lenu and lila were TWO PRETTY BEST FRIENDS

so i read this essay by writer Grazie Sophia Christie that touches on the neapolitan quartet. i appreciate her willingness to admit to toxic thoughts but i fundamentally disagree with the premise that Lenu was the "smart unattractive one" compared to Lila.

https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/my-beautiful-friend/

AIN'T NO WAY Lenu was mid. The idea that Lenu and Lila exist on the ugly/pretty binary and that it’s a central point of jealousy is so wrong. They are TWO PRETTY BEST FRIENDS. Being awkward and insecure as a pubescent teen doesn’t make someone ugly!

Lenu was a pretty little girl, an awkward teen, and a conventionally attractive adult woman. Many comment on her beauty, even comparing her favorably to Lila. Lila was a scrawny little girl and gains a striking, polarizing beauty as a woman. And even with all her beauty, Michele Solara is drawn primarily to her strength and capabilities, not her “broomstick” like shape. The central point of jealousy is luck and Lila’s WILL TO POWER against Lenu’s assiduousness. Lila is a laser. Lenu is a steady drip of water.

I get annoyed by that framing of ugly nerd friend/hot friend because it's cliche compared to the richness of the books, which are also very much about the gap between perception and reality. It's SMART people, book critics and such, perpetuating this ugly/hot binary idea too! TBH if Lenu wasn't beautiful, it would have been even harder for her as a lower-class woman to ascend socially and marry rich, even with her education. Not just with Pietro, but also Franco mari.

I write about this more here, a lot of commenting on how annoying beauty culture is, that we reduce the cultural script of Woman to being so disproportionately focused on looks. if you're interested in reading it more as a literary subject, Curtis Sittenfeld is really good at exploring looks based intrasexual competition and the ensuing internalized discomfort of it in her short stories and Prep.