The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on June 19, 2010, 04:23:19 pm ---Anybody else reading the fiction issue? I just finished ZZ Packard's story, which is about two kids, former slaves, making their way across the backwoods of the South in the days immediately after Emancipation. It is really compelling and well-written, and strikes me as historically authentic. It reads like an excerpt from a novel; I will be looking out for this novel.
--- End quote ---
In an interview piece published in this morning's Metro, Bret Easton Ellis made some rather snarky remarks about The New Yorker fiction issue:
--- Quote ---Q.: As a former wunderkind, any thoughts on The New Yorker's list of best writers under 40?
Ellis: Who cares! Who cares! Who cares about these writers? Sure, they're pretty good. But for the most part, they're white and educated, so they're The New Yorker's audience. That's why they choose them.
--- End quote ---
What a jerk. ... ::)
--- Quote from: serious crayons on June 19, 2010, 04:27:25 pm ---Oh, and while I'm on this thread, have I ever mentioned how much I love James Surowiecki's "The Financial Page" columns?
--- End quote ---
Ever notice his picture? He's kinda cute. ;D
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 22, 2010, 12:14:48 pm ---In an interview piece published in this morning's Metro, Bret Easton Ellis made some rather snarky remarks about The New Yorker fiction issue:
What a jerk. ... ::)
--- End quote ---
Many writers feel at least a touch of schadenfreude in response to the Fiction Issue -- hell, to the New Yorker in general. I'm guilty myself. But most know better than to snipe about it on the record.
Here's a much more reasonable and likable response by the writer Steve Almond: http://therumpus.net/2010/06/the-new-yorker%E2%80%99s-one-over-40/
--- Quote ---Ever notice his picture? He's kinda cute. ;D
--- End quote ---
Yes, and yes! I'm taking a class in writing the 10-minute play. Last week, for an exercise during the first class session, the teacher dumped a bunch of pictures of people she had clipped from the New Yorker (we were supposed to write monologues and dialogues for these mostly anonymous people). I noticed one was of an attractive guy who looked strangely familiar. Suddenly I recognized him -- James Surowiecki! No, I didn't pick that one for my exercise.
serious crayons:
I'm most of the way through "Letting Go," in the Aug. 2 issue, a powerful article about how doctors do and/or should treat terminally ill patients. It's by Atul Gawande, who wrote another fabulous piece last year about how we age, which I read a second time when it was included in Best American Essays 2009. (He's a successful surgeon, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, a writer for the New Yorker, a MacArthur fellow, and is even cute -- do you want to marry him or kill him?)
Anyway, though it's not the least bit political, the article makes a great case for death panels. We need death panels! Oh, not the mythical panels of bureaucrats who would condemn Sarah Palin's son for not being a "contributing member of society," but somebody who helps guide people through end-of-life decisions in a realistic, caring way. Because nobody, apparently, is doing that now.
serious crayons:
Also, while I was on here, I reread the Bret Easton Ellis quote that Jeff posted above and was freshly annoyed.
--- Quote ---Q.: As a former wunderkind, any thoughts on The New Yorker's list of best writers under 40?
Ellis: Who cares! Who cares! Who cares about these writers? Sure, they're pretty good. But for the most part, they're white and educated, so they're The New Yorker's audience. That's why they choose them.
--- End quote ---
First of all, many of them aren't white. Second, of course they're educated -- how many uneducated people write New Yorker-caliber short stories? Third, BEE himself is white and educated. Should we not care about him, then?
What a jerk, is right. Or, more to the point, what a bitter has-been.
Front-Ranger:
Yes, that was pretty annoying. So many of TNY's writers are global...lots of stories are translated from other languages. And there's Annie Proulx too, who writes about rural people. He cares not a fig and shouldn't have even been asked the question. He's so ignernt on the subject it hurts my eyeballs to read it!!
Atul reminds me of Mark Ruffalo in The Kids are All Right, appealing in an absent-minded cuddly type of way. I'll look up the article. I skimmed through the last issue and only read the cartoons, LOL! Loved the cover of the angular lady dropping the angular iphone into the angular pool.
So, aren't there advocates and ministers helping older people make end-of-life decisions?? Oh, and family members as well.
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