New Yorker magazine alert thread

And, yeah, my 9/11 issue was a week late, too.

Were those late issues all about 7 WTC or what.

but the best article in the whole issue is the one about a pharmacist working in a remote area of colorado

this was really fantastic

― sleep \lim: $\lim_(x\to\infty) over (Lamp), Thursday, 22 September 2011 06:20 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

god, that old guy w/ the unsent letters asking friends to introduce him to 'men who are like him' just killed me

― iatee, Friday, 23 September 2011 18:00 (2 days ago) Bookmark

god this was wonderful. i started off reading it & thinking it'd just be great like trillin's shopsin's profile, but it was so stunning, picking up the rest of the town & the few repeat themes that the guy wouldn't necessarily unify. stuff like 'it is an hour and a half from the nearest traffic light' was excellent.

yeah i loved that article, and that guy, predictably

Story had this really pronounced gay subtext - his gay brother, his enthusiastic treatment of the 4 transgendered patients, the mysterious drifter at the end who also turns out to be gay. Not sure what to make of that, but it was a fascinating and beautifully written piece. Could be adapted into a TV show or movie.

I don't think there has to be anything made of that beyond 'sometimes people are gay, also in rural areas'

that janet macolm thing on the photographer didnt seem v new yorkerish, the way she put herself in the article

I don't think there has to be anything made of that beyond 'sometimes people are gay, also in rural areas'

i think it was more than this, because it was specifically exploring the fact that the people who are gay, in rural areas, are in some cases dealing with having to hide this from family or society or themselves, or whatever else. & the fact that this elicited the guy's compassion, & figured in the changing narrative of his life, having previously been cagey around his brother, made it a part of the portrait of him, too.

also it is one of the articles you can just read on the website in case anyone wants to send it around to friends, etc. it was really stunning.

half way through the malcolm/struth thing - narrator hasn't become intrusive yet, it is quite a 'bold', 'personal' profile of everyone involved though i think.

i wouldnt say she's necessarily intrusive, its just that usually they seem to sort of go out of their way to not personalise the profiles?

just hunted down the pharmacist article - it's here http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/09/26/110926fa_fact_hessler?currentPage=all and it's really beautiful

when i think of the platonic new yorker article i think of at least one paragraph where the writer describes driving through the small town, stopping at the local pharmacy/gas station/petting zoo and having an off-the-cuff conversation with the pharmacist/gas station attendant/goat wrangler about the topic of the article

Haven't read that pharmacist article yet, but its author just won a MacArthur "genius grant."

aye, & is about to move to egypt to cover it for the NYer for the next few years. going to read his 'personal history' about returning to the states from china, in the archives, as soon as i can squeeze it in between other articles.

oh i remember that personal history thing, it was pretty good iirc

Does anyone else subscribe to the NY on their Kindle (or other device)? I've found it easier to keep up, week by week, reading on the device.

That's how I get it. Comes in so much earlier than the print version.

Wow, I had totally forgotten about that move from China to Colorado Personal History and didn't make the connection. I remember it being pretty entertaining. Lots of stuff involving shipping all his belongings with no way to track their arrival time, the realities of getting his stuff from a boat to his rural home, that kind of thing.

Theo Jansen, Strandbeest creator: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/09/05/110905fa_fact_frazier

Ikea article is pretty interesting

http://i.imgur.com/DDXkv.jpg

most of the IKEA article was good but the fretting about "our generation's furniture is so disposable, our parents' generation's furniture was solid and long-lasting, what does this say about us?" was, not really dumb i guess, but pretty inessential in contrast with nazi connections and corporate brainwashing

is ikea furniture really not long-lasting? igi if you have to move it, but some of the ikea stuff in our house has lasted for a decade at least

it's probably more the fact that it wasn't hewn from a trunk of solid oak by a bronzed carpenter using a lathe brought over from england by his forefather on the mayflower

did anyone read the piece on taylor swift? worth getting the magazine just for that?

i read it. i don't really know much or care much about her, the whole point of it was basically "she's nice."

lol ok thanking u

i read it today. i learned that her superfans are called "swfties" & she likes stamps & writes a lot of thank you notes, like to tech & radio guys, even. but it was cute idk. lizzie widdicombe isnt much of a journalist

A friend of mine told me this story about about how she was stopped -- almost vaguely accosted -- by a french guy on a subway, while she was reading the New Yorker, and he said something to the effect of -- "This magazine, do you feel that it stands for anything? I have read it and I do not think so."

When articles like that are printed I feel like he's right.

http://www.media-freaks.com/work/leilei/pepelepew/pepelepew-02.jpg

"This magazine, do you feel that it stands for anything? I have read it and I do not think so."

pretty sure that was just someone doing an impression of a french guy

lolll

Do we just expect excellence from Atul Gawande and that's why no one has linked to his newest one (on how doctors and other professions can benefit from coaches) yet? He totally shows how you're supposed to challenge conventional wisdom.

that 1 was alright, kind of a boring issue imo. at least in terms of my tastes in topics. the fiction was hilarious tho

yeah btw i almost always skip the fiction & would appreciate fiction alerts itt too

otm ^^, same
i kinda liked the guy's story about tracking down his iphone? like the writing was obv p cloying but it, & its wau-@-technology 70 yr old vantage point, was quite endearing i thought.

the patti smith was very true tales of american life/npr

Anyone read James Wood's masterly review of Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child? He's one of the few critics who can explain how good prose works. In addition, it's one of the most judicious mixed reviews I've read in months.

Ppl on this thread will be pleased by the news that Emily Nussbaum replaces Nancy Franklin as the TV critic.

too bad wood's prose never reaches such heights

i might read that since i won't read the novel & so have no fear of spoilers, etc.

am still working through whichever week's issue it was that had the big NC/pope thing. couldn't believe some of the examples of attack ads - the guy who they drew a sombrero on & wrote 'mucho taxo adios senor' next to.

nussbaum is a much better choice than franklin but cmon yall i wouldve KILLED IT

u can't write about downton abbey every week max

Wood's way of pinpointing good sentences and bad ones, and explaining how they work, is sublime.

Loved the Andrew Stanton profile - much more revealing than Anthony Lane's Pixar piece.

nussbaum is a much better choice than franklin but cmon yall i wouldve KILLED IT

― max, Friday, October 14, 2011 10:52 AM (1 hour ago)

can you please start sending them stuff on spec every week?

haha my mom is always like 'you're a good writer! why don't you submit something to the new yorker?'

i don't think it works that way mom . . . unless you're david brooks i guess

<3 parents

"you always fix our computer! why don't you become a computer scientist?"

Jeff Foxworthy did the same routine, but when I was doing public announcements for the portrait studios inside a Coon Rapids Wal-Mart, my mother suggested that maybe some hotshot radio executive would hear me over the speakers and hire me away on the spot.

Couple not so current ones:
Susan Orlean on Jean-Paul Gaultier (accompanying chat is pretty cute too)
Dyson Vacuums (paywall; 2011/09/20)