I think he hates every movie he’s ever seen. But he’s funny with it, so I do enjoy reading him. I prefer Denby as a critic.
The New Yorker is, to me, one of the last great examples of good journalism out there. The writing is fantastic and the subject matter often unusual. It tends to raise a lot of good critical points.
Judging by the advertisements ($5k watches and the like) and the tone of some of the writing I would guess that its target audience is upper-middle class professionals. There is an elitist feel to it. And it does tend to have a liberal bent.
I think it is worth every dime. But I wouldn’t recommend a subscription unless you have all that time on your hands. It is dense stuff.
Growing up, we had a big New Yorker cartoon anthology at home. Of course we loved Chas Addams, but some of the social commentary took years to understand. I eventually learned that Roosevelt was considered a Traitor to his Class! Not thatLiberals escaped criticism.
As Senior Year ended, the Smart Boy who respected me as a Smart Girl left town–& left me his collection of New Yorkers. I’ve subscribed off & on since then, but have been trying to simplify things lately.
**One big danger: **The magazine is published weekly. After skimming for cartoons, reviews & other short stuff, there’s always a really long article or story that you plan to read later. So you put it in the pile. And the pile grows…
I read it on the can.
So it must be good.
I subscribed from across the pond for a year. I loved it, and scoured it from cover to cover every week. Only unsubscribed because I was moving away.
I’ve subscribed to it for over 10 years, too, and read it every week. It drives me crazy if I miss one (I blame my mailman!). The first thing I read is the restaurant review (Tables for Two), which is pretty funny since I live in San Diego.
New Yorker writers can write about carpet and make it interesting (I’m serious - there was a LONG article on Persian carpets years back and it was fascinating.)
The fiction is hit or miss, but it would be in any weekly, I think. I read one of the first excerpts of Brokeback Mountain there, though, so they really do pick some winners.
I just got the Atlantic fiction supplement and it was great. Really compelling stories. I"d pick that up if you like short fiction (I subscribe to Atlantic and am kind of “meh” about it. I probably won’t renew it).
I agree that the New Yorker’s fiction is hit or miss, but the New Yorker Fiction podcast is excellent. A writer who’s published fiction in the New Yorker reads a New Yorker story that he or she admires. What makes the podcast so interesting is the discussion between the moderator and reader about the story. I’ve discovered stories I like and come to appreciate some stories that initially flew over my head.
Heh. Back in 1988, when I was reading every word and there were more words, I got one year behind. I stopped reading everything else and caught up only because I started being selective.
I have complete cartoon collection, including the CDs. I really need to get around to looking at all of them - I have looked at all the work of my favorite cartoonists, like Addams, Hamilton and Ziegler.
I’ve subscribed for about six years and read it cover to cover. I don’t really know much about the other magazines you mentioned, but I feel the tone, level of writing and range of topics are topnotch and extremely adult.
I purposely don’t look at the table of contents (or look ahead to see when an article will end) and let the week’s issue unfold as it goes along. I read everything, even though I’m less interested in some topics than others. I’m not a classical music or dance fan but I always learn something from every article and have occasionally checked out stuff online after reading about it.
Their fiction has gone downhill, even in the short time I’ve been reading regularly – like eleanorigby said, it’s gotten a little to precious (twee?) and abstruse (I think purposefully). Also, in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, I thought I’d lose my mind if I encountered one more article about China. And I very rarely enjoy Shouts & Murmurs but turning the page to see David Sedaris’ name makes me happy because I know I’ll laugh out loud at least a couple of times. Also, I think the submittors blew it on the recent Supreme Court Cartoon Caption Contest.
The post office is wildly variable with delivery of each week’s issue; I panic if I find I’m getting too close to the end of the week and haven’t gotten it and start scoping out where I’ll have to go to buy the issue from a newsstand. The New Yorker is very good though about extending my subscription if I have to buy it (or it doesn’t arrive).
I’m glad I’m not the only New Yorker compulsive here!
That is one of my favorite parts. I prefer the issues that are stapled rather than perfect bound, as I can fold them over easily to my page. I always have an issue with me.
The only reason I’m able to keep up is not driving. Even though I don’t live in Manhattan (the greenest city in the US, as one surprising article pointed out) I take public transit everywhere. I never wait for or ride a bus or train without an issue.
“The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.” - Miller (Repo Man)
Good point. But since I generally prefer pessimistic/picky movie critics, he’s my guy. BUT… Denby is awfully good too.
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My years of trying to keep up with The New Yorker ended before I realized that commuting via mass transit made a lot of sense for me, personally. Houston is hardly “green” but I live & work in areas well connected by bus & light rail. So I’ve been putting that time to good use, yet still have a big pile of books to finish.
I may resubscribe to the magazine once I demolish that pile…
I am nearly finished going through a backlog of probably six months’ worth of New Yorkers, and I have enjoyed the slog. I usually read the articles that catch my attention right away and flag others as “should” reads. When I go back I sometimes follow through on the shoulds and sometimes don’t because of lack of interest or time. I would echo much of what others have said–I’m another one who doesn’t like most of the fiction, but many of the political articles, unusual profiles, and arts articles are outstanding. I’d add a special shout-out to Atul Gawande for his health care policy articles.
On another point you mentioned, comparison to Harper’s, I’d like to vent a bit–I have had it up to my ears with Harper’s, which I used to like quite a lot. Over the past years I began to notice that, while Harper’s often raises fascinating topics and covers them in depth, none of their writers ever seem to offer any optimism or solutions. While the New Yorker or Atlantic or the New Republic might cover, say, genetic engineering or electric cars with a critical, thoughtful, but hopeful tone, Harper’s will cover the same type of topic with nothing but pessimism and doom-and-gloom. Their editorial mantra seems to be “it’ll never work.” Drives me nuts. (And before anyone else points it out, I will say that the current issue, with its balanced article on cell phones and brain damage, is the exception that proves the rule. I was shocked when I saw on the cover that the magazine was actually entertaining the notion that cell phones might NOT cause brain damage. Too bad I won’t be watching to see if it’s a trend, though–we didn’t renew our subscription.)
This is one of the articles I still use as a reference argument on health care.
It’s editor Lewis Lapham all over the place. Same reason why I quit reading Harper’s.
I love that one. Malcolm Gladwell’s Million Dollar Murray is a particular favorite of mine, with it’s message that the best solution to supposedly intractable problems is often one that will piss off both the Left and the Right.
Not surprising given their editor.
I’ve been a subscriber since 1982 (I still have that first issue - “Tootsie” was the reviewed movie).
A National Treasure? Absolutely. Pick a random (non-fiction) article from a random issue and you will find yourself fascinated, regardless of the topic.
And Anthony Lane is my guy as well. I read his reviews not for his opinion, but for his writing. I’m always mildly disappointed when I see he is not the reviewer in a given issue.
MMM
Yay- the National Treasure vote is alive!
I agree about Anthony Lane - it is about his writing more than the actual movie, but damn - his writing. He writes other stuff - clearly a photography buff, he did a great article on Leica camera over the page year - but his movie reviews are just so…Dorothy Parker.
I started reading The New Yorker when I started commuting to college. A two hour train ride there and back. Now that I’m domiciled at my law school I don’t have time for it anymore. I check their website every now and then to see if there is anything interesting.
And I hate both David Denby and Anthony Lane. They are both good writers, but awful movie critics. They come up with the most convoluted ideas about movies and never support them with details from the movie. I love movies, but I never read their reviews. I feel the same way about all the other art critics in The New Yorker. They’re mostly hired because of their writing abilities and not their abilities as critics.
This is one of my favorite Comments from The New Yorker. Adam Gopnik, who doesn’t usually write about politics, wrote about the political response to the VA tech shootings.