Editor’s Corner
August 1, 2008
Summer salmagundi
By
Constance Hale and Andrea Pitzer
Like many of you who completed our recent survey, our curiosity about narrative extends far beyond daily news journalism. So it seemed especially appropriate in August to offer some summer fare—different genres, different publications, a little heft, a little levity. We requested, and received, story suggestions from all corners, and decided to offer up a grab bag of unusual narratives.
Many Digest readers passed along “The Real Work” from a March issue of the New Yorker, which we discuss in the Commentary. Another reader suggested Gene Weingarten’s “Pearls Before Breakfast,” about a world-class violinist playing anonymously at rush hour in a Washington, D.C., metro station. But since Weingarten’s piece had garnered attention when it was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, we decided to feature a less well-known Weingarten article that, like Gopnik’s piece, touches on illusions and magic.
Games, magic, illusions, deception—oh, and a little morning music—all seemed perfectly suited to a summer reading list. Going through other recommended pieces, we found sex, sports, and a few takes on mortality.
Mike Donila of The St. Petersburg Times found sex-lite at an upscale Clearwater bar that hawks “naked sushi”—raw rolls laid out on the almost-naked body of a model, then served to patrons. Sex also takes center stage in “Why Dirty Is Funny,” a commentary by Jim Holt that ran in The Los Angeles Times. Holt uses the “porn stash” of a federal appeals court judge as the departure point for an essay on sexual jokes—somehow managing to consult the wisdom of the ancient Greeks, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schoepenhauer, and George H.W. Bush in the process.
Holt’s witty writing is a good match for his subject, and this confluence between an author’s voice and his subject also drew our attention to The New York Times obituary of William F. Buckley, Jr., subtitled “Sesquipedalian Spark of Right.” We were surprised that a reader would recommend an obituary for light summer reading, until we read the piece, which doesn’t ignore some of the uglier chapters of the arch conservative’s life (such as his early support of segregation), but feels more like a riotous romp through the life of a raging intellectual.
Another essay took quite a different tack on the subject of death: the lyrical “Millthorpe Cemetery Blues”, originally in the Sydney Morning Herald, unwinds some Australian country graveyard atmospherics.
Finally, those hungry for more gravity along with the levity might want to view a documentary that airs August 19 on PBS and will be screened in California, Chile, and Belgium. The Judge and the General is the story of a Chilean judge who discovers long-buried secrets while investigating former dictator Augusto Pinochet. One of the film’s two producer/directors, Elizabeth Farnsworth, talked about the challenges of making a historical documentary at the 2008 Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism.
Listen to a portion of her talk:
(Farnsworth’s entire talk is available from Cambridge Transcriptions).
We’ll be back after Labor Day with some new features, and perhaps even a new look. In the meantime, keep sending your favorite stories.