Feels Like Walkin' On Broken Glass
Boy, howdy, The New Republic just blows nowadays. Back in the Mike Kinsley-Andrew Sullivan-Mike Kelly era of "tough-minded bleeding hearts" it was probably the best read it's ever been in my experience, although I've obviously never read TNR for the politics.
However, once they fired Michael Kelly (who turned around and made Atlantic Monthly of all things into one of the great magazines of the era) for insufficient fellatio to Al Gore, the politics became insipid and fearful. It was especially visible because we'd let our subscription lapse during the 2000 campaign, but mollpeartree was possessed by Satan or something and resubscribed about a year ago. There was a little bit of fun during the late primaries, but TNR is now dappling John Kerry's fever'd brow with soothing primroses forever and ever amen, and having learned nothing from l'affaire Stephen Glass, are now finding Pakistani intelligence officials to tell them what they want to hear about Evil Bush Plan #55-A. They're even waffling on the war all Thomas Friedman-old-woman style. I expect them to endorse Daniel Ortega any time now.
Even TNR's cultural coverage, which has remained a standout for much of this slow degringolade, is collapsing; Stanley Kauffman has always been useless as a film critic, but is even moreso now; art critic Jed Perl can't be in every issue, sadly; their music and TV critics are even worse than useless; and their book review section -- once the finest in the land; I still recall tearing up as I read Omer Bartov dismember Daniel Goldhagen -- has descended into anomic self-parody. (But if you're desperate for coverage of the history of Mitteleuropaisch Jewish literature, boy have you come to the right place!)
So what to do? National Review (John Simon's magnificent vitriol aside) has never covered the arts and letters very well, and under their immigrant leadership continue to blast away at immigrants, so I can't very well have them in my house. (Plus, they actually praised Castro's AIDS policy -- in my day, if Castro said the sky was blue, NR would have run a five-page essay conclusively proving it was green.) Sure, there's always Reason, but that's mighty thin gruel on foreign affairs, and it's monthly to boot. The Economist is too expensive for non-students, sadly, in addition to being from some other country entirely. The Atlantic Monthly is still sound as a dollar, but you can see the strain without Kelly. Even Hitchens can't always save its book review section (when, that is, he remembers he's supposed to be reviewing a book of some kind), although God knows Benjamin Schwarz is in there swinging. (But damn, I'd love to have his job.)
Does anyone have any suggestions? I can get political analysis from blogs, nowadays, so that's actually less of a gaping hole than good, intense cultural criticism and good book reviews with a prejudice toward nonfiction, especially history. (Please do not insult either of us by suggesting NYRB, which has been a self-parody for over 25 years now, although its publishing arm is superb.) What do you read, in other words, to tell you what and how to read (and look)?
However, once they fired Michael Kelly (who turned around and made Atlantic Monthly of all things into one of the great magazines of the era) for insufficient fellatio to Al Gore, the politics became insipid and fearful. It was especially visible because we'd let our subscription lapse during the 2000 campaign, but mollpeartree was possessed by Satan or something and resubscribed about a year ago. There was a little bit of fun during the late primaries, but TNR is now dappling John Kerry's fever'd brow with soothing primroses forever and ever amen, and having learned nothing from l'affaire Stephen Glass, are now finding Pakistani intelligence officials to tell them what they want to hear about Evil Bush Plan #55-A. They're even waffling on the war all Thomas Friedman-old-woman style. I expect them to endorse Daniel Ortega any time now.
Even TNR's cultural coverage, which has remained a standout for much of this slow degringolade, is collapsing; Stanley Kauffman has always been useless as a film critic, but is even moreso now; art critic Jed Perl can't be in every issue, sadly; their music and TV critics are even worse than useless; and their book review section -- once the finest in the land; I still recall tearing up as I read Omer Bartov dismember Daniel Goldhagen -- has descended into anomic self-parody. (But if you're desperate for coverage of the history of Mitteleuropaisch Jewish literature, boy have you come to the right place!)
So what to do? National Review (John Simon's magnificent vitriol aside) has never covered the arts and letters very well, and under their immigrant leadership continue to blast away at immigrants, so I can't very well have them in my house. (Plus, they actually praised Castro's AIDS policy -- in my day, if Castro said the sky was blue, NR would have run a five-page essay conclusively proving it was green.) Sure, there's always Reason, but that's mighty thin gruel on foreign affairs, and it's monthly to boot. The Economist is too expensive for non-students, sadly, in addition to being from some other country entirely. The Atlantic Monthly is still sound as a dollar, but you can see the strain without Kelly. Even Hitchens can't always save its book review section (when, that is, he remembers he's supposed to be reviewing a book of some kind), although God knows Benjamin Schwarz is in there swinging. (But damn, I'd love to have his job.)
Does anyone have any suggestions? I can get political analysis from blogs, nowadays, so that's actually less of a gaping hole than good, intense cultural criticism and good book reviews with a prejudice toward nonfiction, especially history. (Please do not insult either of us by suggesting NYRB, which has been a self-parody for over 25 years now, although its publishing arm is superb.) What do you read, in other words, to tell you what and how to read (and look)?