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Sweet argumentation, bro! [Essays]
Shorty
touching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered User regular
touching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered User regular
Earlier tonight I went to a reading given by Tim Kreider, known primarily for his political cartoon The Pain--When Will it End?
But he doesn't do those anymore, because one can only be professionally furious for so long. Now he writes thoughtful essays! He has book full of them that came out last month. It's called We Learn Nothing, and it's delightful. You should totally buy it and read it. And then come back here and we can talk about muhfuckin' ESSAYS. By Tim Kreider. Like this one, which he wrote for the NYT: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/
Or, essays by other people!
Like Sloane Crosley and her excellent collection I Was Told There'd Be Cake, or How Did You Get This Number. Crosley is clever, and touching without being overly sentimental, and I adore her to bits.
Or the venerable Montaigne. He pretty much invented the modern essay in a tower in southwest France (before him this kind of writing was done largely in verse), and it is from his mostly-autobiographical work Essais that we derive not only the nomenclature but also much of the methodology behind modern essay writing. I've read some of his work; it's very thoughtful and provocative stuff. It's easy to see how it changed the literary world, and not just within his native France--even Shakespeare was influenced by him, and when Shakespeare cribs somebody's shit, you'd best sit up and take some fucking notice.
Also I've heard really good things about David Foster Wallace's essays but have not taken the time to read any of them just yet.
Or we can make fun of Thomas Friedman, because he's an incompetent dingus.
Oh and Kreider in person is extremely polite and friendly, and bears a truly uncanny resemblance to John Edwards.
Or we can just talk about dicks or something, you know.
But he doesn't do those anymore, because one can only be professionally furious for so long. Now he writes thoughtful essays! He has book full of them that came out last month. It's called We Learn Nothing, and it's delightful. You should totally buy it and read it. And then come back here and we can talk about muhfuckin' ESSAYS. By Tim Kreider. Like this one, which he wrote for the NYT: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/
Or, essays by other people!
Like Sloane Crosley and her excellent collection I Was Told There'd Be Cake, or How Did You Get This Number. Crosley is clever, and touching without being overly sentimental, and I adore her to bits.
Or the venerable Montaigne. He pretty much invented the modern essay in a tower in southwest France (before him this kind of writing was done largely in verse), and it is from his mostly-autobiographical work Essais that we derive not only the nomenclature but also much of the methodology behind modern essay writing. I've read some of his work; it's very thoughtful and provocative stuff. It's easy to see how it changed the literary world, and not just within his native France--even Shakespeare was influenced by him, and when Shakespeare cribs somebody's shit, you'd best sit up and take some fucking notice.
Also I've heard really good things about David Foster Wallace's essays but have not taken the time to read any of them just yet.
Or we can make fun of Thomas Friedman, because he's an incompetent dingus.
Oh and Kreider in person is extremely polite and friendly, and bears a truly uncanny resemblance to John Edwards.
Or we can just talk about dicks or something, you know.
Shorty on
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Actually though I've never really read any essays before, this was just something I found in a charity shop and bought on impulse. Last night I just got to his travel pieces about Afghanistan and Iran, and his bit on the 10 commandments, all of which were absolutely fascinating.
Some of the time though he just pisses me off, there's a fine line between being provocative and being smugly dickish, and he ain't 100% on staying on the good side. (See: Why Women Aren't Funny)
insight into the world of clueless, out of touch, self-important assholes, sure
was
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Don't forget the racism!
Yeah I guess I've read some essays
Umberto Eco's are pretty good
I didn't like Margaret Atwood's the way I wanted to
Uhh... I own but haven't read Consider the Lobster?
Here's a book of essays! The Sign of Three
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
this is actually how most of the essay collections I've read have been
not all of them are great but there's usually at least one or two that are really provocative/funny/what-have-you
oh, is he racist, too? hadn't seen that, myself
Coran Attack!