Emdashes. The New Yorker between the lines
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Looked Into
In which a snarling conservative is surprised to enjoy a New Yorker writer. It would be this one. Sally C. Pipes (of the Pacific Research Institute) writes in theOneRepublic:
On the other hand, as we have recently observed, radical feminists can no longer expect special treatment from critics simply because of their gender and politics. Consider Peggy Drexler Ph. D., a "gender scholar" at Cornell University. Drexler's new book, Raising Boys Without Men, argues that boys raised by women without men are better off than boys raised by mothers and fathers. As New Yorker staff writer Caitlin Flanagan states in the November Atlantic Monthly, Raising Boys Without Men is a chronicle of bad dads that compares men to "wounded rhinos." This book, writes Flanagan, is "as much a work of advocacy as objective research." It also holds consequences for personal responsibility and civil society. As Flanagan puts it, if you "[b]elittle men's responsibilities to their families [and] raise boys to believe that fatherhood is not a worthy aspiration….the people who will suffer are women and children." That strikes me as a fair assessment, and it does me good to see Caitlin Flanagan, without the slightest hesitation or embarrassment, demolish what she describes as a "preposterous book."
Literature, like ideas, has consequences. Nobel Prizes and good reviews should be handed out on the basis of merit, not politics or gender.
As for me, I am often embarrassed by what Caitlin Flanagan chooses to either extol or demolish. I haven't read Drexel's book, nor, yet, Flanagan's whole piece. (I'm waiting for my Atlantic online access to kick in.) Although some of the nicest people I know were raised without men, it would surely be folly to make fatherhood an even more remote idea than it already is for most befuddled chaps. That said, I don't like agreeing with Flanagan, but I suppose it has to happen from time to time. Actually, I'd like to agree with her all the time, or rather, for her to agree with me. But that means she'll really have to stop writing about Hawaiian luxury vacations. For instance.
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Emdashes, founded December 2004, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.
We welcome tips, questions, and comments about The New Yorker past and present, plus related events, links, typeface sightings, &c. To contact the magazine or send a submission, click here.
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A few clips
- Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
Tell me more
They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.
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Comments
Hawaiian luxury vacations was insane. I'd forgotten all about it. And when it came so close to stay at home moms. And that cartoon about, "I'm a stay at home mom, but without the kids." Well, that last was pretty funny, actually.