New Yorker magazine alert thread

(Tbf, re: Bishop— I don't consider her part of this crowd, either, but she's often lumped in with them, most likely because of her relationship to Lowell)

I mean, she had a sense of humor -- these dudes avoided it like virgin pina coladas.

I've read a couple Irby poems over the years, and I know about his collected poems -- I can see why he belongs with Creeley, Duncan, etc. I'll check it out of the library.

'To Max Douglas' is my favorite of Irby's, though there is a lot to love.

Also important to remember that he was a queer leftist who insisted on settling in his home state and chosen city of Lawrence, KS, where he taught generations of poets.

speaking of queer leftists, what do you think of Thom Gunn?

The Man with Night Sweats is the only Gunn I've ever rated, tbh. Just not too interesting for me otherwise.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-when-investment-firms-acquire-trailer-parks

nothing is safe from the vampire squid

I swear that same piece ran somewhere like 3 years ago. am I crazy?

John Oliver / Last Week Tonight did a big feature on trailer park usury iirc

Seattle Times ran a good series a few years ago on a separate-but-related issue, the way people get trapped by extortionary financing on mobile homes: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/the-mobile-home-trap-how-a-warren-buffett-empire-preys-on-the-poor/. And that company is owned by Warren Buffett.

When you add to these things the entire payday-loan infrastructure, it is all a very efficient system for extracting every last dime from poor people.

relevant to several posters' interests

How Politics Tested Ravelry and the Crafting Community

Strike!

the signs, they’re good @newyorkerunion pic.twitter.com/YH3TzFSJtc

— Emma Whitford (@emma_a_whitford) March 27, 2021

The internet is so mad at the Ravelry article.

I laughed that the summary on Instagram used reëlection. Never change, New Yorker!!!

“Venders” in the Tucci article what is wrong with these people

You don’t just change the style guide when tastes change

They will be writing “the Times” and “the Washington Post” and “the Istanbul Pennysaver” forever and I applaud their idiosyncrasy

Joe Biden is the fourth President to try to achieve peace in the Middle East and South Asia in the 21st century. There’s a lot of debate in Washington about what he should do—and whether the U.S. should simply pack up and pull out of the region.https://t.co/fy7NB9kGz2

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) April 11, 2021

George W Bush, noted peacemaker.

That Tweet’s mind-reading needs a fact check

We renewed our subscription back in November via a discount site (then-current sub was set to expire in January). Our last one was the one featuring the epic Lawrence Wright covid article, but since then ... nothing. The discount site assures us things are moving ahead but backed up, which I find plausible, but this is the longest we've gone without the New Yorker in years. Weirdly, doesn't really feel like we've missed anything!

Renewal is coming up here but even with discounts sites I'm not finding anything significantly under $100/year, which is way more than we've ever paid before.

"tried to achieve peace" -- these people really believe their own farts smell good don't they

I confess I have no idea how my subscription renews, where I got it from, or what it costs. It just keeps arriving, and has done so for 20 years. I'm even a little scared to find out.

Whenever anyone calls me on the phone or sends me something in the mail about it, I just ignore it. And the magazine keeps arriving.

Perhaps some day I'll get an enormous bill. Which I will, of course, ignore.

❤️

when you're an influencer people just send you things

i got so sick of getting it in the mail and putting it straight into the recycling that i emailed david remnick about it. it stopped coming after that.

you could have put it in a little free library, or given to a local medical waiting room, or just left them at a bus stop

Good magazines are not allowed in hospital waiting rooms. Some old executive order issued by Reagan I think

Good chance in all four scenarios (including the straight to recycling scenario) that it doesn’t end up getting recycled

Getting read is a better outcome than getting recycled

They both end up with dog shit all over the place

Borowitz isn't in every issue

What the hell with the McPhee piece this week

I have adored McPhee for a long time but his last few things were a bit rambling, and not in a fun way.

I stopped subscribing for the first time this year, as I barely have time to read enough to finish my degree with a one-year-old toddler, let alone the New Yorker.

I pulled out the articles I still wanna read from 2-3 years of archive, tossed the rest out, and now we have a nice, telephone-book-size pile of paper and staples for my daughter to play with.

Before the pandemic I took magazines that I had read or wasn't going to read to the fitness center at my workplace. Since the fitness center closed I've been saving these magazines in anticipation of the place reopening.

I really liked the McPhee piece, you all didn't? A real pleasure to read something not in the standard register, but that still sings. Then again, you could say the same about the short story in this issue whose strange energy appreciated but which I wasn't actually finding myself liking and haven't finished yet. I thought the piece about Native language in Maine was badly written and just kind of off, too bad because the subject is one I really wanted to read about. French tacos piece was fluff but I enjoyed it all the way through. Jack Handey v. good in the exact way he's always good, I've read enough of these for a lifetime but I endorse NYer running them because there are always new readers.

Oh, I forgot, the Missouri fraternity suicide article, that was also really good. Good issue!

Was this issue the one with Nathaniel Mackey, or was that last issue? I don't get it because its liberalism makes me nauseous, but sometimes the profiles of artists and writers I admire are great.

That was the last issue.

And that was a really interesting piece though I would say that for people like me who haven't read the poetry it doesn't convey any sense of what the poetry is (not for lack of trying), just the person.

i also let my subscription lapse this year. they're still coming due to the lag but any week could be the last. usually it updates without my knowing it but this year i had a new credit card and i haven't been reading enough to justify. i mainly read the poems tbh. anyone else like them? i feel like the current poetry editor kevin young is kinda great; the poems are really varied and sometimes have a fun almost slam vibe. couple recent ones i liked Remembering a City and a Sickness By Christian Wiman and My Empire By Kaveh Akbar. also i love the podcast, the recent one with margaret atwood was amazing. my memories of the poems under the former editor paul muldoon were super dull but i wasn't as into poetry then

Kevin Young is the poetry editor? I thought he was director of the African American museum at the Smithsonian now.

I won't comment on the poems.

Mackey is truly one of the great poets and poetic thinkers of our times. His work is really indispensable.

haha not surprised you aren't a fan :)

Kevin Young is the poetry editor? I thought he was director of the African American museum at the Smithsonian now.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, April 13, 2021 2:50 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

since 2017. i think he does both. he seems extremely prestigious

flopson, yeah, not my cuppa.

The last issue I received was April 5, so I can't comment on any of these more recent pieces. I thought Rachel Aviv's profile of Elizabeth Loftus was really good, though.

I also have a 700-page book by him (Kevin Young) on my shelf which looks really interesting but which I've been too intimidated to read so far

Bunk, right?

I actually think he's not a bad poet, though I prefer work around similar issues by some of his contemporaries.

flopson, yeah, not my cuppa.

― it's like edging for your mind (the table is the table), Tuesday, April 13, 2021 2:58 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

xp- any poetry magazine or website that you'd recommend?

Bunk is an interesting book. Not exactly what I hoped for when I bought it (I was looking for something more directly Luc Sante-meets-Ricky Jay, rather than a philosophical tome about why human beings are so easily suckered into bullshit), but I'm glad I read it and I keep it around as a potential reference.