seriously. if i read this in a "dangerous visions" style collection i'd feel hella disappointed.
― s.clover, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
ehh, I don't have the patience to argue this point with you. If you don't find that story -- or that excerpt -- smugly 'clever' than we will just leave it at that.
― remy bean, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Agreed, my problem with the story is the heavy-handedness, which goes along with the awkward tone.
xp
― Jordan, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
considering the sludge that the NYer can sometimes put between its covers, this story is really not that bad, not too offensive, from what little i have read. the writing--at least the first page or so--does not seem too cute or too clever at all.
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 19:07 (sixteen years ago) link
"Sunita buzzed up fat Constantine, who was hefting a box of mangoes in his meaty hands."
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
"Otto was a long-haired German who shot music promos. 'I need information, man,' he said, shrugging. We were sitting in a sushi bar, drinking green tea. 'I don’t care how it gets to me.'"
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 19:25 (sixteen years ago) link
My main problems with the story are that it seems more about an idea than about characters, that that idea isn't a very interesting or original idea, and that the writing generally isn't very good.
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 21:46 (sixteen years ago) link
hey look there a pile of shit on the ground - its kinda greenish isnt it - ohh is that some corn i see in there!
― jhøshea, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 21:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Look, it is soooooo hard to write about any mode of dress well in the context of fiction, because it has to do all of those things.
-- suzy, Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:57 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link
"It's hard to do x well" should not be used to defend stories that are supposed to represent the best of contemporary fiction. This is The New Yorker. Glimmer Train is down the hall.
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:01 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.serenedominic.com/snob1.jpg
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:03 (sixteen years ago) link
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an24130627-v
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh god am I glad I don't typically expect the NYer to provide the best of contemporary fiction! The only time I'll really get on them about that is with debut fiction issues; for most of the regular issues it's just popular authors who have name recognition with the demographic, and have a story that needs conversion into a paycheck.
― nabisco, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Wait, does that make sense? I get pissed off when they debut of first-expose writers I don't think are particularly good or promising, but can't work up a sweat about established writers dropping in sub-par stories.
A lot of that is based on some fear that if the NYer today were seriously spending its time trying to find and boost the best young writers, it would screw up the world entirely, give them some weird and awful power over the industry, create a what's-new cycle that celebrates writers for two years and then leaves them out to dry as they mature -- just generally create something about like indie bands and blogs, only in a much worse way.
― nabisco, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:10 (sixteen years ago) link
i let my subscription lapse - its just factoids w/a side of shitty fiction
― jhøshea, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. ... oh wait
― nabisco, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I pretty much never read NYer fiction unless it's an author I already like (Updike, Murakami, etc.).
― jaymc, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:15 (sixteen years ago) link
On one hand, I guess it's silly to expect The New Yorker to mean to fiction what it did fifty years ago when the fiction landscape has completely changed. Also it's probably easy for me to idealize the old New Yorker with a filter through which only the best material has passed. OTOH with declining print space devoted to fiction, I'd think The New Yorker could be more choosy and I've been a little disappointed with their choices -- the writing they choose these days that isn't Doctorow or Munro or Updike too often has a *lifestyle* feel.
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't know who either Mr Burt Stanton or Mr (?) jhoshea are, but boy, that (3 posts up) just made me laugh out loud.
I'm impressed or pleased, I think, that anyone buys and reads The New Yorker. Good for you!
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:51 (sixteen years ago) link
seriously, i started feeling so much better about myself and my life when i stopped expecting the New Yorker to ever have good fiction.
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:53 (sixteen years ago) link
id read that rag from front to back then find myself telling everyone abt all the fascinating things i learned - srsly that is no way to be.
― jhøshea, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 22:58 (sixteen years ago) link
eh, New Yorker non-fiction at its best can be revelatory, although the lesser stuff tends to just sort of ramble on. I think they've been way overdoing their primary coverage. "Hillary's Latest Comeback" is just not worth anywhere near the wordage they give it.
― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 23:02 (sixteen years ago) link
im just kind of joking abt hating the nyer kind of
although i did let my sub lapse a while ago
― jhøshea, Tuesday, 11 March 2008 23:15 (sixteen years ago) link
damn son i thought we was fam
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:11 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
minstrel
― Arms, Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:12 AM Bookmark
― LA CANCION MAS PRETENCIOSA DEL MUNDO... (The Reverend), Saturday, 12 December 2009 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link
This thread kind of makes me glad I don't have the time or energy to get all worked up about stuff like this anymore.
― Bay-L.A. Bar Talk (Hurting 2), Saturday, 12 December 2009 23:21 (fourteen years ago) link
"10) over-developed "ethnic" backstory closely mirroring writer's own"
i swear this is a plot to get me to never read international fiction. cuz i see those stories and my eyes glaze over and i reach for a slim volume of ring lardner.
― scott seward, Thursday, 31 May 2012 15:20 (eleven years ago) link
racist
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Thursday, 31 May 2012 15:22 (eleven years ago) link