March 2012
4 posts
On Mike Daisy and This American Life
I just finished listening to the This American Life episode recounting the lies in Mike Daisy’s monologue about working conditions at Apple factories in China. This American Life broadcast parts of Daisy’s monologue in an earlier show. Having learned that many of the scenes depicted in Daisy’s monologue never took place, and that many of his claims in the monologue aren’t...
Let Franzen Be Franzen
“Twitter is unspeakably irritating. Twitter stands for everything I oppose…it’s hard to cite facts or create an argument in 140 characters.”
With those words, Jonathan Franzen set off a small internet firestorm.
He said them in in New Orleans, where author Jami Attenberg wrote them down, and then put them on her blog, saying she was “sort of infuriated.” Her post was...
This was pretty funny . . .
An Essayist's Lament
One of my favorite passages from What We Should Have Known, N + 1’s pocket discussion book of literary regrets:
Keith Gessen: I want to move us into life choices. Does anybody regret the profession they have chosen?
Mark Greif: I have no profession. Whatever profession I do, I regret it.
Benjamin Kunkel: What do you … mean? What are you talking about?
Mark Greif: I regret it!
...
