From TNR, a review of Ralph Ellison: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad. The Improbable Moralist: Leonard Michaels's fiction captured his evolution from sex-obsessed misogyny to self-identified moralism. A review of Mere Anarchy and The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose by Woody Allen.
From Harper's, an interview with David Ignatius, author of Body of Lies, a post-9/11 thriller. A review of Tony Wheeler's Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil. Of war, loss and the politics of poetry: An interview with Farideh Hassanzadeh, Iranian poet, translator and freelance journalist. A review of Speaking in tongues: PEN Canada writers in exile.
From The Village Voice, Fashion Victim: Mike Gallagher claims NYU is threatening his famous vintage magazine empire. And he wants some payback. Mega-Branding For MagaBrands: Since magazines are branded to the Nth degree anyways, the next logical step is to brand that branding. How meta! A Fond Farewell: After 13 years and hard luck, Punk Planet bids adieu. The struggle for independents: The bankruptcy of a book distributor sent shock waves through the indie publishing world, leaving small presses like McSweeney's struggling to survive. Can the Internet help keep them afloat?
Indifference at 11: TV viewers are switching off their local newscasts, and ratings are tumbling. The News Counters: An effort to measure how much time news outlets devote to different stories has begun to attract a fair amount of attention itself. An excerpt from Fair and Balanced, My Ass!: An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News by Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer.
From The New York Times Magazine, The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer: How the world of online gaming spawned a multimillion dollar shadow economy measured in virtual coins, 80-hour workweeks and very real money. A review of Gamer Theory by McKenzie Wark. Next in Child Prodigies — the Gamer: Considering everything else that children do obsessively, is it bad for them to play Xbox for money?
Thinking outside the box: A look at some of the winners in a global competition to have designers dream up alternative forms for personal computers. Steve Jobs in a Box: For all its marvels, the iPhone inaugurates a dangerous new era for the Apple boss. Has he peaked? A review of Send: The How, Why, When and When Not of Email by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. On one hand, Wikipedia is indispensable; on the other, it's the ultimate resource on things that don't matter.
