{"id":5201,"date":"2026-05-19T03:49:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/anna-dorns-american-spirits-plays-with-lana-del-rey-and-gaylor\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T03:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:49:17","slug":"anna-dorns-american-spirits-plays-with-lana-del-rey-and-gaylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/anna-dorns-american-spirits-plays-with-lana-del-rey-and-gaylor\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Dorn\u2019s \u2018American Spirits\u2019 plays with Lana Del Rey and Gaylor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Anna Dorn has carved a niche for her writing: hypermodern, unlikeable Queer women. Her latest novel, \u201cAmerican Spirits,\u201d takes this up again, but on a much grander scale \u2014 pop girl uber stardom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Set over many years, but mainly taking place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, \u201cAmerican Spirits\u201d splits its multi-perspective narration between Blue Velour, major pop star and Grammy winner, and Rose Lutz, a crazed superfan who has found herself hired as Blue\u2019s assistant after Blue takes a chance on her.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>These women pull from the caricatures of a few current pop girls: the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jhunewsletter.com\/article\/2019\/09\/charli-xcx-reflects-on-nightlife-and-mental-health\">nightlife<\/a> of Charli xcx, the early-career <a href=\"https:\/\/lafayettestudentnews.com\/68905\/culture\/draft-album-review-billie-eilishs-when-we-all-fall-asleep-where-do-we-go-redefines-pop-music\/\">genre fuckery<\/a> of Billie Eilish and the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eviemagazine.com\/post\/chappell-roan-faces-criticism-for-her-diva-attitude\">attitude<\/a>\u201d of Chappell Roan. But Dorn mainly re-imagines Lana Del Rey, who she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/2026\/05\/06\/how-lana-del-rey-and-reddit-inspired-anna-dorns-american-spirits-novel\/\">credits<\/a> as the main inspiration for Blue, especially with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/lana-del-rey-problematic-backlash-timeline-2021-1\">controversies<\/a> that mirror Rey\u2019s stints of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/lana-del-rey-donald-trump-jeremy-dufrene-politics-1997690\">flirting<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/stanfordreview.org\/the-right-wing-straussianism-of-lana-del-rey\/\">with<\/a> conservatism.<\/p>\n<p>Take all of this, and copy the r\/<a href=\"https:\/\/specials.michigandaily.com\/bside\/2026\/commentary\/article\/2\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/specials.michigandaily.com\/bside\/2026\/commentary\/article\/2\/\">GaylorSwift<\/a> subreddit over top of it. The r\/BlueBeards subreddit \u2014 originally created by Rose \u2014 is an exact replica of r\/GaylorSwift, caught in their complete conviction that Blue and her producer Sasha are romantically involved (they are, and Rose herself will find herself entangled as well, a real love triangle).\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Choosing to play with this many elements of these intense fandoms is an insane undertaking. Not many would take the chance to reimagine Lana Del Rey as Queer, let alone also poke at the Gaylor fandom. Dorn takes this big swing and somewhat nails it, even if \u201cAmerican Spirits\u201d ends up more entertaining in theory than in practice.<\/p>\n<p>The book starts out strong, with Rose beginning her first encounters with Blue, the woman she\u2019s been fixated on for years. The reader develops the same curiosities as Rose: How serious is Blue and Sasha\u2019s relationship? Will they find out how deep Rose\u2019s obsession runs after hiring her? What is the day-to-day life of this pop star? <\/p>\n<p>Because of the nature of an assistant job, Rose gets answers to these questions pretty quickly, and that\u2019s where the book goes stagnant. Blue, and the life of the pop star, loses its original mystique, and the engine of the story is no longer as compelling.<\/p>\n<p>But those earlier chapters also drop some easter eggs for the fans of the real life pop stars Dorn drew inspiration from: Blue\u2019s own \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/tswiftisgay\/186518764171\/what-is-kissgate-im-new-can-ya-tell\">kissgate<\/a>,\u201d the mention of <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/zoe-kravitz-invited-taylor-swift-travis-kelce-wedding-11954581\">Zo\u00eb Kravitz<\/a> or Blue\u2019s own addiction <a href=\"https:\/\/themonitormmc.com\/3072\/art\/how-lana-del-rey-reinvented-the-nostalgic-american-aesthetic\/\">to<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strikemagazines.com\/blog-2-1\/lana-del-rey-and-the-coquette-ification-of-americana\">Americana<\/a> (and <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/lana-del-rey-asks-fans-to-help-find-vape-at-brazil-festival-performance-7505048\">vaping<\/a>). But again, as the book goes on, this search is less fun. We\u2019ve discovered that Blue is a remake of Del Rey, and further references lose their novelty.<\/p>\n<p>The book also starts to read (intentionally) like a teenager\u2019s fantasy of Queer stardom, what a 15-year-old would have written in a pandemic fever dream, but a fraudulent version of it. There\u2019s a lot of teenage posturing indicating a lack of real experience on the current internet, claiming that teenagers actually find Instagram obsolete (couldn\u2019t be <a href=\"https:\/\/mediasmart.uk.com\/why-do-teens-love-instagram\/\">less<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/actforyouth.org\/adolescence\/demographics\/internet.cfm\">true<\/a>) or that they wouldn\u2019t know what a record player is (Gen Z is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicweek.com\/labels\/read\/vinyl-alliance-says-gen-z-is-now-the-driving-force-behind-the-format-s-popularity\/091294\">really<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kunr.org\/local-stories\/2024-08-21\/gen-z-vinyl-record-sales\">into<\/a> physical records, actually). The lingo used in the fan\u2019s Reddit posts is always a little off from reality, feeling like a plastic version of its inspiration.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The point with these misunderstandings is probably to illustrate how out of touch Blue is with both reality and her younger fanbase. But that\u2019s a boring chord to strike, especially when Dorn already has the much more interesting Queer love triangle plot to play with, something that would make writing about celebrities more than just the classic out-of-touch trope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerican Spirits\u201d also struggles to take a clear stance on its own conversations, putting you in a weird place. The book in large part warns of the dangers of stan culture, showing the dark side of these intense spaces. But with all of the real celebrity names being dropped alongside Blue\u2019s name, you can\u2019t help but play along. Rose flirts with Miley Cyrus; Billie Eilish admits to taking a lot of inspiration from Blue\u2019s style; rumors circulate of Taylor Swift producing an indie folk album; Sasha produces for Lorde and St. Vincent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All of these name drops put you in a guessing game. Would Miley Cyrus really flirt with someone\u2019s young assistant? Do all producers\u2019 best work come from hooking up with their artists, like Sasha insists? You\u2019re forced to play along, and it\u2019s fun, but undermines its own philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>By the end, the campy charm of \u201cAmerican Spirits\u201d has worn off, and you\u2019re slogging into the dramatic and meta ending. You\u2019re left with an interesting-ish story, but one that didn\u2019t take a clear enough stance throughout to really leave you with more than some overdone philosophies to think about.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Arts Writer Campbell Johns can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/arts\/books\/american-spirits-pretends-to-know-what-its-doing-and-nearly-pulls-it-off\/mailto:caajohns@umich.edu\"><em>caajohns@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anna Dorn has carved a niche for her writing: hypermodern, unlikeable Queer women. Her latest novel, \u201cAmerican Spirits,\u201d takes this up again, but on a much grander scale \u2014 pop girl uber stardom.\u00a0 Set over many years, but mainly taking place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, \u201cAmerican Spirits\u201d splits its multi-perspective narration between [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[79,1688,814,4723,4727,4725,1109,4726,4724],"class_list":["post-5201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-american","tag-anna","tag-del","tag-dorns","tag-gaylor","tag-lana","tag-plays","tag-rey","tag-spirits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5203,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions\/5203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}