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10.1.07 Issue: A Rush and a Push
Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: Christian Northeast, Jean-Claude Floc'h, Nick Paumgarten, Roberto Bolano
In which the staff of Emdashes reviews the high points and discusses the particulars of the previous week’s issue (or, occasionally, another edition).
Jean-Claude Floc’h is a discovery I attribute to The Complete New Yorker, so it was a treat to see his drawing of an old-timey golfer on page 24. My admiration for Floc’h suggests that I am bigger fan of the ligne claire style than I even realize.
I enjoyed Nick Paumgarten’s excellent look at the Mannahatta Project, which answers all of the questions a reader could expect to have at the outset, and then some. Loved his description of New Yorkers as having “a kind of a superheated parochial self-regard.” I applaud Paumgarten’s desire and ability to come up with outsize formulations; it made the article more of a magnificent flower.
“The Insufferable Gaucho” is Roberto Bolaño’s cunning satire on the mythos that has developed around the pampas. The story feels like the Chilean author’s private joke on neighboring (rabbit-infested?) Argentina—the two countries, it is said, do not get along. I was so taken by Christian Northeast’s striking illustration for the story that I tore that page out of the magazine and hung it on an unoccupied nail on the wall of my spare Alpine cabin. —Martin Schneider
Who she?
I'm Emily Gordon, reachable at emily@emdashes.com.
I'm an editor at PRINT magazine in New York City. I've worked at The Nation, Newsday, PEN America, and Legal Affairs. I've written for the NY Times Book Review, Salon, The Washington Post, The Village Voice... continued
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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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Written and edited by Emily Gordon (plus various guest contributors), designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
The Rossosphere
- Mick Stevens: I Really Should Be Drawing
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- Chiasmus in The New Yorker
Comments
So you have a spare Alpine cabin? where do you keep it? in the trunk? :)
Usually I keep it in the pantry, but I spilled flour all over it so I had to have it cleaned.
“The Mannahatta Project” is wonderful! When it comes time to list the top ten POTIs of the year - as it inevitably will, I’m sure - Paumgarten’s piece should be there, as well as his “There and Back Again” and his great TOTT piece, “Home at Carnegie Hall.” Let’s pump it up for Paumgarten!
Wow, that’s a good idea. Pick of the Year—Martin, wanna come up with a list together before 2008? Everyone loves year-end lists!
I dig Paumgarten’s writing, too. He’s a smart cookie.
I’m in!