Matthew has taken a large and unfathomable dislike to anything Dave Egger's, editor of McSweeney's and author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius has ever been involved with. Not unlike my irrational hatred for anything Cormac Mccarthy. The big difference is, of course, that I am right and he is wrong.
The Mcsweeney's output can be a little arch, a little too smart, a little too vacuous on occasion but on the whole and with the quantity of output I can only wholeheartedly recommend the exercise. And so many many of the pieces are just plain very funny.
Issue 22 (above) of the quarterly has just arrived from America (UK edition out 31 may). It's 3 books held together by magnets. If that doesn't sound that interesting then you just have to see it. Who says the paper book is doomed? With interesting design, printing and binding like this it's got quite a lot of life in the old dog yet.
So well done McSweeney's. Keep up the good work. (Except the next time you think about inserting a comb in the inside cover. I didn't like that one)
Three books held together by magnets?
ReplyDeleteOne word springs to mind and shoves all rational criticism out of my left ear:
GIMMICK
Oh Matthew my poor deluded and unimaginative colleague!
ReplyDeleteThe theme that links all 3 books is one of strange forces and strange attractions. Poetry chains, Oulipo with it's linguistic mysteries and the unwritten stories of Scott Fitzgerald.
Why not bind the three with the strange and attractive power of magnetism! It's a design metaphor...
McSweeney's - love them. Dave Eggers involvement notwithstanding, any literary endeavour with the creative genii (geniuses?) of They Might Be Giants behind it has to be good...
ReplyDeletePro McSweeneys 2 / Agin McSweeneys 1