Martin Schneider writes:
Note: I’m participating in Infinite Summer, the widespread Internet book project dedicated to reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. For more information, consult my introduction. My strategy has been to avoid lengthy commentary but instead list quintessentially Wallacean vocabulary and note other oddities, including Kindle typos.
That number, 868, sounds impressive, but Kindle users will recognize it as a shamefully low number (all of Infinite Jest has 25,756 locations). Anyway, this isn’t an update on my reading (coming soon!), it’s a report of an interesting link.
One of my favorite bloggers, Kevin Drum (with whom we’ve interacted fruitfully before), currently of Mother Jones, formerly of The Washington Monthly, weighed in on Infinite Summer from the perspective of someone who devoured the book a decade ago, and won’t be doing it again. Not that he didn’t like the book, he really did, a lot.
He links to his original thoughts, written in 1997 and only mildly spoileriffic.
Question: He notes that in 1997, Infinite Jest was one of the few books that had its own website. Today, it’s 404. What’s up with that, Little, Brown? That’s literary malpractice!
Update: Apparently it was 404 as early as 1999.
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Sempé Fi (On Covers): Voilà , la Mer!
_Pollux writes_:
He’s jumped in. His socks, cap, shoes, glasses, shirt, pants, backpack, and bicycle lie strewn on the beach behind him. And now what? He’s shivering in the cold water, the sun is concealed by rain-heavy clouds, and the beach is empty and forlorn.
Such is the vision presented in “Jean-Jacques Sempé’s”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sempe cover, called “Jumping In,” for the June 22, 2009 issue of _The New Yorker_. Sempé’s human figures are always minuscule, but the little boy on this cover is smaller still, composed as he is of the thinnest strikes of the pen in the face of engulfing watercolor spills of green, white, and purple that comprise clouds, sea, and sky.
And now what? It’s not the best day for going to the beach. Perhaps he would have been better off staying home and reading Tintin comic books or going to the movies to see some “utterly mindless thriller”:http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/06/22/090622crci_cinema_lane starring a subway car, a subway train dispatcher played by Denzel Washington, and John Travolta in _Swordfish_-mode again.
But summer is about trying new things, even if it involves some discomfort in the form of a freezing Atlantic. Sempé’s “cover”:http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=125X8GPUW9QS9PRJTHTB9HN8S59RE6G2&sitetype=1&did=5&sid=51301&pid=&keyword=+Semp%E9§ion=all&title=undefined&whichpage=11&sortBy=popular for the April 8, 2002 issue of _The New Yorker_ offered a similar vision of a person wading into a wide ocean, but the figure on this 2002 cover is older and much more content to simply wade in. He’s not going any farther. This was a five-minute expedition, only involving the removal of shoes and socks.
But Sempé’s younger figure on this 2009 cover is much more daring, although a little uncertain. Such is youth, a mixture of daring and uncertainty.
The sea beckons. How far will you go?
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: The Shawshank Detention
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Read “The Wavy Rule” archive, and “order your Wavy Rule 2008 Anthology today!”:http://emdashes.com/2009/03/the-wavy-rule-anthology-now-fo.php
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Precipitation of Golconde
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Read “The Wavy Rule” archive, and “order your Wavy Rule 2008 Anthology today!”:http://emdashes.com/2009/03/the-wavy-rule-anthology-now-fo.php
Just Released: New Yorker App for the iPhone
Martin Schneider writes:
I do not own an iPhone, but it doesn’t take a genius to surmise that this might make an awful lot of people happy:
Here’s the text:
About The New Yorker for iPhone
A weekly magazine with a signature mix of reporting on national and international politics and culture, humor and cartoons, fiction and poetry, and cultural reviews and criticism.The New Yorker for iPhone features a selection of stories from each week’s issue as well as original material from newyorker.com and one-touch access to our blogs and podcasts.
More to come. I’m sure Emily (who does own an iPhone) is raring to give it a test-drive.
_Update_: If you want to get a taste for how it will work, look at “this”:http://iphone.newyorker.com/tny-iphone/#_home.
What’s in This Week’s New Yorker: 07.06.09
Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. It’s a double issue. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “The Kill Company,” Raffi Khatchadourian chronicles a military mission in Iraq that led to the deaths of eight Iraqis, and examines the role that violent rhetoric may have had in encouraging the soldiers’ deadly use of force. The killings, which occurred during Operation Iron Triangle, in May, 2006, suggest “a grave problem within the chain of command,” Khatchadourian writes.
In “The Contrarian,” Ryan Lizza talks to Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, about her recent debates with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner over the Obama Administration’s reform proposals for regulating the banking industry.
In Comment, Hendrik Hertzberg explores the Obama Administration’s stance on gay rights.
In The Financial Page, James Surowiecki looks at how a Consumer Financial Protection Agency could affect consumers.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Yoni Brenner imagines Justice Clarence Thomas’s dreams as he dozes on the bench.
Ariel Levy profiles writer-director Nora Ephron.
Malcolm Gladwell reviews Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price.
Alex Ross takes in a day of performances during the Make Music festival.
Nancy Franklin watches the new HBO series Hung.
Peter Schjeldahl visits the James Ensor retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.
David Denby reviews Public Enemies and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
There is a short story by Lorrie Moore.
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Seeself Saw
A childhood drawing I found in a box in my parents’ house. It’s been a year since The Wavy Rule “began.”:http://emdashes.com/2008/06/introducing-the-wavy-rule-a-ne.php Thank you to all who’ve read it and for your support!
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Read “The Wavy Rule” archive, and “order your Wavy Rule 2008 Anthology today!”:http://emdashes.com/2009/03/the-wavy-rule-anthology-now-fo.php
Michael Jackson, 1958-2009
Martin Schneider writes:
He didn’t have anything to do with The New Yorker, of course. But it seems silly to try to ignore his death.
The first mention of Michael Jackson in The New Yorker that I could find is from July 14, 1975. It was in the Talk of the Town and it had two parts, both by Jamaica Kincaid (I think).
The first part is a report describing a press conference in which the Jackson family announced that it was leaving Motown to join Epic. The report emphasized the businesslike nature of the announcement: “No Jackson said anything sentimental.”
On the same page appears a kind of fan letter, this one explicitly by Jamaica Kincaid, that intentionally echoes the kinds of fan letters he received every day—one of which is actually quoted, in full, in the item.
Such reports are full of heartbreaking things. Any reference to the color of his skin, the shape of his nose, the kinkiness of his hair, his affinity for children or animals, his marriage prospects—all of these things are heartbreaking, and Kincaid refers to all of them.
Possibly the most startling bit of information is that Jackson once appeared on The Dating Game. (It’s true.)
In the July 9, 1984, issue, there is a whimsical, lightly acerbic Talk piece by James Lardner about the existence of a Michael Jackson Hotline.
In the March 14, 1988, issue, there is a tranquil Talk piece by Garrison Keillor (uncredited, in the issue) about observing Jackson rehearse a rendition of “Man in the Mirror” for the Grammy telecast. This one is not heartbreaking. This one is about Jackson in his element, as a supreme entertainer, and it emphasizes his confidence and ease among people.
I don’t have much to say about him. I was never a fan in any real sense, but I admired the skill. He was a genius; he was damaged. Everyone knows it. A friend today asked me if he was the most famous person in the world. Was he? He might have been.
On the New Yorker blog, Ben Greenman gives his thoughts.
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Pollux: Wine Labels #9
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Read “The Wavy Rule” archive, and “order your Wavy Rule 2008 Anthology today!”:http://emdashes.com/2009/03/the-wavy-rule-anthology-now-fo.php
Start Smiling: Not the New Yorker Map of the U.S. You Were Thinking Of
Jonathan Taylor writes:
We noted the new book about the new book about the short-lived, full-throated, New Yorker–inspired Chicago magazine of the 1920s, The Chicagoan. But any chance to see more brash images from the mag is welcome: Here’s a slide show from Stop Smiling magazine (a stylish successor of sorts).
See especially the proto-Steinbergian “New Yorker’s Map of the United States,” and spot the tiny number of places that ≠ Dubuque. Reno, Nevada, didn’t seem to loom as large for The New Yorker as the map would suggest….
