In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

You should teach a class! I’m not teasing — k seriously. Those things would be interesting and maybe I’m put off enough by my lack of interest in deep sea fishing. I did see several paragraphs toward the end that I actually circled thinking I found complex and interesting. The one about Mr. Josie’s nice face was one.

I actually did start to write a book one time. It was called How to Read a Book (oddly that name was not taken). I use a method that pays particular attention to things like colors, names, weather, etc. The idea is that a writer chooses these things for a reason.

So, this is clearly a Christian allegory, as there are many references, starting with "Mr. Josie", the boat owner and mentor of the author. He chastises the police who are like the money lenders in the temple, and keeps a book of promises to provide fish for the community. He even tells the author to go take a shower. Baptism? And later pours salt water on him as he holds the fishing pole and line. Mr. Josie has a deal for "Cap": lay off the womanizing, follow me, and I will give you riches and big fish. Recognizing this, the author follows all of his instructions dutifully and becomes like his apostle.

Of course, the parallels of the police to our own time are eerily abundant. In fact, the story caused me to reflect that the U.S. is now a Third World country. 

[serious crayons]

That's an interesting point. I wonder if anybody has ever tried to run the numbers on that? 

An organization called VIDA has been taking inventory of women vs. men in terms of bylines and reviewed books for about 10 years. Most have become more balanced, incrementally, over the decade but there's still a noticeable disparity.

https://www.vidaweb.org/the-count/the-2018-vida-count/

Here's the New Yorker through 2018:




Then there's all kinds of anecdotal stuff. One that comes to mind is that the year Jennifer Eagan won a National Book Critics Circle award and Jonathan Franzen was a competitor. The LA Times published the story with Franzen's photo on the first page and Eagan's on the jump. "Jonathan Franzen loses book award to some lady" was the satirical headline of one of the stories criticizing the choice.

Then, too, are there women writers covering stories like Dexter Filkins, Jon Lee Anderson, and even Ben Taub? I don't remember.

Do you mean are there women war correspondents? Sure. I don't know any except Christiane Amanpour. But then, I had to google the guys you mentioned. War articles are way down on my "duty" list. Why do you say "even" Ben Taub? (I see Ben Taub just won a Pulitzer. In his photo, he looks to be about 23.)

Here's the list of women war correspondents:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_war_correspondents

[serious crayons]

I actually did start to write a book one time. It was called How to Read a Book (oddly that name was not taken). I use a method that pays particular attention to things like colors, names, weather, etc. The idea is that a writer chooses these things for a reason.

So, this is clearly a Christian allegory, as there are many references, starting with "Mr. Josie", the boat owner and mentor of the author. He chastises the police who are like the money lenders in the temple, and keeps a book of promises to provide fish for the community. He even tells the author to go take a shower. Baptism? And later pours salt water on him as he holds the fishing pole and line. Mr. Josie has a deal for "Cap": lay off the womanizing, follow me, and I will give you riches and big fish. Recognizing this, the author follows all of his instructions dutifully and becomes like his apostle.

Excellent analysis, Lee! I'm familiar with the techniques, but I'm not always good at applying them. In this case, I thought it had something to do with life accomplishments. I'm probably partly more oblivious because I'm not Christian, but still. Given our current conversation about baptism on the other thread, I should have at least recognized that one! 

Coincidentally, I first learned about that sort of deep analysis when reading The Great Gatsby. And of course we've all done our share of it with BBM!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Do you mean are there women war correspondents? Sure. I don't know any except Christiane Amanpour. But then, I had to google the guys you mentioned. War articles are way down on my "duty" list. Why do you say "even" Ben Taub? (I see Ben Taub just won a Pulitzer. In his photo, he looks to be about 23.)

I don't follow things like the Pulitzers, so that's news to me. He probably was about 23 when the picture was taken. I'm sure he's been discussed before. If I remember correctly, he went right out of the Ivy League into The New Yorker. I don't recall him writing the sort of stories that Dexter Filkins and Jon Lee Anderson write. They're not necessarily war correspondents. Filkins had an article about Iran in the May 25 issue--not a war story. I thought I remembered something by Anderson recently, but I can't locate it. I tend to associate them with stuff about politics in not-particularly-American-friendly places. But maybe if you read them you wouldn't have had to look them up. ...    Taub's May 18 article about the guy who wanted to dive to the deepest point in all the oceans  maybe qualifies for a Filkins-Anderson--type story.

I now think I remember something--maybe about Syria?--or something in the Middle East by a woman writer within the past couple of years, but I'd never be able to find it.

Incidentally, I'm now reading Emma Cline's story. I noticed that to refer to a woman, she uses blonde as a noun but blond as an adjective. I'm not saying I disagree with the usage, jut that I found it interesting because I'm not used to seeing them both used in that way in the same paragraph.

[serious crayons]

I tend to associate them with stuff about politics in not-particularly-American-friendly places.

Yeah, I guess that would be a better way to put it.

I generally look at stories like that and think, "Oh, this looks really important" and then never get back to it.

If you google "best middle-east correspondents" you'll see a ton of women. I don't know how many have written for the New Yorker, though.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I generally look at stories like that and think, "Oh, this looks really important" and then never get back to it.

That happens to me regularly, too, though not with the Filkins-Anderson--type articles.

[serious crayons]

That happens to me regularly, too, though not with the Filkins-Anderson--type articles.

I'll keep that in mind and try one sometime. I must have read a Jon Lee Anderson story or two at some point.

In other news, I finally finished an article in an old issue about the scientific difficulty of finding virus treatments. That was really informative about all the challenges involved. I didn't even know what a virus was, exactly, and it helps you understand things like that.

Now I'm reading the Hilton Als piece about his childhood in the latest issue. It's really good too, though of course in a different way. It's probably the best thing I've read since George Floyd died about what it feels like to be black in America, especially growing up in poor neighborhoods as he did. It goes way deeper than other things I've seen.


 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Now I'm reading the Hilton Als piece about his childhood in the latest issue. It's really good too, though of course in a different way. It's probably the best thing I've read since George Floyd died about what it feels like to be black in America, especially growing up in poor neighborhoods as he did. It goes way deeper than other things I've seen.

You mean "Homecoming" (June 29)?

[Jeff Wrangler]

I've been forgetting that I wanted to mention that I love that note about NewYorker.com at the end of Emma Cline's story:

"Emma Cline on fictionalizing odious men."

I like that word odious. Kind of onomatopoetic, don't you think?

And I was amused by Doreen St. Felix's comment in her article about streaming services: "We've invented cable."

[Jeff Wrangler]

I never read the restaurant column, but the one in the June 22 issue caught my eye. I was amused by the quotation, "Ham held the same rating as the basic black dress. If you had a ham in the meat house, any situation could be faced."

It reminded me of a friend of mine from long ago. He once said to me that as soon as someone died, his partner baked a ham.