the Notebooks vary widely from STFU dumbass (the one about paying taxes to blow shit up) to OTM (public deference to high office)
Still better than when they were all written by Lapham, I guess
― milo z, Sunday, 24 August 2008 21:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Ach, the newest issue (Jan. '09 – THE FUTURE) is kind of the worst. A 3-page index of reruns about George Bush, and all the articles are bleak retrospectives about "damn if the past eight years weren't balls p.s. the world is going to end & we're fuxored). Oh shit was it the worst issue.
― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Monday, 15 December 2008 18:56 (fifteen years ago) link
As Rick Johnson once wrote, "Avoiding what subject?"
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 15 December 2008 19:08 (fifteen years ago) link
the article about Saakashvili + Georgia was good, i thought? as someone who knows very little about the region. i can't even look at that Bush + the economy infographic, though; it makes me want to die.
― horseshoe, Monday, 15 December 2008 19:16 (fifteen years ago) link
i liked reading the dfw eulogies in the 'readings' section
― beyonc'e (max), Monday, 15 December 2008 19:17 (fifteen years ago) link
i mean didnt "like" but appreciated
yes i liked those, too; saunders made me tear up. so did delillo, actually.
― horseshoe, Monday, 15 December 2008 19:18 (fifteen years ago) link
ya. i hope i can have ppl who are as articulate and intelligent speak at my funeral.
― beyonc'e (max), Monday, 15 December 2008 19:21 (fifteen years ago) link
also good source to mine for my modern authors fanfic
― beyonc'e (max), Monday, 15 December 2008 19:22 (fifteen years ago) link
"damn if the past eight years weren't balls p.s. the world is going to end & we're fuxored
this is every issue of the last year and a half imo
― so i said let me HOOS the beats and steen (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 15 December 2008 19:25 (fifteen years ago) link
I'll def have to stop at the bookstore & read the DFW pieces though.
Agreed on the suckage of latest issue.
By the way, Abbott, to answer your question from a year ago about Lapham's Quarterly, I LOVE IT. They keep getting better as they go on, and the latest issue, "Ways of Learning", is their best yet.
― Z S, Monday, 15 December 2008 19:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Nice!
― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Monday, 15 December 2008 20:09 (fifteen years ago) link
guys i want a mag subscription, do i get
--harper's--nyer--atlantic--other (suggest, plz!)
― a perfect urkel (gbx), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:24 (fourteen years ago) link
nyer has some good stuff sometimes but since it's a weekly it piles up all over the place but you feel guilty about just throwing away old copies so soon you have old copies of the nyer all over the place like some kind of urbane hobo
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:25 (fourteen years ago) link
that is what happened to me with the economist
― a perfect urkel (gbx), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:26 (fourteen years ago) link
economist is pricey!! but the snide photo captions are worth it imo
― goole, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:29 (fourteen years ago) link
i have some insanely cheap nyer subscription--like 29 bucks a year?--and i've had it forever, so i suffer from the urbane hobo problem, but i don't feel bad about it, since it's so cheap. i've had harper's, too, on and off, but their non-fiction just isn't as good as the nyers. though i think *generally* the fiction in the nyer is suckage.
if time is an issue (lol doctor gbx) i would suggest a monthly, like harper's? i dunno, depends on much time ya got
― pariah carey (Mr. Que), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:29 (fourteen years ago) link
only one with cryptic now = harper's, so I vote for that.
― toast alien, remember barbecue!! (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:29 (fourteen years ago) link
vladimir-putin-in-tuxedo.jpgPutin on the ritz
― goole, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:30 (fourteen years ago) link
atlantic has changed so much in the eight years i've subscribed. william langewiesche's series on the unmaking of the wtc is what hooked me. he's long gone. david bradley bought it and it hasn't been the same--feels ever more bloggy, or like an expanded economist. the long articles aren't as long. there's at least one jeff goldberg or andrew sullivan "how to fix the world" article per, which doesn't do much for me.
― W i l l, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:31 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah see that is the thing, the piling up, and the lack of time. :-/
― a perfect urkel (gbx), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:32 (fourteen years ago) link
my suggestion to you is no nyer, then :/
― pariah carey (Mr. Que), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:32 (fourteen years ago) link
no more fiction in the atlantic either, though at least that means i never have to encounter christopher buckley again. c michael curtis has bizarre taste.
sandra tsing loh is always a treat.
― W i l l, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:33 (fourteen years ago) link
i think the atlantic does a once a year fiction issue in august
― pariah carey (Mr. Que), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:34 (fourteen years ago) link
so harper's, then, huh
― a perfect urkel (gbx), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:37 (fourteen years ago) link
yup. newsstand only. xpost
― W i l l, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:38 (fourteen years ago) link
I cancelled my Harper's sub after the coup article a few years ago...it was getting too much like a left conspiracy mag.
― Euler, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
yah i get that vibe from it too--why i never subscribed
― W i l l, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
but now lewis lapham has his own joint right?
― goole, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:41 (fourteen years ago) link
assuming that kind of thing was coming from him...
the readings section in harper's and the fiction are the best parts, i thinks
― pariah carey (Mr. Que), Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:41 (fourteen years ago) link
plus if you subscribe, you get access to all of the back issues on line, which is awesome
The Atlantic works well as a bathroom mag, because the writing is generally pretty easy and lacking in insight, so when you finish your business and the article sucks it's no prob to move on. And since you prob don't use your bathroom very many times a day, it lasts a month. Good grief @ Sandra Tsing Loh; her articles drive me nuts. She had some thing about how she was getting divorced recently, and I was like, "really, that's a shock".
― Euler, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Lapham would write these long rants at the beginning of each mag too; I think the coup article was by someone else, but I take it Lapham commissioned or at least accepted it. If he's gone, I might go back, because yeah their archives are rad, and the fiction is nice.
― Euler, Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:43 (fourteen years ago) link
new yorker, evan. i kind of hate harper's.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:00 (fourteen years ago) link
i had a subscription to the economist one year but it made me feel so guilty because i never read it and it came like every day it seemed so the piles of it i had lying around unread were physical testament to the many, many things i didn't know.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:04 (fourteen years ago) link
sometimes the nyer piles up, yes, but it is more fun to read than the other magazines you're considering imo and you can take your back-new yorkers on vacation with you and they are very relaxing reading in my experience.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah go w/ new yorker, smart enough to not make u mad but not so taxing that u avoid it because it will be difficult
if u have a commute on public transportation its great--never piles up for me cuz i read it on the subway/train
― Bobby Wo (max), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:13 (fourteen years ago) link
atlantic is totally ridiculous now, they should just change the name to "challops bimonthly"
― Bobby Wo (max), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:14 (fourteen years ago) link
i dont hate harpers but i only ever read the "readings" and the index and the "findings" im always way disappointed by the essays and whatnot
fuck the atlantic for real
― horseshoe, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:14 (fourteen years ago) link
I should just get a sub to New Yorker, my mother-in-law gets it and every time we visit I spend lots of time flipping through them.
― & other try hard shitfests (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:15 (fourteen years ago) link
i have a visceral hatred for the economist because its a big signifier for "im a white douchebag poli-sci major who will describe himself as a 'moderate' and be totally dismissive of anyone to the left of joe lieberman despite having picked up all of my opinions from my advisor and this magazine" or at least it was in my school
― Bobby Wo (max), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:15 (fourteen years ago) link
i was sort of hoping that the atlantic having hua hsu and ta-nehisi coates would make it better but ummm so far it hasnt
― Bobby Wo (max), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:16 (fourteen years ago) link
yes i would like to except ta-nehisi coates but he can't write all their articles, unfortunately
― horseshoe, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:17 (fourteen years ago) link
i dont know why not it only comes out like every three months and is like 20 pages long
― Bobby Wo (max), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:18 (fourteen years ago) link
harper's had a very good run in the 90s but lapham became increasingly tiresome during the bush years. i know he's not there anymore but i haven't checked it lately to see the changes
― velko, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:18 (fourteen years ago) link
i never understood what people see in the economist
― velko, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:20 (fourteen years ago) link
i subscribed because i thought it would make me know a lot of things all at once. i cannot remember a single thing about it, though
― horseshoe, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:22 (fourteen years ago) link