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"Women are the internet, and the internet is women. How else to explain male writers’ terror about..."

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:00:24 -0500

“Women are the internet, and the internet is women. How else to explain male writers’ terror about taking it with them to the office? Women writers may admit they have a hard time working while online, but for men this appears to be a much more profound issue, and in some cases a hardware problem. (Zadie Smith thanks the internet-blocking application Freedom on the acknowledgments page of her latest book, but she didn’t name an entire novel after it.) Men tear the ethernet cord out of the socket, they hot-glue the socket, they use computers so old they say they were made without a socket. They claim they must avoid the internet so as not to masturbate all over their computers (see “The Porn Machine,” Issue Five). But their stories of covering up and gluing shut suggest that for men the internet is in fact the site of a perverse fear of penetration. They have withdrawn into a cult of the unplugged.”

- The Intellectual Situation

"Every time a plane flies over New York, we think, “Oh my God — is it another Atlantic think piece?”..."

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:06:19 -0500

“Every time a plane flies over New York, we think, “Oh my God — is it another Atlantic think piece?” We mean, “an Atlantic think piece about women.” The two have become synonymous, and they descend upon their target audience with the regularity and severe abdominal cramping of Seasonale. “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” “The End of Men,” “Marry Him!” These are articles intended to terrorize unmarried women, otherwise known as educated straight women in their twenties and thirties, otherwise known as a valuable market, if not for reliable lovers then at least for advertisers. Their purpose is to revive one formerly robust man of the house, who for years has been languishing on his deathbed: the cigar-smoking, suspender-snapping, mansplaining American general interest magazine.”

- The Intellectual Situation

Order or renew your subscription by noon EST (12:00 PM) on...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:06:00 -0500

Order or renew your subscription by noon EST (12:00 PM) on Monday, November 12, 2012 and be the first to get a copy of Issue 15: Amnesty.

We’re proud to announce that Kirill...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 12:10:00 -0400

We’re proud to announce that Kirill Medvedev’s It’s No Good, which Keith and a team of translators have been working on for more than a year—and which, yes, we’ve advertised in the last few issues as “coming soon”—has finally gone to the printer. The book collects much of Medvedev’s poetry, essays, and public actions from the past decade, including “My Fascism,” “Literature Will Be Tested,” and “Brecht Is Not Your Aunt.” n+1 readers will remember Medvedev’s poetry from Issue 6, and his essay on Russian poetry from Issue 13. We should have copies in early December for the socialist internationalists on your Xmas list. More soon.

(If you are a member of the media (we mean that in the broadest possible sense), and want to write about the book, which gives a panoramic vision of post-Soviet intellectual life, especially of the last ten years, please send us a note at editors at nplusonemag.com and we’ll get you a galley.)

For your weekend listening! An (audio) preview of Issue 15

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:15:15 -0400

sketchthebook: Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America Made with...

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:07:35 -0400

sketchthebook:

Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America
Made with Paper

Dear Readers, I’m writing to you because we’re finally releasing...

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:16:46 -0400

Dear Readers,

I’m writing to you because we’re finally releasing our newest “Small Books series” book.

Dayna and I have worked on this one for ten months. It’s called THE TROUBLE IS THE BANKS: LETTERS TO WALL STREET, and it’s a bit unusual for us—part of our project of research. In the tradition of Studs Terkel’s oral histories, The Trouble is the Banks is a collection of letters written by American citizens (and one Canadian) to executives of the banks where they are customers.

Last fall, a lot of us around n+1 became interested in the Occupy protests in Zuccotti Park. I encountered a group there that had created a guerilla website where ordinary citizens—not protesters per se—could write long, detailed, polite letters to executives and directors of the big six US banks, by name. The site then actually delivered them (by email).

8,000 people wrote these letters in six weeks. I had never read anything like them. They’re eloquent, thoughtful, and outraged. They tell you exactly what different people all over the country want from their banks, their government, and each other. They’re unlike the top-down portrayals you see on TV or in this season’s election campaigns. They come from us, representing all kinds of people—rich and poor, ex-bank employees and worried parents—of both political parties.

Every time a political candidate says “the American people,” I cringe. How do they know? Here are letters that let you hear your fellow Americans unfiltered. We chose the 150 most eloquent letters after reading all 8000. The book is amazing, and it’s coming back from the printer next week.

Please buy the book. It’s cheap! ($10; but only $8 when you bundle a copy with a one-year print or digital subscription to n+1.) It’s a mind-blower. We can send it to you right away.

We’re also doing something we haven’t done before: asking you, if you want to, to donate $5 or $10 (or more) to let us send a free copy to one of the bank executives addressed in the book; or to Mitt Romney or Barack Obama or Paul Ryan or CNBC or FoxNews or, goodness knows, whoever you think needs it. Maybe your brother-in-law who works at Chase? We’ll do it. You can fill in the recipient’s name in the ‘Comments’ box on the order form, or write us at subs@nplusonemag.com.

Personally, I think a copy of this book—with or without a donation to send it to a banker, politician, or news writer—might be a better expenditure this political season than another donation to a campaign or PAC. More pleasurable, certainly.

With best wishes, and thanks,

Mark

PS. If you can tell other friends this book exists, too, I’ll be grateful forever. I got to talk about its genesis to Tess Vigeland on Marketplace on NPR a couple of weeks ago. We also got a few letters into the Week in Review in the New York Times, though not enough letters. And if your friends don’t want to buy the book through us—or don’t have a clue what n+1 is—they can also buy it through Amazon, at this link.

Last day to pre-order The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall...

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:11:58 -0400

Last day to pre-order The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street in order to receive it direct from the printer!

Shulamith Firestone in 1968 at Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael,...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:14:43 -0400

Shulamith Firestone in 1968 at Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, Israel. Photo by Andrew Klein.

In memoriam: On Shulamith Firestone.

sketchthebook: What was The Hipster? by n+1 Made with...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 15:40:00 -0400

sketchthebook:

What was The Hipster? by n+1
Made with Paper

Thanks!

The Trouble is the Banks

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 15:25:00 -0400

The Trouble is the Banks

Illustrations by Mike McQuade from the dispatch Dear Bankers:...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:29:27 -0400

Illustrations by Mike McQuade

from the dispatch Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives …

excerpted from The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street forthcoming in October from n+1

Illustrations by Mike McQuade from the dispatch Dear Bankers:...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:26:17 -0400

Illustrations by Mike McQuade

from the dispatch Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives …

excerpted from The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street forthcoming in October from n+1

Illustrations by Mike McQuade from the dispatch Dear Bankers:...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:25:00 -0400

Illustrations by Mike McQuade

from the dispatch Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives …

excerpted from The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street forthcoming in October from n+1

Illustrations by Mike McQuade from the dispatch Dear Bankers:...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:18:36 -0400

Illustrations by Mike McQuade

from the dispatch Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives …

excerpted from The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street forthcoming in October from n+1

Illustrations by Mike McQuade from the dispatch Dear Bankers:...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:16:43 -0400

Illustrations by Mike McQuade

from the dispatch Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives …

excerpted from The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street forthcoming in October from n+1

Illustrations by Mike McQuade from the dispatch Dear Bankers:...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:15:09 -0400

Illustrations by Mike McQuade

from the dispatch Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives …

excerpted from The Trouble is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street forthcoming in October from n+1

To celebrate the annual pilgrimages being made to schools across...

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:15:00 -0400

To celebrate the annual pilgrimages being made to schools across the country, we are offering our own alternative (or complement) to education: an inexpensive one-year print subscription and a digital copy of our first limited edition ebook, Bad Education, featuring some of the magazine’s best and crankiest writing about education – for only $20 (the least expensive we’ll ever offer; offer expires this Tuesday)!

epsteinian: silently enjoying the view

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:05:56 -0400

epsteinian:

silently enjoying the view

The Scientists: A Family Romanceby Marco Roth

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 10:56:46 -0400

The Scientists: A Family Romance
by Marco Roth