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n+1 Issue 4: Reconstruction
A symposium on American literature, including Benjamin Kunkel's "The Novel," Keith Gessen's "Money," and Elif Batuman's "Short Story," Philip Connors on life at the Wall Street Journal, Mark Greif's "Afternoon of the Sex Children," Chad Harbach on global warming. Plus an excerpt from Gregoire Bouillier's The Mystery Guest.
- GenresEssays
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
3 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
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n+1
63 books132 followersn+1 is a print journal of politics, literature, and culture, published originally twice a year and now three times a year.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 8, 2008
The guys who put this magazine out are completely earnest, sincere, highly -- intimidatingly -- educated, and but seem to have a pretty grim outlook on the world. The articles are either highly critical -- if not polemical -- or else are completely depressing. A piece about global warming starts off this issue; it has to be the most depressing thing I've ever read. Further, I'm unsure what one is to take from an article whose conclusion is that this terrifying future is inevitable, that there's absolutely nothing we can do. In an article about the sexualization/fetishization of Western youth, Mark Greif says "let the future know that we are fools." It's like if you disagree with these people about how awful everything is, you're probably just not educated enough, not reading enough French theory, but if you do agree, well shit. You're fucked anyway. So then what. A degree from Harvard isn't going to shield you from the hole in the ozone layer.
There's an essay condemning the American short story and the American novel, basically claiming they're both impotent and serve no purpose, which, if this is true, it certainly diminishes the purpose of the journal itself. And then later on there are some pretty strong short stories -- written by American authors.
In the Letters section, a man wrote in, upset that a Google search for "tambourine playing" resulted in a snippet from an online n+1 article containing the f-word. Marco Roth's response was at first humorous, pointing out that hey, we're sorry, but there's no way we can control the yield of a Google search. Obviously. Roth continues, though, lambasting the guy for being such a conservative and sheltered buffoon. Sure, I agree that people who are offended by anything on the internet are, you know, not people who should be using the internet, but the contempt displayed seemed a bit haughty and immature. These are young men writing for n+1, and here was one example of this showing through in a bad way.
All this said, I enjoy reading the magazine. It's varied, informative (if, again, quite opinionated), and, for the most part (aside from an incredibly sentimental and incredibly naive article about capping income at $100K) well-argued. It's well-written, too, and, for its subject matter, rarely dry. There is a twelve page review of two books I'll never read, and I'm not convinced of the merits of such a long review -- my sympathies to the deconstructionists, but twelve pages on a couple science-fictiony novels about cloning? No thanks. (Another ten or so pages is then devoted to tearing down Bill Vollmann, who, though perhaps utterly incapable of literal self-restraint, and a bit sentimental, is not a bad person, something the article borders on arguing against).
Still, still, I look forward to number seven. For some reason I keep thinking it's going to be pink. I picture it showing up in the mail and it's pink. Not sure what this is coming from.
There's an essay condemning the American short story and the American novel, basically claiming they're both impotent and serve no purpose, which, if this is true, it certainly diminishes the purpose of the journal itself. And then later on there are some pretty strong short stories -- written by American authors.
In the Letters section, a man wrote in, upset that a Google search for "tambourine playing" resulted in a snippet from an online n+1 article containing the f-word. Marco Roth's response was at first humorous, pointing out that hey, we're sorry, but there's no way we can control the yield of a Google search. Obviously. Roth continues, though, lambasting the guy for being such a conservative and sheltered buffoon. Sure, I agree that people who are offended by anything on the internet are, you know, not people who should be using the internet, but the contempt displayed seemed a bit haughty and immature. These are young men writing for n+1, and here was one example of this showing through in a bad way.
All this said, I enjoy reading the magazine. It's varied, informative (if, again, quite opinionated), and, for the most part (aside from an incredibly sentimental and incredibly naive article about capping income at $100K) well-argued. It's well-written, too, and, for its subject matter, rarely dry. There is a twelve page review of two books I'll never read, and I'm not convinced of the merits of such a long review -- my sympathies to the deconstructionists, but twelve pages on a couple science-fictiony novels about cloning? No thanks. (Another ten or so pages is then devoted to tearing down Bill Vollmann, who, though perhaps utterly incapable of literal self-restraint, and a bit sentimental, is not a bad person, something the article borders on arguing against).
Still, still, I look forward to number seven. For some reason I keep thinking it's going to be pink. I picture it showing up in the mail and it's pink. Not sure what this is coming from.
Displaying 1 of 1 review