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Prescient Post Brings New Nobelist Müller Essay Today
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: Herta Müller, Nobel
Jonathan Taylor writes:
Not long after waking up and learning that Herta Müller had won the Literature Nobel, I noticed in my Google Reader that Signandsight.com, hours before the announcement, had published a translation of a recent piece by her about the lingering power of Romania's former Securitate, from Germany's Die Zeit.
Suddenly I found my file, too, under the name of Cristina. Three volumes, 914 pages. It was allegedly opened on 8 March, 1983 - although it contains documents from earlier years. The reason given for opening the file: "Tendentious distortions of realities in the country, particularly in the village environment" in my book "Nadirs". Textual analysis by spies corroborate this. And the fact that I belong to a "circle of German-language poets", which is "renowned for its hostile works".(continued)
The Element of Doubt: The Art of Reportage at NYU
Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Alastair Reid, events, Janet Malcolm, Lawrence Weschler, William Shawn, Wojciech Jagielski
Jonathan Taylor writes:
At Tuesday night's symposium on Ryszard Kapuściński and "The Art of Reportage" at NYU, Alastair Reid read from an address he said William Shawn had given in 1979 to The New Yorker's "business side," which Reid said might not previously have "seen light of day" outside the magazine. Describing what the magazine's editors looked for in a writer, Shawn cited the presence of "style"—a "literary quality," even amid the straightforwardness and simplicity demanded of factual reporting. "Writers who don't sound like nobody, and
"That Esperanto of the Palate": The Birth of Gourmet Magazine, 1941
Filed under: Little Words Tagged: cartoons, food, Gourmet, magazines
Jonathan Taylor writes:
On the afternoon of its demise, Adam Kuban at Serious Eats took a look at the first issue of Gourmet—January 1941. Here, last year, we noted the magazine's online archive of some of its once-regular cartoons: it's still there, for now.
(continued)
The "Mad Men" Files: When in Rome
Filed under: The Squib Report Tagged: Harold Brodkey, Mad Men, Rome
Martin Schneider writes:
Fun fact: in 1963, the year in which Season 3 occurs and in which Don and Betty Draper visit the Rome Hilton, The New Yorker ran a story by Harold Brodkey (a writer dear to Emily's heart) set in Rome!
It ran in the issue dated November 23, 1963, so the people who read it right after the issue hit the newsstand/mailbox (say, November 18?) were thinking about something completely different a few days later. Because of events that will surely be covered in Mad Men before this season is out.
(continued)
Sempé Fi (On Covers): Cars
Filed under: Sempé Fi Tagged: art, automobiles, Bruce McCall, cars, covers, electric car, Harold Ross, James Thurber, Tad Friend
Pollux writes:
A flying car soars across a street jam-packed with conveyances of every description. The flying car, an Aerocar NX 59711, heads towards the entrance of a large parking structure, safely flying over a powerful burst of steam that explodes from a carriage.
This is part of an attention-grabbing automotive scene that car enthusiast and regular cover artist Bruce McCall has created for the September 28, 2009 cover for The New Yorker, called "Museum Parking".
The cover is a car-lover's delight. Flying cars, also known as roadable aircraft, are a reality, and there are cars from every decade and vehicles from past centuries. McCall's proto-cars include horse-driven vehicles such as the chariot,
(continued)
Who we?
Emdashes, founded in 2004 by Emily Gordon, 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.
No fear: Everything you say or send is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.
This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.
Some writing by Emily Gordon
- Review: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (for Newsday)
- Annotated slide show: a wet, festive 2009 Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for nycgo.com)
- Proposal: A better-looking MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: Does a redesign of The New Republic mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: four online obsessives and visual cataloguers, Kate Bingaman, Nicholas Felton, Ellie Harrison, and John D. Freyer (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Interviews: winning New Visual Artists Eleanor Grosch, Zigmunds Lapsa, Christian Cervantes, and Kate & Camilla (for Print)
- Profile: lindy hop legend Frankie Manning (for Newsday, with Robert Fouch)
- Feature: Rea Irvin, illustrator, bon vivant, and The New Yorker's first art director (for Print)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World by Julian Dibbell (for Newsday)
- Review: Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley (for Newsday)
- Review: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Report: The New Yorker's redesigned website (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
- Interview: Matthew Diffee on the appropriately inappropriate cartoons of the The Rejection Collection (for Print)
- Interview: Roz Chast on Brooklyn, pysanky eggs, and animation (for Newsday)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Interview: Edward Gorey (for Newsday)
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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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