via “I am drinking gin & wrote about 18 long titles…” by AD Jameson

selected unpublished blog posts of a mexican panda express employee (2011, Megan Boyle, Muumuu House)

This is very specific, but there’s also a certain preciousness at work—a naivety that “unpublished blog posts” (selected ones, even) of someone working in the service industry is worthy of said specificity. Is it therefore ironic? I wouldn’t call that ironic myself; I think naive or precious is better. (Other than the “Mexican” part, the book appears to be what its title claims—leaving us to wonder how to read that word—literally? metaphorically?—and even whether it modifies “employee” or “panda express.”) Is it “sincere”? … Perhaps? There’s a confessional quality to it that matches the book’s contents—pieces like “everyone i’ve had sex with,” “i am kind of a disgusting person,” and “i want to fall in love or something” (those titles strike me as very NS). Note also the use of all lowercase.

during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present (2009, Brandon Scott Gorrell, Muumuu House)

This title is a good example of how the ironic/sincere angle is a dead end. Is this a sincere statement, or an ironic one? I can’t tell from just the title alone (I haven’t read the book). It does seem clever in a way none of the other titles have been so far. But note how it is saying that it is during the author’s nervous breakdown that the biographer should be present—i.e., an uncontrollably emotive period of the author’s life is what should be recorded (documented, even) in/as literature. + the lowercases

sometimes my heart pushes my ribs (2009, Ellen Kennedy, Muumuu House)

This is, I’d argue, classic New Sincerity. There’s the qualifier “sometimes,” and the whole tone of the title is unguarded, emotive, sincere. I don’t get the sense that the title is being used in any ironic or kitsch way; there’s a genuine embrace of this way of being. For the heart to push the rubs, the heart must be beating very hard, or be very swollen—extreme emotion. + more the lowercases (a definite muumuu h thing)