August 2010 Archives
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Excerpts
The Thousand
An excerpt of Kevin Guilfoile’s new novel, The Thousand, about a group of mavericks safeguarding and exploiting the secret teachings of Pythagoras.
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Announcements
Sponsored Contest: C by Tom McCarthy
FRIDAY'S CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR PLAYING! SPONSORED CONTEST: TOM MCCARTHY’S C In 2008, Tom McCarthy’s little-known novel Remainder battled to the final match of our Tournament...
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Gallery
This Illuminated American Life
For the amount that Islam is discussed in the news, how many of us have read or tried to understand its most important text, the Qur’an? Artist Sandow Birk’s writes out and illustrates each verse, drawing equally from the traditions of calligraphy and graffiti.
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Surveys
Misperception
Overly dramatic portrayals of drowning in movies and TV spread deadly disinformation. This and other tropes show that if you believe everything you see, it could kill you.
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Paging Summer
It’s Only Pretend
Labor Day is coming soon, and along with it the start of school. But the TMN writers’ children still have a little August reading to do, in this final installment of their book reports.
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Personal Essays
Singing It Over Again
When you’re used to regular doses of applause, giving up the stage for a 9-to-5 gig can produce acute withdrawal. Reclaiming past glories by singing backup.
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Current Reads
One Never Know, Do One?
Reading a Guardian article headlined “Jodi Picoult attacks favoritism towards ‘white male literary darlings’—Bestselling author attacks New York Times for narrow focus of its review coverage” had me checking...
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Excerpts
The Report
An excerpt of Jessica Francis Kane’s forthcoming novel, The Report, about London’s Bethnal Green disaster, where 173 people died in WWII’s largest civilian accident.
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Gallery
In the Flow
Bathing is an ordinary routine for most of us, but Manjari Sharma’s shower is more than a place for a daily lather and rinse. It’s a confessional, a temple, and, for believers, an incarnation of the river Ganges.
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Announcements
Hot Jam of Forever
There will always be those songs that remind you of summer, that get into your brain and stick there -- with your approval or without it -- for years. Occasionally...
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The Non-Expert
Publishing Is Toast
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, a reader wonders about TMN’s vision of the future of publishing.
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Opinions
The Unbearable Lightness of Declaring a Liberal Arts Major
Faced with a deadline to choose her major, our writer hunts down interview subjects to learn where their studies got them, no matter her mother’s loathing of the liberal arts.
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Current Reads
Do We Care What Time It Is?
Perhaps future anthropologists, stirring the entrails of our American civilization, will find it remarkable that in the third millennium of the Christian era, Time magazine placed novelist Jonathan Franzen on...
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Birnbaum v.
Jennifer Egan
Our man in Boston sits down to chat with author Jennifer Egan about her new novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, and what it’s like to write in PowerPoint.
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To Live Like This Is to Be Happy Forever
Seventeen Thousand Gallons Will Find Its Way Out
In the heat of a Carolina summer, nothing’s better than a nice swim, assuming the pool doesn’t explode.
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Gallery
Trainset Ghetto
Boarded-up windows in abandoned brick buildings, grass growing from sidewalk cracks, rusty storefronts—the cycle of a city’s evolution and abandonment is familiar. Artist Peter Feigenbaum reimagines these ghettos in miniature, using components from toy train sets and more.
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The Non-Expert
Can We Date?
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. A reader wants to know if it’s OK to date a distant relative. We answer by way of flowchart.
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Lunch Poems
Spanking the Arils From a Pomegranate
Aril: “an extra seed-covering, typically colored and hairy or fleshy, e.g., the red fleshy cup around a yew seed.”
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Personal Essays
Finding Positive
When pregnancy showed up unbidden, a writer demands a second test, and a third, and a fourth. But then she saw a result many women spend years searching for.
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Current Reads
Top 10 Books of the Year
Last week’s version of this bulletin included notice of Tony Judt’s latest opus. Sadly, this week’s news is that Judt has passed on, as some express it,...
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The Golem Blog
What Mad Pursuit
After his odd job draws to a close, the Golem, still on protection duty, realizes a new task lies ahead.
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Gallery
Secret Selves
Known to millions as a half-Vulcan science officer, Leonard Nimoy’s day-to-day life—as a husband, father, and photographer—is a secret, overshadowed by his role on an iconic TV show.
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Man Cites Dog
Where Secrets Harden
Accompanied by a nervous, loudmouth dog, our writer sneaks into a hidden, underground city where Britain hides thousands of extremely dull documents.
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Opinions
The Snoring Proviso
Sharing a bed requires rules. An important addendum comes along well after the blanket allowances and closet zombies have been settled.
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Current Reads
Darkness in August
More than a few people have expressed to me some inchoate feeling that, yes, August is upon us. This seems to be an expression of discomfort with the rapidity with...
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Personal Essays
To Chelsea, and Climate Control, Cheers
From the awkward phase through the sweater phase to the riot grrrl phase and the New York phase, growing up with a First Daughter I’ve never met.
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Gallery
Summer Into Fall
Over the past 20 years, photographer Catherine Opie’s various bodies of work depict the ways singular identities bring us together and isolate us from one another.