This is a story that seems to be crying out for more coverage. (Maybe under a joint Peter Boyer-David Samuels byline?)
« Notes Toward a Definition of Conservatism | Main | The Google Effect »
Britney and Mel
11 Jun 2008 03:55 pm
Comments (12)
Seconding other commenter.
The issue with Britney on the cover was the last I got. Not a coincidence.
Tut tut, lad. A certain tone must be maintained here, what.
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! ♫
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
I agree with vg and carsick, The Britney cover and the article The Atlantic ran on teenage blow jobs a couple of years ago have caused me to wonder what's going on with the magazine.
This is a blog; blogs cover frivolous topics sometimes, even Atlantic blogs. It's not like Yglesias and Andrew don't occasionally indulge in frivolous posting. That being said, I am unsympathetic toward calls for more paparazzi coverage of Britney Spears; perhaps we could get more sportswriters covering Boston sports while we are at it.
What's going on with the magazine is that Bradley appears to be making it over from the books-based Boston publication into more of a lifestyle-and-politics rag, presumably with some appeal towards the female demographic. Thus the extensive waste of column inches each month on a nominal "book review" in which Caitlin Flanagan or Sandra Tsing Loh rehash the same thoughts over and over about the anxieties of being an upwardly mobile mother, or the absolutely inexplicable deterioration of Benjamin Schwarz, who used to write great reviews full of interesting tips on books in history, literature, sociology, etc., but who now appears almost exclusively dedicated to architecture and fashion. Or of course, cover articles about Britney Spears.
The only reason I open the magazine each month is in the hopes of seeing Schwarz revert to his old interests (as he occasionally does), or the chance of getting a BR Myers review, and to read Hitchens. When my sub runs out that's it. I'm not paying $30 a year just to read Hitchens a month ahead of the online masses.
It might have been that Douthat just arrived at the Atlantic Monthly late in the day, as it were, and had to go along with this crap, but it actually looks like he fits in perfectly with the new regime. I miss the old Atlantic.
Wow, you people need to lighten the hell up. Ross has a two-sentence post on Mel Gibson and Britney Spears and you're signaling The Atlantic Apocalypse. Sweet Jesus.
Ross, I am such a big fan.
XOXO
Re the "deterioration of Benjamin Schwarz": Yeah, I've been disappointed too with the abundance of architecture and style reviews. He was my favorite reviewer for a while, and I've read several of his non-fiction recommendations that were excellent. But lately he's been pretty one-note and I think that's significantly brought down the quality of the whole book review section.
I don't have a problem with Schwarz' architectural reviews per se, it's just that the central thesis of one of them a few months ago was just flat-out wrong. Frank Lloyd Wright as the father of the stage-set kitchen and the glorification of the housewife. A man who dismissed kitchens and bathrooms as "workspaces" and put them in only grudgingly? A man who abandoned one family for a series of others? Really, I expect more rigor out of the Atlantic.
It's not like Yglesias and Andrew don't occasionally indulge in frivolous posting.
MY and AS are somewhere between 5x and 10x more prolific than Ross in terms of post volume. Were such an insipid, lazy post to appear on one of those blogs, I would accept it. Considering Ross's seeming dedication to quality over quantity, its not forgivable herein.
| 
Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream
Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class
Ross,
I know some forms of gossip can be addictive, but, really, this speculation/observation on such seems beneath your blog at Atlantic Monthly.
Posted by carsick | June 11, 2008 6:46 PM