In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

TNY is using some words and phrases that are utterly new to me.

The author of the article about the Barbie movie and other Mattel toys being made into movies (July 10 and 17) uses the word ouroboros. I'd never heard of that word, but it's meaning is quite interesting (thanks to Webster online):

: a circular symbol that depicts a snake or dragon devouring its own tail and that is used especially to represent the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth
2
usually ouroboros or less commonly uroboros : something (such as a never-ending cycle) that is likened to or suggestive of the Ouroboros symbol


In another article, a review in an issue a while ago (which I didn't keep), a character is described as someone's "woo-woo husband."

"Woo-woo?"

[serious crayons]

I think I might faintly remember that woo-woo. Was it a review of the TV series "Beef"?

My son and I watched the entire 10-episode series (each episode 30 minutes) when I visited him in Chicago in May. The day was cold and rainy and we couldn't think of anything to do that seemed worth venturing into that weather. (I mean, sure, Chicago has a few other attractions, but I guess we weren't in the mood.) Anyway, it was pretty good. I've never done that -- never watched more than two episodes of a show back to back, and even that just a handful of times. Sometimes I have to divide a 60-minute episode over two nights! But it was fun and I have fond memories of that day.

So back to woo-woo, the husband was, I guess, a slightly New Agey, spiritual, therapy-speak, laid back, positive thinking kind of guy. The wife was intense, ambitious, more of a realist and, in the plot of "Beef," extremely angry at the person with whom she had a beef.

Here are a couple of definitions of woo-woo, per Google: "A person readily accepting supernatural, paranormal, occult, or pseudoscientific phenomena, or emotion-based beliefs and explanations." "Relating to or holding unconventional beliefs regarded as having little or no scientific basis, especially those relating to spirituality, mysticism, or alternative medicine."

[Jeff Wrangler]

I think I might faintly remember that woo-woo. Was it a review of the TV series "Beef"?

That sounds familiar. I think it might have been.

[southendmd]

Hello, I rarely post here. However, some kind friend gifted me a year subscription to the New Yorker.  I doubt I'll post much, as I have precious little time to actually read the damned thing.  They seem to come every week!  Who has the time!  I mean, really!

To me, it's like the medical literature:  it quickly becomes furniture, all piled up and all. 

Any whoo, as for the fiction edition:  I have to say I was disappointed by the japanese one.  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.

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. 

Anywhoo, the best thing is reading the New Yorker whilst sunning oneself by the bay in Provincetown!  Cheers, darlings!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Hello, I rarely post here. However, some kind friend gifted me a year subscription to the New Yorker.  I doubt I'll post much, as I have precious little time to actually read the damned thing.  They seem to come every week!  Who has the time!  I mean, really!

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.

[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]

They seem to come every week!  Who has the time!  I mean, really!

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.

To me, it's like the medical literature:  it quickly becomes furniture, all piled up and all. 

That's how I am with the newspaper I actually work for, and which also is my main source for local news.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anywhoo, the best thing is reading the New Yorker whilst sunning oneself by the bay in Provincetown!  Cheers, darlings!

Have fun!

[serious crayons]

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.

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]

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.)

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

The Barbie article sort of petered out in the middle.

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.