit for her in Italian food media. That's pretty cool.
posted by fruitslinger at 11:38 AM on November 2, 2022
posted by fruitslinger at 11:38 AM on November 2, 2022
Wow, this is so sad and shocking. She seems young in my mind, just a few years older than me. I guess neither of us is as young as I thought.
As fruitslinger says, she wasn't the first food blogger, but she sure was up there, and I think it's safe to say she contributed to the invention of the style of food blogging that was dominant for a long time. You know how everyone complains about long personal essays before recipes? Well, that's Julie Powell's influence, but she did it so well. If you haven't read her books and only know of her from the movie, I definitely recommend reading at least Julie and Julia. Her voice is so strong and engaging: by turns funny, vulnerable, wry, melodramatic, whiney, triumphant.
all I ever heard was "We love Julia! We hate Julie!" and I never got why, other than she was...a normal modern person? Who wasn't Julia? Geez, people.
I hated that so much. Julie both in her writing and in the movie character is just very real, and flawed in the ways that normal people are flawed. I guess it was cringey for a lot of people because it was an uncomfortable mirror, but I think it's also just very easy in our culture to pick on young women for being real people.
Anyway, now that it's been getting colder, I've been thinking about making boeuf bourguignon - maybe I'll make it over the long weekend next week in her honor.
posted by lunasol at 12:12 PM on November 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
As fruitslinger says, she wasn't the first food blogger, but she sure was up there, and I think it's safe to say she contributed to the invention of the style of food blogging that was dominant for a long time. You know how everyone complains about long personal essays before recipes? Well, that's Julie Powell's influence, but she did it so well. If you haven't read her books and only know of her from the movie, I definitely recommend reading at least Julie and Julia. Her voice is so strong and engaging: by turns funny, vulnerable, wry, melodramatic, whiney, triumphant.
all I ever heard was "We love Julia! We hate Julie!" and I never got why, other than she was...a normal modern person? Who wasn't Julia? Geez, people.
I hated that so much. Julie both in her writing and in the movie character is just very real, and flawed in the ways that normal people are flawed. I guess it was cringey for a lot of people because it was an uncomfortable mirror, but I think it's also just very easy in our culture to pick on young women for being real people.
Anyway, now that it's been getting colder, I've been thinking about making boeuf bourguignon - maybe I'll make it over the long weekend next week in her honor.
posted by lunasol at 12:12 PM on November 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
This is so sad: so young, so unexpected!! I loved Julie and Julia; both women seemed both problematic in some ways but also very appealing. I like honest, genuine imperfect people and nuance, and we don't seem to have enough of that in mainstream media. I gotta say that I'm actually more of Team Julie than Team Julia. Cleaved surprised me because it felt much less wholesome but a good read. I won't comment on the COVID stuff because I don't want to argue but I have a lot of thoughts there. It appears that she lived her life to the fullest, and I admire that. Umm, hashtagyolo, hashtagnogrets, etc. etc.?!
I love the idea of setting and achieving random goals to make our lives of quiet desperation -- or at least frequent mundanity -- more fun and meaningful. It's fun to do and even more fun to share with others. I wish she were still alive (obviously), selfishly in part because I know she would have continued to do cool new stuff that would have inspired us even more.
posted by smorgasbord at 6:31 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love the idea of setting and achieving random goals to make our lives of quiet desperation -- or at least frequent mundanity -- more fun and meaningful. It's fun to do and even more fun to share with others. I wish she were still alive (obviously), selfishly in part because I know she would have continued to do cool new stuff that would have inspired us even more.
posted by smorgasbord at 6:31 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
And here’s a more nuanced and interesting piece from Julia Moskin in the NYT.
posted by fruitslinger at 7:25 PM on November 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by fruitslinger at 7:25 PM on November 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
fruitslinger, thanks for that link. Moskin linked to the Wayback Machine archive of Powell's blog so I am reading it afresh.
The problem is not in the recipe, of course; it’s in me. I am not worthy of Julia, perhaps.posted by brainwane at 4:43 AM on November 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
(Wow, it just now occurred to me that perhaps I took on the Julie/Julia Project out of some deeply repressed masochism, a need so deviant and deranged that the humiliations of everyday life were no longer adequate to feed it. This probably occurred to all of y’all awhile back, huh?)
Here's another tribute, this one in Bon Appétit, written by a fan who met her and became a friend.
posted by fruitslinger at 2:10 PM on November 4, 2022
posted by fruitslinger at 2:10 PM on November 4, 2022
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