What do you think?
Rate this book
The Believer #88
The Believer, Issue 88: March/April 2012 The Film Issue
Each year, the Believer devotes an entire issue to film. This year's March/April Film Issue features a free DVD of Laurel Nakadate's haunting—and controversial—feature film "The Wolf Knife." Following two teen girls on a doomed journey that takes them from the Florida suburbs to Nashville, Nakadate's work (introduced here by Deb Olin Unferth) examines desire, domination, and voyeurism. The issue also includes original essays by Michael Atkinson on the defunct pulp magazine The Monster Times, Adrian Van Young watching entire horror-movie franchises in a 24-hour period, Claire Harlan Orsi on slapstick as it appears in the films of the Marx Brothers—and the work of Nabokov, Theodore McDermott on the completely unacceptable films of Bobcat Goldthwait, and Lili Anolik on Deep Throat and the mainstreaming of porn. There are interviews with director Nora Ephron, actor Jeffrey Wright, and video artist Mika Rottenberg, Geoff Dyer on Tarkovsky, as well as horrible advice by Lena Dunham, columns by Nick Hornby, Daniel Handler, and Greil Marcus, and the announcement of the editors' shortlists for the Believer Book Award and the second annual Believer Poetry Award.
88 pages, Paperback
First published March 13, 2012
8 people want to read
About the author
Heidi Julavits
118 books344 followersHeidi Suzanne Julavits is an American author and co-editor of The Believer magazine. She has been published in The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2, Esquire, Story, Zoetrope All-Story, and McSweeney's Quarterly. Her novels include The Mineral Palace (2000), The Effect of Living Backwards (2003) and The Uses of Enchantment (2006) and The Vanishers (2012).
She was born and grew up in Portland, Maine, before attending Dartmouth College. She later went on to earn an MFA from Columbia University.
She wrote the article "Rejoice! Believe! Be Strong and Read Hard!" (subtitled: "A Call For A New Era Of Experimentation, and a Book Culture That Will Support It") in the debut issue of The Believer, a publication which attempts to avoid snarkiness and "give people and books the benefit of the doubt."
In 2005, she told the New York Times culture writer A.O. Scott how'd she decided on The Believer's tone: "I really saw 'the end of the book' as originating in the way books are talked about now in our culture and especially in the most esteemed venues for book criticism. It seemed as though their irrelevance was a foregone conclusion, and we were just practicing this quaint exercise of pretending something mattered when of course everyone knew it didn't." She added her own aim as book critic would be "to endow something with importance, by treating it as an emotional experience."
She has also written short stories, such as "The Santosbrazzi Killer", which was published in Harper's Magazine.
Julavitz currently lives in Maine and Manhattan with her husband, the writer Ben Marcus, and their children
She was born and grew up in Portland, Maine, before attending Dartmouth College. She later went on to earn an MFA from Columbia University.
She wrote the article "Rejoice! Believe! Be Strong and Read Hard!" (subtitled: "A Call For A New Era Of Experimentation, and a Book Culture That Will Support It") in the debut issue of The Believer, a publication which attempts to avoid snarkiness and "give people and books the benefit of the doubt."
In 2005, she told the New York Times culture writer A.O. Scott how'd she decided on The Believer's tone: "I really saw 'the end of the book' as originating in the way books are talked about now in our culture and especially in the most esteemed venues for book criticism. It seemed as though their irrelevance was a foregone conclusion, and we were just practicing this quaint exercise of pretending something mattered when of course everyone knew it didn't." She added her own aim as book critic would be "to endow something with importance, by treating it as an emotional experience."
She has also written short stories, such as "The Santosbrazzi Killer", which was published in Harper's Magazine.
Julavitz currently lives in Maine and Manhattan with her husband, the writer Ben Marcus, and their children
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 7, 2014
Lots of good stuff in here even though I sometimes prefer the "regular" issues of The Believer more than the themed double issues. I didn't fall for the actual movie that was included in this issue, but that does not stop me from really enjoying the interplay of the physical media: great design with the flames on the dvd and the die cut on the magazine cover. Though I enjoyed several of the articles/essays, this time around, my favorite pieces were the interviews with Jeffrey Wright, Nora Ephron, and Peter Doig. The Nick Hornby column added more books to my "to read" list.
I think I could possibly catch up to the current issue by the end of the year. I'm 21 issues back…if I count the July 2014 Music issue that should arrive this month.
I think I could possibly catch up to the current issue by the end of the year. I'm 21 issues back…if I count the July 2014 Music issue that should arrive this month.
Displaying 1 of 1 review