The article about the utility of contacting congressmen frustrated me (Don't email, call; but when you call, don't follow a script).
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 March 2017 15:47 (seven years ago) link
marcos' description makes me get nostalgic - i kind of want to re-up my subscription.
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 2 March 2017 15:50 (seven years ago) link
it's weird though because i still feel impatience for the next one to come! "why isn't it here yet, it's been a few days!"
― marcos, Thursday, 2 March 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
I catch up by reading a couple articles a week at work (I rarely read the fiction).
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 March 2017 15:52 (seven years ago) link
i think if i read 1) a little bit of the talk of the town; 2) maybe one feature, and; 3) a piece of criticism then that would be pretty good. even that's hard though
― marcos, Thursday, 2 March 2017 15:54 (seven years ago) link
I look forward to the fiction issue every year, because it means two weeks off.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 March 2017 15:56 (seven years ago) link
I gasped with relief three weeks ago when I saw the last issue was a double.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:02 (seven years ago) link
I let my subscription lapse last month, but until then I read (most of) every issue from 2010 to 2016. Yeah, it can be a relief when stuff you know you can skip comes around: "15 fiction writers reminiscing about about the smell of their mothers' kitchens? Oh yeah!"
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
i'm convinced that's intentional on their part
― sciatica, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:20 (seven years ago) link
This is possibly too pedantic, but every week I mark the articles I want to read with a red X in the index, which makes it easier figuring out when to trash/recycle them.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:20 (seven years ago) link
my system is something like
-always read first section of Talk of the Town (the subsequent ones are always gossipy quiddities and agonies of the ruling class trash imo)
-always read Surowieckie, James Wood, Schjejdaal, and the music criticism
-always read the comics
-never read fiction unless it's someone whose name I recognize or if it got bigupped itt or on twitter somewhere
-never read theatre criticism. never read tv critic unless I've watched the show
also, i almost always skim 'goings on about town' (even though I don't live in NYC, it's just nice, the images are beautiful, and you can find out about interesting things) and the 'briefly noted' book reviews. and i read the first two or three lines of every poem
and then for the longform stuff, I just go by what interests me or writers I like. try to do one a week minimum
― flopson, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:23 (seven years ago) link
oh and i always read Anthony Lane but not Denby on film
― flopson, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:31 (seven years ago) link
also never read Gopnik
why do you guys get print? the kindle subscription is much cheaper and it doesn't pile up (physically)i make it through an issue in a day or two but i'm pretty merciless about skipping articles i'm not interested in, even if they're important
― na (NA), Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:31 (seven years ago) link
kindle version also shows up first thing monday morning, no wait for it to show up in the mail
― na (NA), Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:32 (seven years ago) link
print is more fun to read, always
― marcos, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
Print + ipad is the same price as just print iirc. I usually read the e-issue on Monday and my wife too the print to read on the train.
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
also all my books are in our attic in storage right now i so don't mind having physical issues pile up
― marcos, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:35 (seven years ago) link
i spend 8 hours a day looking at a computer screen, probably an additional hour looking at my phone, if i can avoid a screen for some of my leisure reading then i am better off
― marcos, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:36 (seven years ago) link
i wonder to what extent young talent will continue to draw from Gawker (Chen, Tolentino), pitchfork (Carrie Battan), n+1 (Blumenkranz, Batuman) in the next decade
― flopson, Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:52 (seven years ago) link
never read Gopnik
otm
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
he wrote one of the worst new yorker articles i've ever seen, just a few days ago. not sure it counts as a true "article" or not because it was short and only posted online i guess, but it was about the idea that we're living in a simulation (which prompts seriously eye rolls from ILX i know but is actually fascinating) ...combined with the oscar best picture fuck-up, standing in for proof that the simulation had gone off the rails. i kept waiting for him to make a joke but it seems like he was half serious? but also that he just really wanted to write something about how surreal the shittiness of the last year has been in the context of the simulation argument, but wanted to wait for a new "crazy" event to occur in order to publish it, but then overreacted to the spectacle of the oscars thing and blew his wad too early? anyway it was the worst thing i've seen in the new yorker in a long time, other than borowitz
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
man people fuckin LOVE borowitz
― marcos, Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:30 (seven years ago) link
borowitz is the worstowitz
― Mordy, Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:33 (seven years ago) link
patricia marx shopping articles are my personal bugbear, but i don't think they've published one in a while
― na (NA), Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:52 (seven years ago) link
ugh fuckin hate patricia marx
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, February 2, 2011 2:14 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I skipped a ton of stuff this week. Patricia Marx (ugh), Muslim brotherhood (feel guilty about this but I'm tired of these pieces), John McPhee (not in the mood for long personal reminisces). Pedophilia piece was good but I skimmed some because it was so hard to read.
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, January 7, 2013 8:42 PM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Ugh I hate Patricia Marx so much. Her shopping updates were dumb enough, but this week she writes about taking a trip on a freighter, which is potentially interesting, but her writing is so self-centered and cutesy and trite that the piece is totally worthless.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 9:20 AM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― na (NA), Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
haha how many times has this thread had the shouts and murmurs/Patricia Marx/denby conversation
― max, Sunday, August 12, 2012 8:27 AM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― na (NA), Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:56 (seven years ago) link
Karl otm, that simulation piece by Gopnik was abysmal. In more competent hands etc.. because it truly is an interesting topic. But you have got to do better than 'omg first trump won and now a wrong enveloppe at the oscars: the people running our simulation are losing it!1!'
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:02 (seven years ago) link
what's weird is that they already published two pieces about it relatively recently!
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/23/doomsday-invention-artificial-intelligence-nick-bostromhttp://www.newyorker.com/books/joshua-rothman/what-are-the-odds-we-are-living-in-a-computer-simulation
haven't read the rothman one, but the bostrom profile was good, i thought. so it's weird that gopnik was itching to write about the same subject again, without adding anything of any value to it!
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:06 (seven years ago) link
didn't read the gopnik (see my rule upthread re: gopnik of 'never read gopnik') but i, too, like to defend the groovy pleasure of contemplating the Simulation Hypothesis from its detractors (who afaict are mostly responding to Thiel & Musk's bizarre pronouncements on and interpretation of it)
― flopson, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:07 (seven years ago) link
Ohh monsieur Le Malone, you are spoiling me!
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link
*beeps and bloops*
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:10 (seven years ago) link
my eternal shame is that Gopnik is a Montréal native u_u
― flopson, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:12 (seven years ago) link
rothman is generally good, prob my fav of the web writers
― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:28 (seven years ago) link
though once he got a detail about ulysses slightly wrong and i turned on him forever
I liked Gopnik's piece a while back about baking bread with his mom
― softie (silby), Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:29 (seven years ago) link
i liked gopnik's piece after trump officially locked up the GOP nomination -- it was about how countries don't really recover from having their institutions shown to be so fragile
but everything else sucks, including his occasional hockey forays on the website
― mookieproof, Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:32 (seven years ago) link
anyway, New Yorker gigs are like tenured professorships, the quality of your work stops being a factor at some point
― softie (silby), Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:36 (seven years ago) link
same with public radio contributors
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 March 2017 18:45 (seven years ago) link
xpost Yeah, iirc you get a nice salary and near total freedom and are just required to turn in x-thousand words a year.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:46 (seven years ago) link
remember when SFJ left his new yorker post to work for genius
― marcos, Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:47 (seven years ago) link
"Genius."
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:47 (seven years ago) link
Remember when, as a staff writer at the New Yorker, he solicited money online for a new laptop?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:48 (seven years ago) link
Those were the days ...
xp. seeing successful writers with patreons or whatever now seems commonplace. he was an innovator!
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:49 (seven years ago) link
my in-laws got me a print subscription for christmas. the amount of good writing is overwhelming tbh, the issues arrive faster than i can read them. it's only march and already there are a bunch of issues on my shelf that i don't even remember opening
― marcos, Thursday, March 2, 2017 8:41 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yep, that is the system.
― softie (silby), Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:44 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah, soon you'll have piles all over, each with one article you've been meaning to get around to for years.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:46 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The story of every New Yorker subscriber ever (including me)
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 2 March 2017 23:26 (seven years ago) link
yep
― k3vin k., Thursday, 2 March 2017 23:49 (seven years ago) link
i'm actually okay with the new yorker -- i'm usually more or less caught up and either way i toss them
the new york review operates on a more idiosyncratic schedule which gives you the illusion that you have time, thus dooming me
― mookieproof, Friday, 3 March 2017 00:20 (seven years ago) link
New Yorker plus the monthly copy of Bon Appetit that has been showing up every month for three years even though I've never paid for it.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 3 March 2017 00:26 (seven years ago) link
When I die it will be under a hoarders stack of those two plus damaged comics and GNs I take from work planning to read