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New Yorker Fiction Podcast Continues on its Royal Way
Filed under: The Katharine Wheel: On Fiction Tagged: Benjamin Chambers, Denis Johnson, Eudora Welty, Isaac Bashevis Singer, James Salter, Joyce Carol Oates, Nathan Englander, Thomas McGuane, Tobias Wolff
Benjamin Chambers writes:
On the eve of the release of The New Yorker’s fiction issue, it seems like the right time to mention (again) how amazing the magazine’s fiction podcasts are. Back in January, I reviewed the 2008 podcasts and even threw in a plug for this year’s reading by Thomas McGuane of James Salter’s chilling story, “Last Night.”
Now there’s three more treats waiting for the unwary:
(continued)
Polansky's Story Has Leg
Filed under: The Katharine Wheel: On Fiction Tagged: Benjamin Chambers, newyorker.com, Steven Polansky, Yoko Ogawa
Benjamin Chambers writes:
A couple of weeks ago, I used the random number generator to find a 2004 story from The New Yorker that I’d never read before by Yoko Ogawa, “The Cafeteria in the Evening and the Pool in the Rain.” This week, it took me to to the January 24, 1994 issue of TNY and Steven Polansky’s story, “Leg.”
In the story (and yeah, there are spoilers coming), Dave Long is a forty-four-year-old whose main trouble appears to be his thirteen-year-old son Randy’s new and implacable anger, a by-product of adolescence, which he spews at Dave every chance he gets. Even Dave’s liking for reading is a target:
(continued)
Slightly Less Recent New Yorker Fiction Roundup
Filed under: The Katharine Wheel: On Fiction Tagged: Brad Watson, Colm Toibin, Craig Raine, Ernest Hemingway, J.G. Ballard
Benjamin Chambers writes:
Continuing in a format I adopted last week to provide mini-reviews of some recent stories from The New Yorker, I reach slightly farther back this week and throw in a more recent story by J.G. Ballard for good measure. [Again, watch out for spoilers below.]
Let’s begin, in fact, with the J.G. Ballard’s “The Autobiography of J.G.B.,” from the May 11, 2009 issue.
Plot: The main character, B (whom we are invited, because of the title, to associate with the author), wakes one day to find a world in which all other human beings have vanished. With little trouble, he adjusts and prepares for his own survival.
The Story’s Final Line: “Thus the year ended peacefully, and B was ready to begin his true work.”
Verdict: Ballard’s tricky, and his predilection
(continued)
Recent New Yorker Fiction Roundup
Filed under: The Katharine Wheel: On Fiction Tagged: Benjamin Chambers, Chris Adrian, Gail Hareven, Guillermo Martinez, Sylvia Townsend Warner
Benjamin Chambers writes:
I’ve been catching up on recent New Yorker stories, so I thought I’d provide a quick-ish summary of them, using a model I ripped off from Martin. [Warning: there are spoilers below.]
“The Slows,” by Gail Hareven (trans. Yaacov Jeffrey Green), May 4, 2009Plot: An anthropologist has one last encounter with one of the “savages” he has studied for years, though he finds her kind repellent. The “savages,” like the anthropologist, are human, but they have refused a technique that greatly speeds human growth and development, setting them apart.
Key Quote:
No doubt the savages were a riddle that science had not yet managed to solve,(continued)
Ogawa's Cafeteria in the Evening
Filed under: The Katharine Wheel: On Fiction Tagged: A. J. Liebling, Benjamin Chambers, Haruki Murakami, Yoko Ogawa
Benjamin Chambers writes:
Following Martin’s example, when he used the random number generator to select Profiles to read from The New Yorker’s vast archives (his first was a three-part series on Chicago by A. J. Liebling from 1952), I decided to use it to find a short story to read from the archives.
The random number generator came up with “2004” (year “79” out of 84) and then the “36th” story out of 54 published that year: Yoko Ogawa’s story, “The Cafeteria in the Evening and a Pool in the Rain.”
I’d not heard of Ogawa before. She’s had two stories appear
(continued)
About us
Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker fan blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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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)
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