The Washington Post - USA (2022-01-19)

BY RON CHARLES

Last October, Robert Kolker wrote
a story for the New York Times
Magazine about two writers locked in
a messy legal battle. Ostensibly, their
dispute revolved around a claim of
plagiarism: Dawn Dorland asserted
that Sonya Larson had stolen her
real-life description of donating a
kidney and used it as the basis for a
short story.
But Kolker ’s article — “Who Is the
Bad Art Friend?” — lit up social media
because it was about more than an
arcane plagiarism argument between
two unknown authors. In a f eat of
superb reporting, Kolker captured
something unsettling about our tenu-
ous ownership of life experiences and
the vampiric practice of fiction writ-
ing.
In the hall of mirrors that is
literary culture, Andrew Lipstein has
now published “Last Resort,” a novel
about a bad art friend. No one is
accusing Lipstein of plagiarizing
Kolker ’s article — his novel was
finished long before the Times piece
appeared — but “Last Resort” offers
SEE BOOK WORLD ON C3

BOOK WORLD

Is it plagiarism?

Little fi ctions

he tells himself.

LAST RESORT

By Andrew

Lipstein

Farrar, Straus

and Giroux. 304

pp. $27

KLMNO

Style

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ RE C

BY SONIA RAO

GILLES MINGASSON/ABC

Quinta Brunson is already a viral comedy star. ‘Abbott Elementary’ could make her a household name.

BY BETHONIE BUTLER

POV: It’s almost midnight. The kids are
finally in bed after a long day of virtual
learning — and little to no indication of
when things might finally go back to
normal or anything like it. The dishes, so
many dishes, have been cleaned and put
away. You’ve finally quieted your mind
enough to go to sleep (before you have to
do it all over again) and suddenly, there it
is creeping into your head again: We d on’t
talk about Bruno.
No, n o, no.
We don’t talk about Bruno.
“We Do n’t Talk About Bruno,” for the
uninitiated, is a s ong from the lively
soundt rack to Disney’s “Encanto.” The
animated film, about a C olombian family
with magical gifts and an enchanted for-
tress that has protected them for genera-
tions, arrived in theaters in November to
warm reviews. But the movie and its
soundt rack, featuring original songs by
Lin-Manuel Miranda and a score by Ger-
maine Franco, have gotten more popular
since “Encanto” landed on Disney Plus
last month. This week, the soundtrack
soared to the top of the Billboard 200
SEE ENCANTO ON C2

Why we’re enchanted by the songs of Disney’s ‘Encanto’

DISNEY

In “Encanto,” a Colombian family with magical gifts live in an enchanted fortress that has protected them for decades.

BOOK WORLD

A moving novel offers a

look at what Ukrainians

have had to endure. C3

KIDSPOST

A teen will soon be the

youngest woman to fly

around the world solo. C8

CAROLYN HAX

A husband who won’t call

his kids complains about

the silence. C8

Quinta Brunson, a

teacher’s daughter who

relished her mom’s

stories about school life,

puts her own twist on

the mockumentary style

of “The Office” in the

critically acclaimed

“A bbott Elementary.”

T

he depth of your familiarity with Quinta Brunson’s comedy work depends on

your relationship with the Internet. The average user is more likely to

recognize Brunson, 32, from the videos she used to produce and star in for

BuzzFeed, or from her appearances on the first season of the HBO series “A

Black Lady Sk etch Show.” The extremely online might recall her self-produced

Instagram videos, after which she became a meme. ¶ And if you don’t know Brunson at

all? That will probably change soon, as her latest project marks a foray into what is

arguably her most mainstream platform yet: network television. The Philadelphia

native created the new ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary,” in which she stars as a

second-grade teacher at an underfunded public school in the city alongside actors

Sheryl Lee Ralph, Tyler James Williams and Lisa Ann Walter. The mockumentary, which

aired its third episode Tuesday night, has garnered rave reviews and already attracted

tons of buzz online. ¶ It’s only a matter of time before Brunson is memed once again, but

as the earnest teacher Janine Teagues. SEE Q&A ON C2

BY EMILY HEIL

NFTs have been steadily making
their way into the restaurant world
(along with seemingly every other
sphere, from art to politics). And so a
restaurant whose founders claim is
the first of its kind, essentially offering
admittance only to the holders of a
limited number of non-fungible to-
kens, seemed inevitable.
Flyfish Club, set to open in a yet-to-
be-announced Manhattan location in
the first half of next year, will be a
luxury “seafood-inspired” dining club
from the VCR Group, a h ospitality and
restaurant group that includes Gary
Vaynerchuk, the serial entrepreneur
and co-founder of online reser vation
system Resy. To gain access to the club,
members must have a Flyfish NFT,
which is a unique digital asset stored
on the blockchain and purchased us-
ing cryptocurrency. The company re-
leased 1,501 tokens this month, bring-
ing in around $15 million, according
to David Rodolitz, the founder and
CEO of VCR.
SEE VORACIOUSLY ON C5

VORACIOUSLY

At restaurant,

it’s no NFT,

no service

Textbook mockumentary-making

Q&A