Steve Almond treks deeper into familiar territory in the latest issue of The Baffler, wherein the essayist takes on “our lazy embrace of [Jon] Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert,” an undoubtedly strong “testament to our own impoverished comic standards.” Indeed, Almond notes, our satirists and comics today remain “careful never to question the corrupt precepts of the status quo too vigorously.”
Liberals! Satiricists! Call Out the Big Dogs!
Meet the Millions.
If you’re in NYC this coming Sunday, come out to KGB Bar and meet some Millionaires Millions staffers. Emily St. John Mandel, Michael Bourne, Garth Risk Halberg, and Sonya Chung will all be reading. Our editor in chief, C. Max Magee, and other friends and staffers will be there too, so if you’re able why not come out and put faces to names, say hi, have a drink, and help us make a little merriment.
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Cursing at Poets
At The Collagist, Kyle Beachy imagines the emperor Augustus saying to the poet Horace, “You and your kind are fucked!” “The Extent of Our Decline” is one of number of essays appearing in the collection I co-edited, The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, coming in March from Soft Skull.
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Letters to Roberto Bolaño
“The act of writing is a conscious act of humility”: Diego Trelles Paz recalls the advice on writing given to him by Roberto Bolaño during their brief correspondence, at n+1.
So, You Want to Manage a Lit Mag
In a timely article for recent graduates, The Missouri Review’s managing editor Michael Nye tells the story of how he came to steward one of the most interesting literary magazines in the country. Spoiler alert: it’s important that you like reading.
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Old Hand
Edith Pearlman has been writing stories for a long time, but it’s only recently that she’s received widespread attention for them, as evidenced by this New Yorker piece on the author by James Wood. In it, Wood writes about the ways in which Pearlman is “a fabulist in realist’s clothing,” among other things. Pair with: Josh Cook on Pearlman’s book Honeydew.
Curiosities
The Exile, home of the War Nerd, is back online at a new address after being forced to fold their print operation.Lots of folks were excited about Mark Twain being on the cover of Time. So was Season, until she opened the magazine.Will Leitch’s story of meeting Hunter S. Thompson is brilliant, funny, and heartbreaking.The New Anonymous is a literary magazine with a clever concept. According to EarthGoat, “No name on your submission, the readers never see names, the editors are anonymous.” Will anyone submit their work? Who is behind this mysterious mag?Summer book lists, compiled.Ever wonder where the word “ok” comes from? “The abbreviation fad began in Boston in the summer of 1838 … OFM, ‘our first men,’ and used expressions like NG, ‘no go,’ GT, ‘gone to Texas,’ and SP, ‘small potatoes.’ Many of the abbreviated expressions were exaggerated misspellings, a stock in trade of the humorists of the day. One predecessor of OK was OW, ‘oll wright,’ and there was also KY, ‘know yuse,’ KG, ‘know go,’ and NS, ’nuff said.’ The general fad may have existed in spoken or informal written American English for a decade or more before its appearance in newspapers. OK’s original presentation as ‘all correct’ was later varied with spellings such as ‘Oll Korrect’ or even ‘Ole Kurreck’. Deliberate word play was associated with the acronym fad and was a yet broader contemporary American fad.”
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King James
“He is the king, after all, and kings don’t lead revolutions. They rule wary of them.” Just about everything that Rowan Ricardo Phillips has to say about basketball is recommended reading at this point, and this piece on Lebron James and kingship is no different. This older piece on Steph Curry and the sustainability of brilliance is an early highlight.
Steve Almond is an idiot and seems to completely acknowledge it in that essay.
Will strikes me as a troll who reduces “complex cultural issues to ad hominem assaults.” (Almond, S., “Liberals Are Ruining America. I Know Because I am One.” NY Times Magazine, June 8, 2012. Web.)
Glenn, not a bad quip. I was being a bit humorous, haha. But, Almond actually does discuss how much of an idiot he was/is, etc.