Monthly Archives: June 2009

Infinite Summer: Location 494

Martin Schneider writes:
I’ll be weighing in with some thoughts as the summer progresses, but most of my comments will be vocabulary-related. The Kindle lets you add notes to the text (it’s fun to add footnotes to Infinite Jest, like bringing coal to Newcastle). I’ll be noting typos in the Kindle edition and other words that caught my eye, struck my fancy, or needed looking up.
Basically it’s a promenade of my ignorance and admiration.
location 54: Kindle typo: eitherlor
location 212: Kekuléan
location 226: aviarian: “of or pertaining to an aviary”? Hmm.
location 244: lapidary
location 264: “myriad scrutiny,” genius.
location 270: nice work getting “Academy” right, Kindle.
location 318: Brewster’s-Angle
location 361: creātus
location 380: Nunn Bush
location 396: pases
location 479: hypophalangial
location 481: Kindle typo: What aBurger (caused by page break in original manuscript)

The New Yorker is Colbert’s Bench (The Password is “Tea”)

Martin Schneider writes:
More a “Looked At” than a “Looked Into,” perhaps. Stephen Colbert sure does heart The New Yorker lately. This week Simon Schama was on, promoting his book The American Future, and last week Paul Muldoon made an appearance.
Colbert made fun of Schama’s accent (“The Roh-mans?”) and asked Muldoon if parents get cranky when they learn their progeny intend to major in the insufficiently remunerative discipline of poetry. He and Muldoon read Muldoon’s poem “Tea” (from his book Madoc: A Mystery) together, and Colbert, upon learning that Schama is Jewish, asked whether tea is kosher.
Here are the clips:

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Paul Muldoon
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Simon Schama
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

No Way–The Baffler Is Back!

Emily Gordon, who attended several Baffler parties in the nineties but was recently and, considering her age, flatteringly counseled to avoid the phrase “back in the day” because she isn’t old enough to use it, writes:
This is great news! As usual, the Observer‘s Leon Neyfakh has the story.
Long live magazines! You know me–I don’t say these things ironically.

The Infinite Summer of David Foster Wallace

Martin Schneider writes:
Summer began yesterday, and with it began Infinite Summer, a massive book club project (sort of) in which the only book is David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, and readers have until the autumn (September 21) to finish it. The pace is 75 pages a week (not including the associated endnotes), which isn’t very hard, and readers are rewarded with all sorts of commentary and opportunities to discuss! (Here’s the schedule.)
I’m using the Kindle version, which should make it doubly fun (and also make navigating the endnotes a breeze). I read about 300 pages of it when it first came out, and then stopped, and then developed a block about cracking the book ever again. Until now!
I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!

What’s in This Week’s New Yorker: 06.29.09

Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “With the Marchers,” a resident of Tehran reflects on the recent demonstrations and the situation on the ground after the country’s controversial Presidential election. The resident, who decided to write this piece without a byline because of the Iranian authorities’ attempts to curtail the actions of the Western media, writes, “On the afternoon of June 15th, I bumped into my old friend Reza at the huge demonstration on Azadi Street—the march nobody will ever forget.”
In Comment, Laura Secor looks at the difficult situation that Iran finds itself in now that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has demanded an end to the street protests mounted in favor of the reformist Presidential candidate, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
In “Angelo’s Ashes,” Connie Bruck offers a behind-the-scenes look at the rise and fall of Countrywide Financial Corporation, once the largest home-mortgage provider in the United States, and chronicles the ambitions of Angelo Mozilo, its “self-regarding chairman and C.E.O.”
In “The Catastrophist,” Elizabeth Kolbert profiles James Hansen, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who is sometimes called “the father of global warming,” and examines his recent efforts to warn the public about the increasing threats to our climate.
Rebecca Mead examines the recently discovered early letters from Edith Wharton to her governess.
Alex Ross visits Marlboro Music, the famed summer institute for aspiring and established musicians.
James Wood reads Censoring an Iranian Love Story, by Shahriar Mandanipour.
Jill Lepore looks at the parenting-advice industry.
Peter Schjeldahl attends the Judith Leyster exhibit at the National Gallery.
David Denby reviews The Hurt Locker and Food, Inc.
Hilton Als reviews David Adjmi’s Stunning.
There is a short story by Stephen O’Connor.