Last Week's New Yorker Review: ☀️ The Weekend Special (October 21)
The Weekend Special (October 21)
Pieces are given up to three Jacksons (for fiction), Malcolms (for essays), or Rosses (for your picks). As with restaurant stars, even one Jackson, Malcolm, or Ross indicates a generally positive review.
☀️ Fiction
“War Dogs” by Paul Yoon. No Jacksons. know, Korea, kick. Telegraphs its ambitions far too clearly. What I mean by this is that it feels less like a story which trickled out bit by bit, and more like Yoon sat down with the prompt “nonhuman perspectives + single extended moment + multiple narrators + maximalism” and this was what came out. I can’t point to any particular detail that feels off, but the sum of those details feels inorganic. It’s a cliché that characters “tell” writers what they would do or where they would end up, but there is wisdom to following that approach; a stiffness sets in when characters are shuttled into position like Barbies. Perhaps the issue is just that Yoon, exploding one tiny moment, has grown anxious that his story will lack momentum, and compensates by, one, starting over again and again, and two, taking things in very dramatic, almost operatic directions. What’s meant as grandeur feels both stiff and a bit cruel. For what it’s worth, I didn’t find the nonhuman perspectives at all convincing, though that wouldn’t matter if Yoon would worry less about it – let the fantastical win the day! Instead it’s clear he’s labored over these sections so as to perfectly walk the line between anthropomorphizing and needlessly distancing. As a result, things feel… labored.
☀️ Weekend Essay
“Do You Remember School?” by Lydia Davis. No Malcolms. class, close, club. Really wanted to like this – I teach high school now, after all, and I think all the time about the ways we may remember high school differently from our classmates – I have some very mild educational trauma, which will do that. But Davis’ view is so rosy as to court glibness – if anything horrific or even unpleasant colored her scholarly experience, it’s missing here – and perhaps I’m being cynical, but I find it hard to believe there was no incident at her high school… which seems to have resulted in there being no incident in this essay. It meanders warmly, failing to say anything of much interest. I was also astonished how much her feelings differ from mine; she writes: “I find comforting the memory of the group schedule and the unavoidable authority of the grownups. The day was decided by someone else, responsibility was off my shoulders, I had only to follow directions—or to fail or resist, with unpleasant consequences.” The idea that one could be comforted by such things is entirely alien to me; Friere’s essay on the “Banking” Concept made me literally weep with recognition the first time I read it. I understand in theory that one can find comfort in authority… but some part of me continues whispering “but that way lies Fascism, right?!” I also think I distrust adults talking about their experiences as children. The truth is that children already know how to communicate, and in trying to capture their view through one that’s been shaped by so much more life, we often sand off its rougher edges. This essay is smoothed to a polish – but I still can’t see myself.
☀️ Random Pick
“Muddy Withers” by Audax Minor and “Peach” by Winthrop Sargeant (May 15, 1971.) One Ross and No Rosses. pantomime, podium, pliancy. I spun up another Minor, which was a treat, mostly just in that his writing didn’t change a millimeter between his early days, as covered a few weeks ago, and this effort from thirty-something years later. As such, I really have nothing to add to what I said before. So I spun again and got Sargeant in his usual blusteringly conservative, anti-atonal mode. It’s really not my thing. His prose isn’t totally limp, but it’s not snappy enough to make up for his deliberately retrograde taste.
☀️ Something Extra
I was shocked by how much I enjoyed Medea ReVersed, a battle-rap theatrical adaptation of the Greek tragedy, which just closed. I knew it had gotten good reviews from the critics I trust, but still, the concept is a lot. I was won over almost immediately, and by the end the show transcends its gimmick. I haven’t listened to the cast album yet, and I’m not sure it will capture the energy of the performance, but even if it only gets halfway there it’s worth a listen.
“Your Pick” is a piece chosen by a randomly selected paying subscriber. (Except when it’s a “Random Pick”, in which case it’s chosen by random number generation.) Have a piece you want to be "Your Pick"? If you're a paying subscriber, you can also skip the vicissitudes of fate and force your way to the front of the line! Venmo $20 per request to @SamECircle, then write me an email or a note on Venmo letting me know you've done so and what your requested piece is. No limit on the number of requests, BTW. If you want to give me a more open-ended prompt ("1987 reported feature by a woman") that's great as well – and pieces from other venues are okay too, if you ask nicely.
Sunday Song: