Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
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Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Best of the 12.08.08 Issue: Disaster Capitalism and Its Discount Garments
Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: Barack Obama, Barry Blitt, Elizabeth Kolbert, Graeme Wood, Larissa MacFarquhar, Naomi Klein, Patricia Marx
This is the issue with Barry Blitt’s cover image of Barack Obama interviewing the dogs, a flight of fancy that manages to capture something essential about the serious, careful president-elect, I thought. I found the juxtaposition of Larissa MacFarquhar’s Profile of Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, and Patricia Marx’s look at recessionary fashion most intriguing.
In transit from West Coast to East, Benjamin Chambers was able to register his impressions via iPhone (I really must acquire one of those things):
“Some things I’ve liked this week:
“P. 19, brief review of a show of artifacts from 12 cultures circa the Bronze age. Quote: ‘Battalions of pitilessly educational wall texts and labels beseige about three hundred and fifty often tiny, mostly terrific objects in ivory, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and lots else. Duly benumbed, you may slip the odd item of power or caprice into a pocket of memory, to take home.’
“E. Kolbert’s TOTT comment on the Big 3 bailout is sharp, a useful summary, and challenges Obama to address the root issues. Quote: ‘It would, of course, be foolish to allow the American economy to collapse in order to make a point. And it’s possible to conclude that the Big Three deserve on every front to fail and still decide to rescue them. But such a decision will itself be a form of temporizing, and will only pass the problems on to the next Administration. Real change—as opposed to the kind in slogans—is hard and, by definition, disruptive. If Obama has any intention of fulfilling his campaign promises, sooner or later he’s going to have to face up to that.’
“Graeme Wood’s Afghan piece feels truncated, but nails the difficulty of the forgotten war and the drawbacks of pitting ethnic minorities against each other. Also chock full of mini-stories that cry out for dramatization: e.g., the police unit that took heavy losses, and, shamed into patrolling, sang songs and wrapped their rifles in flowers. Or the army unit that attack a position and steal grapes along the way.”
If you have strong feelings about an article in any current issue, by all mean write us and let us know!
About us
Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
You'd like to know more about the writers and artists and what our column titles mean? We live to serve!
We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive new contributors. Click here to email us.
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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
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- 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)
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Comments
Martin - I just saw this. I love the headline. That’s a hilarious pun.
Thanks! If you mean the echo of Freud, I’m chagrined to confess it was accidental. I only “saw” it after the post was up. I think my unconscious totally got it, though, which is fitting because … Freud.
Even though I can’t stand rap music, I decided to plunge into Ian Frazier’s “The Rap” on faith that this great writer, possibly the greatest in the magazine’s history, is incapable of writing a boring sentence. A line in the second paragraph - “Derrick can tell you who shot Tupac Shakur and Jam Master Jay, and he has a fair idea of who killed Biggie Smalls” – hooked me and I read the rest of the article straight through, lapping up the names – Larry Low-Top, Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Kim, Jam Master Jay – and enjoying immensely the “ride-around” in the Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx housing projects. Frazier’s description of his visit to the Bada Bing strip club is for me the highlight of the piece. It contains the following inspired sentence: “I watched Barack Obama’s speech, close-captioned above the painfully percussive music, on ceiling TV monitors through a writhing forest of dancers on poles.”