― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 November 2003 18:38 (twenty years ago) link
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 November 2003 18:42 (twenty years ago) link
I think I liked the Hampton piece because.... well, I'd read a piece by him about Chris Marker in Film Comment a month or so previously, which I thought was ace, and the Ghost World piece was read in that light, ie confirming for me that he was really good. He reminds me of a less fusty Greil Marcus, if Marcus had taken on board Ian Penman's comments on 'In the Fascist Bathroom'.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:06 (twenty years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:15 (twenty years ago) link
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 3 November 2003 19:39 (twenty years ago) link
― quincie, Monday, 3 November 2003 20:11 (twenty years ago) link
I think I was excited about that article, because I once wrote something in college about Ghost World (before it was a movie!) and MTV's Daria, and then disappointed because Hampton's piece didn't go in the direction I wanted.
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 November 2003 20:26 (twenty years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 November 2003 20:28 (twenty years ago) link
― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Monday, 3 November 2003 20:33 (twenty years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 November 2003 20:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Monday, 3 November 2003 20:55 (twenty years ago) link
― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 3 November 2003 21:35 (twenty years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 November 2003 21:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 November 2003 21:56 (twenty years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 November 2003 21:58 (twenty years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 3 November 2003 22:10 (twenty years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 November 2003 22:17 (twenty years ago) link
This is my problem with the entire enterprise in a nutshell.
Actually, it's not, but it's a good starting place. Not wanting to be categorically dismissive of well-funded, well-meaning literary ventures by folks with book contracts and editorial jobs at the VLS, I've read a couple issues (though I'm not forking over the $65 for a subscription). And in the wake of the incessant hoo-haa over the 'snark' essay I find it sort of unbelievable that THERE ARE NO BOOK REVIEWS!!!!!! Rather, still predominantly a vehicle for profiles of pointless celebrities (Liz Phair?) and cutesy quirkiness (the star-nosed mole???). And if I wanted that I'd read Spin or McSweeney's, thanks.
I also choke on the cover price. Sure the magazine is pretty to look at, but who exactly is their target audience? Who can afford a $65/year magazine subscription? If they'd take some damn ads, print the thing on lighter paper (so it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to mail), and run some &$^% book reviews, I might start paying attention.
― martha bayne, Monday, 3 November 2003 22:47 (twenty years ago) link
My objections to the cover price are both practical and ideological. Sure, I'm not that likely to pay $8 for a magazine on impulse, or pony up the subscription $$, but I'm almost more offended by the elitism implicit in creating such a precious package (insert pet graphic design peeve here as well). It'd seem to run counter to the magazine's stated "alternative" mission. So I'm forced to conclude that (as Brian said, *again* with this clique) that the Believer is an alternative to the NYRB only in that it's target audience is young, moneyed, educated white people instead of their grandparents.
― martha bayne, Monday, 3 November 2003 22:54 (twenty years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 3 November 2003 22:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 November 2003 23:23 (twenty years ago) link
most of my gripes w/the mag/enterprise have been addressed above, but I've grown to like it more and more w/each passing issue--seems like they've gotten over a lot of the stupider "you've gotta say NICE THINGS about writers, maaaaan" stuff. or maybe I've just stopped noticing it so much and concentrate more on the stuff I liked. also, the ?uestlove Q&A (http://www.believermag.com/issues/august_2003/ahmir_thompson.htm) is one of the most flat-out entertaining interviews I've read in ages.
― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 00:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 01:06 (twenty years ago) link
― martha bayne, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 01:08 (twenty years ago) link
― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 01:10 (twenty years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 01:22 (twenty years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:58 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:02 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 26 December 2003 20:29 (twenty years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 26 December 2003 20:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Matos @ Kate Silver's (Kate Silver), Saturday, 27 December 2003 08:24 (twenty years ago) link
What? Oh no.
― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Saturday, 27 December 2003 16:04 (twenty years ago) link
― maura (maura), Monday, 29 December 2003 02:11 (twenty years ago) link
McSweeney's needs money
― Dandy Don Weiner, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 13:08 (sixteen years ago) link
i'd make a donation if sarah vowell pledged NOT to write anything for it
― m coleman, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 13:28 (sixteen years ago) link
The Believer magazine, classic or dead? (Dead)
BREAKING: UNLV and @BlackMtnInst announced @believermag will publish its final issue, No. 139, in February/March 2022. "The Believer consumed a significant portion of BMI's resources... there was no path forward to continue publishing the magazine."Full release below. pic.twitter.com/5HyjTngFT5— Off the Record (@offtherecordnyc) October 19, 2021
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 19:27 (two years ago) link
What a bummer.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 19:28 (two years ago) link
This sucks.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 20:49 (two years ago) link
Budget context:
the poetry editor was Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown. & UNLV can't figure it out. i just want to point out that the UNLV football coach makes $625,000 a year &the Wolf Pack has $2.225 million tied into football coaching staff for the 2020 season. higher ed makes me so mad https://t.co/CvGthrt7dq— Patrycja (@jej_sen) October 19, 2021
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 22:18 (two years ago) link
The other shoe (is a dildo, apparently):
Hi, this is the new owner of The Believer. We purchased the website to keep the archives up. Our goal is to bring back the magazine, but since it was losing tens of thousands a month we need to get it making money using SEO then use that to bring back all the original writers.— The Sex Toy Collective (@ST_Collective_) May 9, 2022
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 05:28 (one year ago) link
a true literary clusterfuck
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 12:19 (one year ago) link
A little more context: McSweeney's was supposedly interested in buying it back, but UNLV sold it to the Sex Toy Collective instead.
Alright. Here’s what happened. I left The Believer in July, and a few months later its parent institution, the Black Mountain Institute based at UNLV, announced it was shuttering the magazine. It went up for sale. https://t.co/wB5TDrOrgD— Kristen Radtke (@KristenRadtke) May 10, 2022
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 15:16 (one year ago) link
I wonder how many writers are going to come back to The Believer (NSFW)
― Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 16:21 (one year ago) link
Introducing The Believer's audience (and a sizable percentage of its writers, probably) to the concept of sex can only be a good thing.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 16:59 (one year ago) link