Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Before it moved to The New Yorker:
Ask the Librarians archive
About Emdashes | Email us
Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Arguing against Ian Buruma's recent review of Bradley K. Martin's Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, Thomas Riggins for the journal Political Affairs (whose tagline is "Marxist Thought Online"): "While there are many problems with North Korea, to be sure, they are not the concoctions and fantasies put forth by Buruma in his 'review'.... If Mr. Buruma wants to write something worth reading on the subject he should read less contentious books and view fewer James Bond movies." Curious?
I'm going to turn comments back on as an experiment for this post, in case people feel like tussling.
About us
Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
Want to know more about the people who contribute to Emdashes, and the secret meanings behind our column titles? All about us.
We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive contributors. Click here to email us.
We host occasional book giveaways. Publishers, please email us for our postal address.
Our favorite things | Compliments and press
Looking for The New Yorker magazine? Kudos on your classy taste. Here's how to contact The New Yorker.
Tell me more
Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
Blogroll highlights
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
- Follow us on Twitter
- Befriend us on Facebook
- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
No fear
Everything you tell or send us is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.
Comments
Thanks for finding this, and posting an invitation to chat. As you may have noticed, Buruma’s article made me uncomfortable too.I think it made me uncomfortable because it WAS lurid, as Riggins described and kind of too “cult of personality” based … Kim Jong Il’s sex life is the least of North Korea’s problems and certainly not the cause of them. Perhaps a symptom … but not a meaningful cause. Riggin’s states his counter-argument up front: “While there are many problems with North Korea, to be sure, they are not the concoctions and fantasies put forth by Buruma in his ‘review.’” And he follows this with a more complete analysis of the historical and political contexts that gave rise to Kim Jong Il’s power, and N. Korea’s isolation. Buruma’s article uses a kind of pop-psychology to distract us from the real issues at hand …If you’ve seen the amazing documentary “Human Remains” it’s a great exploration of this problem, and in similar terms - the filmmaker reherses odd biographical detail from the lives of 20th C dictators to show how meaningless this kind of fact finding, soul searching or muckracking is in the face of national and international political violence. At least that’s my interpretation of the film, and I think its persuasive. The undergrads bought it, anyway …