The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Front-Ranger:
I mostly agree with you about "P's Parties" Paul. If you were the P, those parties would go better! Also agree about "The Kitchen God." There was no ending and no climax or epiphany either! The best of the three long fiction works was "Colorin Colorado". BTW, it has nothing to do with the state of Colorado. I haven't read the short fiction yet. I did like Parul Sehgal's "Do We Need to Hear Another Story?" which contained E. M. Forster's quote "a veritable 'tape-worm' with its dankly primordial 'and then. . .and then'"
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: southendmd on July 12, 2023, 10:35:13 pm ---They seem to come every week! Who has the time! I mean, really!
--- End quote ---
Sadly true. I'll think, hooray, tonight I'll have time to sit down with the latest New Yorker. Only to find another one in my mailbox.
I'm gradually going through a huge pile of them and chucking as many as possible into recycling. I still can't help ripping out articles that sound mildly interesting. Just as I tend to open a new tab for links on webpages that look interesting, so I constantly have windows full of tabs with stories from the Atlantic, Slate, the NYT and even the New Yorker. Would everyone please stop writing interesting things?! (I'm doing my part by writing uninteresting things.)
Anyway, then the ripped-out articles pile up. I do occasionally grab a few when the occasion demands. I recent read one from 2021, but that's by no means a record.
--- Quote ---To me, it's like the medical literature: it quickly becomes furniture, all piled up and all.
--- End quote ---
That's how I am with the newspaper I actually work for, and which also is my main source for local news.
--- Quote ---Also, as much as I like Jumpa Lahiri, I was totally underwhelmed by her rather boring and long-short story about P's parties. Yawn.
--- End quote ---
Thank you! I'll skip it. I had the magazine open to it and was going to trudge through because I like Jumpa Lahiri, too. And I really like Zadie Smith, but found her piece underwhelming. I wonder if TNY reaches out to writers like that and asks them to submit something, so they whip up whatever they can on the spot. (More likely in Zadie's case than Jumpa's -- a short/long story generally requires more time and forethought.) But those little Fiction Issue nonfiction (?) pieces tend to be like that.
--- Quote ---I did like the Barbie article, but it seemed like the whole thing was like a bad shouts and murmurs fake thingie. An UNO movie? Really???? Oy.
--- End quote ---
I didn't get through the whole thing. I got a page or two in, figured I'd learned as much as I needed to on that subject. I'm trying to do that more often.
--- Quote ---Anywhoo, the best thing is reading the New Yorker whilst sunning oneself by the bay in Provincetown! Cheers, darlings!
--- End quote ---
Have fun!
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 13, 2023, 08:12:56 am ---Most of us have precious little time to read the damn thing. I multitask; I read the damn thing while I'm eating lunch or dinner.
--- End quote ---
I usually read my computer at lunch. And I time dinner around my daily hour of TV. (Last night's feature: the first half of "Marathon Man." I'm testing my theory that the '70s were the peak era for movies. I know some would disagree, citing Ted Turner's movies, but maybe we can agree that there aren't as many good ones since the '70s.)
I read TNY when I'm sitting on my balcony watching the sun set. (When do I read it when it's too cold to sit on the balcony? I don't remember. That's probably why they're piled up.)
Jeff Wrangler:
I rather liked Zadie Smith. I found the idea of being unable to escape Charles Dickens quite amusing and entertaining. (It also wasn't that long.)
The Barbie article sort of petered out in the middle.
I really liked the Samuel R. Delany profile. I've never read him (and probably won't), but I already knew some things about him: gay, work considered "pioneering," and lives right here in Philadelphia. Unfortunately I've never met him, but I was interested to learn more about him.
The "story" article was blech--but I pushed through it anway.
I haven't read the long-short fictions yet, but I always read the little one-page things that are included in this issue (I'm sure partly because they are only one page).
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 13, 2023, 01:20:52 pm ---I rather liked Zadie Smith. I found the idea of being unable to escape Charles Dickens quite amusing and entertaining. (It also wasn't that long.)
--- End quote ---
You're right. Maybe I was too hard on it. It's just that she's the author of an extremely powerful short story, the ominous "Two Men Arrive in a Village."
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/06/two-men-arrive-in-a-village-by-zadie-smith
Also a really good upbeat essay, "Joy."
http://gel.sites.uiowa.edu/sites/gel.sites.uiowa.edu/files/wysiwyg_uploads/zadie_smith_-_joy.pdf
--- Quote ---The Barbie article sort of petered out in the middle.
--- End quote ---
That's about when I petered out on it. I can see why they thought it would be a good idea, but there's only so much to say about it.
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