Category Archives: New Yorker

A Look Back: Pauline Kael, and David Denby’s Snark

Martin Schneider writes:
My Facebook friend Michal Oleszczyk, who once reminded us about Pauline Kael’s former apartment on the Upper West Side, yesterday pointed us in the direction of an unflinching reminiscence written by a fledgling film critic to whom Kael once showed unusual kindness. This is exactly the way I like to think of Kael, imperious but benevolent, possibly eccentric but supremely confident of her abilities and importance (check that closing line).
I really admire Ed Champion’s willingness to grapple with the fundamental questions surrounding writing, and his defense of David Denby’s Snark from several months ago certainly doesn’t detract from that admiration. Back in the day, I was a FameTracker devotee of long standing (username: DerKommissar), so I respect the uses of snark while also harboring concern over its excesses. Either way, Denby’s argument was almost certainly dismissed too quickly, and Champion’s article is a useful corrective. Note that Choire Sicha and Adam Sternbergh took the time to respond to Champion in the comments.

What’s in This Week’s New Yorker: 08.24.09

Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “The Untouchable,” Ben McGrath examines Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for a third term as Mayor of New York. “After seven and a half years in office, Bloomberg, who is now sixty-seven, has amassed so much power and respect that he seems more a Medici than a mayor,” McGrath writes.
In “Plugged In,” Tad Friend examines the state of the electric-car industry, by profiling Elon Musk, the colorful chairman, C.E.O., and product architect of Tesla Motors.
In Comment, Hendrik Hertzberg takes note of our foundering state governments, and asks if one of our largest states, California, has become ungovernable.
Alec Wilkinson explores the world of competitive free diving.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Amy Ozols offers a cure for hangovers.
David Sedaris reflects on his childhood and a trip to Australia.
Alex Ross examines depictions of fictional composers in literature.
Sasha Frere-Jones looks back at Leonard Cohen’s career in music.
Peter Schjeldahl visits the exhibit “Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
David Denby reviews Inglourious Basterds and Julie & Julia.
There is also an excerpt from The Wild Things, Dave Eggers’s new adult novel based on the storybook by Maurice Sendak.

Kevin Fitzpatrick’s “Algonquin” Book Tour Starts Sunday!

Martin Schneider writes:
Via the mysterious conduit known as “Facebook” arrives news that the new book about the Algonquin Round Table by our dear friend and colleague Kevin Fitzpatrick is commencing his book tour!
I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting Kevin, but Emily knows him well and assures me that he is a capital fellow and an unimpeachable resource on the subject of Dorothy Parker and her acerbic friends. Really, I see no way that buying his book could ever constitute a poor decision.
Emdashes readers will remember that we presented exclusive coverage of the book a little while back.
Good luck, Kevin!
I’ve pasted his press release below, complete with events, each of which is a delightful occasion to marinate in all things Dorothy Parker, The New Yorker, and wit in general—and to buy the book!

* * *

Hi friends and family,
I am happy to announce that my second book is out now. I am the editor of “The Lost Algonquin Round Table” and I hope you will feel compelled to want a copy. It is a collection of writing by the members of the group, 16 writers such as Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Robert E. Sherwood, Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman, Heywood Broun and many others. It has fiction, essays, humor, poems and reviews. It was a lot of fun to work on with my co-editor, Nat Benchley. To promote the book I launched my own publishing imprint, Donald Books, which you can find out more about on
www.donaldbooks.com.
So how can you get a copy? Easy! If you live in NYC, my “tour” schedule is below. For those outside of the city, you can go to any decent bookstore and they can order the book for you. Just tell them the title and they should be able to locate it to order; ISBN (hardcover): 9781440151521, ISBN (paperback): 97181440151514; it takes about a week to get it in. The book is also on all the major online booksellers, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s, etc. You can also order it direct from iUniverse.com (see link on donaldbooks.com).
From my web site, here is the info on where I will be starting this weekend and running through September:
Sunday, Aug. 16, 11 AM, Long Branch Free Public Library, 328 Broadway Long Branch, NJ 07740 732.222.3900. As part of the annual Dorothy Parker Day, Kevin C. Fitzpatrick will give a talk, reading and book signing. Free. Open to the public.
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 6 PM, The Corner Bookstore, 1313 Madison Avenue, at E. 93rd Street, New York, NY 10128. (212) 831-3554. Official book launch and reception party. Editors Nat Benchley & Kevin C. Fitzpatrick will be on hand with special guests. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Free. Open to the public.
Thursday, Aug. 20, 8 PM, Don’t Tell Mama, 343 W. 46th Street, New York, NY 10036. Big Night Out presents the “1930s Idol” cabaret competition. Kevin C. Fitzpatrick will be signing/selling copies of the book plus is a judge in the show. $12 and two drink minimum. Open to the public. Reservations encouraged: 212-757-0788.
Saturday, Aug. 22, 12 PM, Algonquin Hotel, 59 W. 44th Street, New York, NY, 10036. Algonquin Round Table Walking Tour. Editor Kevin C. Fitzpatrick has led this literary walking tour for ten years. Walk in the footsteps of the Vicious Circle and see the locations they visited, from speakeasies to old haunts. Cost is $20 ea. At 3 p.m. in the lobby will be a book signing, followed by a small celebration to mark Dorothy Parker’s birthday today. Reservations encouraged: 212-222-7239.
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 6-9 PM, Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, there is a special Wednesday evening “speakeasy” on the roof, with live music and Prohibition era cocktails. $12 admission gets you into the museum’s first floor and it’s Prohibition exhibition (and a free drink). Kevin will give a talk and sign copies of the book.
Sunday, Sept. 27, 12 PM, Governors Island (Colonel’s Row). The Jazz Age Lawn Party and Roaring Twenties Party. Live music by Michael Arenella and the Dreamland Orchestra. Book signing 12-3 PM. $5 admission. Open to the public.
Thanks for the support, I really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Kevin C. Fitzpatrick
kfitz@bway.net

Infinite Summer: Location 3590

Martin Schneider writes:
Note: I’m participating in Infinite Summer, the widespread Internet book project dedicated to reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. For more information, consult my introduction. My strategy has been to avoid lengthy commentary but instead list quintessentially Wallacean vocabulary and note other oddities, including Kindle typos.
I’m quite a bit farther than this, but I thought it’s preferable to present these lists in shorter form. Expect another update this week.
location 3154: Worcester, correct spelling seems off in this section
location 3229: addict/ alcoholic, errant extra space in Kindle
location 3240: galoots
location 3244: mythopoeia
location 3246: feldspar
location 3295:
location 3323: tripodic
location 3390: PRECIPITANT
location 3391: FREDDIE-MAC FUND, very prescient!
location 3412: arational
location 3424: Good old aural, narrative voice here is distractingly close to DFW’s nonfiction voice
location 3435: usnlikable, Kindle error
location 3436: 60% of respondents, I love the wit and insight of the “videophony” section, but the bit about the self-consciousness over appearance is wrong, isn’t it? People simply adjust their expectations of visual attractiveness to the situation, right?
location 3440: Dysphoria(or, Kindle typo
location 3470: Masking(or, Kindle typo
location 3487: 149, Kindle error (page number included in text)
location 3512: and c.
location 3513: Tableauxdioramas, Kindle typo (hyphen missing)
location 3516: panagoraphobia
location 3523: agnate
location 3548: naïver
location 3558: 70° driveways. Very, very strange. There’s no such thing as a 70° driveway, right? 45° would be crazy steep.
location 3581: spronging
location 3585: truly what is it to pünch the volley, hilarious
location 3590: Stanford-Bïnet, why is DFW adding a diaeresis to Binet?

What’s in This Week’s New Yorker: 08.10.09

Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. It is a double issue. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
In “Travels in Siberia–II,” Ian Frazier’s trip by car across the vast expanse of Siberia continues, from the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean.
In “The Price of the Ticket,” John Seabrook looks at the changes in the live-music industry and the financial complications that have caused many insiders to agree that the business of live music is “dysfunctional.”
In “The Courthouse Ring,” Malcolm Gladwell looks at Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and reëxamines its central character, Atticus Finch, and his attitude toward race.
In Comment, Kelefa Sanneh writes about reverse racism in the wake of the recent controversy over Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,’s arrest
In The Financial Page, James Surowiecki asks why government attempts to aid troubled borrowers have failed to turn the foreclosure crisis around.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Zev Borow offers a guide to summer sun protection.
Judith Thurman explores the collaboration between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter in the “Little House on the Prairie” books.
Alex Ross discovers new innovations in digital sound.
Nancy Franklin watches VH1’s Lords of the Revolution and Woodstock: Now and Then.
Anthony Lane reviews Cold Souls and Not Quite Hollywood.
There is a story by Sherman Alexie.

Checking Facts, Links: Are You Completely Accurate? (Is Anyone?)

Martin Schneider writes:
Emily and I generally have little patience with the apparent hordes of pedants who seem just a tad too delighted when the come upon an occasional factual error in The New Yorker. (N.B.: As a copyeditor, my job description is basically “professional pedant,” so don’t take that slam too much to heart.)
Putting out a magazine is hard, as Emily knows all too well and I’ve also been able to figure out over the years, and the belief that The New Yorker might possibly (or ever did) achieve pristine perfection with regard to facts is kind of the adult version of believing in the tooth fairy. Magazines have deadlines; facts are elusive; brains get tired; it’s hard.
And yet, and yet—this position, in a sense, allows The New Yorker to benefit from its outsize reputation as the Magazine That Never Errs while shielding it from the responsibilities that that status brings with it.
So, you know, yeah—The New Yorker shouldn’t ever depart from its implied mission to Get It All Right, which mission (and a sizable budget) allows it to publish a great deal of material on a vast range of subjects with what everyone would agree is a dauntingly high degree of accuracy. That’s the story here, not that it got the identity of the 1953 Cy Young Award winner wrong that one time (or whatever).
We get a fair number of people writing in, alerting us to this or that inaccuracy, and we tend to ignore them (fair warning). But recently a fellow named Craig Fehrman contacted us, inquiring about a possible link to an article he had written about a recent error in The New Yorker.
I admit I indulged in a preemptive wince. And actually, I’m not entirely sure that the article doesn’t share just a bit of the same mindset as the “mere” error-flaggers out there in the magazine’s audience. But his article so transcends that big-brained delight in catching someone out, I thought it would be worth linking to it.
So here it is: “Just The Facts at The New Yorker?” by Craig Fehrman, at Splice Today. I particularly liked his closing point, about The New Yorker‘s subtle and precarious existence between print and the Internet.
While we’re at it, a couple of additional fact-checking links. Andrew Hearst at the indispensible Panopticon blog, posted a big chunk of “Are You Completely Bald?” a 1988 New Republic article by Ari Posner and Richard Blow a few years ago.
Fehrman links to John McPhee’s reminiscence from earlier this year about fact-checking as well as an amusing Wikipedia list (loooove those Wikipedia lists) called “Prominent former fact-checkers” which verifies that fact-checking can be the first step in a noteworthy career, but only in a narrow set of egghead-y endeavors. No NHL goaltender has ever started out as a fact-checker (apparently, anyway; I await the Wiki update).

Congratulations to the Laura Jacobs Giveaway Winner!

Martin Schneider writes:
I’m pleased to announce that the winner of our giveaway for The Bird Catcher by Laura Jacobs is Patricia Fosen of Brooklyn, New York. Her favorite bird is the Black-chinned Hummingbird, who (she is told) “only hums Tchaikovsky.” That one is not on my life list!!
Thanks to the many people who entered, and better luck next time to all but Patricia (and sure, luck to her too). There will be other opportunities!
We asked for entrants to name their favorite bird, and you did not disappoint! The statements of avian fondness were delightful. Admired birds ranged from the familiar—Black-capped Chickadee (“highly entertaining at the bird feeder”), American Robin—to the fantastical—the Russet Crowned Motmot, Superb Starling, Bare-Faced Go-Away Bird).
Birds that received multiple mentions include the wren, the pelican, and the cardinal—a New Yorker who mentioned the cardinal said that she’s never actually seen one! (You must come out here to the burbs—they’re all over the place!) One reader on the west coast cited the wood thrush, saying that he gets to hear its song only when he watches golf tournaments on the east coast.
Finally, one wag mentioned “fried chicken”; another, the “Red-naped Border Tyrant (Customes officialus).” Keep it up—we at Emdashes admire whimsy!
birdcatcher.jpg

What’s in This Week’s New Yorker: 08.03.09

Martin Schneider writes:
A new issue of The New Yorker comes out tomorrow. A preview of its contents, adapted from the magazine’s press release:
“Travels in Siberia–I,” by Ian Frazier, is the first part of a two-part article, and the culmination of a writing assignment ten years in the making. To paint a realistic portrait of Siberia, Frazier set off on an ambitious road trip to cross the vast Russian region during a five-week period in the summer of 2001.
In “A New Page,” Nicholson Baker tries out the Kindle 2, the new e-book reader released by Amazon.
In “Party of One,” Kelefa Sanneh profiles Michael Savage, the conservative host of “The Savage Nation,” “one of the most addictive programs on radio, and one of the least predictable.”
In Comment, Hendrik Hertzberg asks why the U.S. is so far behind other democratic nations in achieving universal health care and looks at Barack Obama’s proposals for reform.
Patricia Marx goes swimsuit shopping.
In Shouts & Murmurs, Bruce McCall imagines a dining-out guide written by Iran’s Guardian Council.
Joan Acocella examines the Gospel of Judas, a Gnostic text that exonerates Judas Iscariot as the betrayer of Jesus Christ.
Louis Menand reads Thomas Pynchon’s new detective novel, Inherent Vice.
Peter Schjeldahl attends “In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976,” at the Museum of Modern Art.
David Denby reviews Judd Apatow’s latest film, Funny People.
There is a short story by Joshua Ferris.

Infinite Summer: Location 3158

Martin Schneider writes:
Note: I’m participating in Infinite Summer, the widespread Internet book project dedicated to reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. For more information, consult my introduction. My strategy has been to avoid lengthy commentary but instead list quintessentially Wallacean vocabulary and note other oddities, including Kindle typos.
Pretty far behind (12%!), but that’s okay. I’ve got some airport time still ahead of me in the summer.
I really loved the 3 NOVEMBER Y.D.A.U. chapter with all the Big Buddy meetings.
location 2023: D.T. as a verb
location 2031: skallycaps
location 2038: Ewell’s room’s window’s air conditioner
location 2068: candidiatic
location 2078: Bröckengespenst, what is it with DFW and umlauts? Word does not take an umlaut!
location 2102: to in truth do this, flagrant split infinitive, nice
location 2114: His tone of his voice, eesh
location 2133: raggers
location 2151: specular
location 2189: uremic-hued
location 2192: locomotival
location 2193: pedalferrous
location 2201: teratogenic
location 2256: clear, typo (from original print edition)
location 2285: acutance
location 2324: ephebes
location 2381: semion
location 2391: zygomatics
location 2433: carminative
location 2475: woppsed-up towel
location 2510: sbetrayal, Kindle typo
location 2559: Steeply … used silent pauses as integral parts of his techniques of interface. James Fallows has shown a great interest in this aspect of interrogation.
location 2566: lume
location 2597: osteoporotically
location 2598: foot-work, Kindle error, taking syllabification hyphen to be in the word
location 2599: waist-level, unusual place for hyphen
location 2615: bow-biters
location 2659: E Unibus Pluram, title of DFW essay is jarring; has anyone suggested these kids are too erudite?
location 2686: ballet de se, apparently idiosyncratic French
location 2778: obtrudes
location 2848: guilloche
location 2871: stickery
location 2933: Mario’s joke is genuinely hilarious.
location 3011: murated
location 3015: why’s he’s, typo (from original print edition)