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The Believer #103
The Believer, Issue 103
The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often long. There are also interviews that are very long. Focusing on writers and books they like, The Believer gives people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was The Optimist.
80 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 2013
4 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
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 10, 2016
Favorite piece: "Best of All Possible Worlds" by Mark Lane. Also enjoyed Lawrence Weschler's first "Pillow of Air" column and the Some Instructions booklet. It was fun to see the review of the book Hyperart: Thomasson by Genpei Akasegawa (though this was a highlight because of the even more thorough 99 Percent Invisible podcast episode.
Also, I treasure this issue because J. Otto Seibold added a drawing of Mr. Lunch and along with his autograph.
Also, I treasure this issue because J. Otto Seibold added a drawing of Mr. Lunch and along with his autograph.
April 12, 2014
notes:
-van gogh is considered the easiest to paint (what we want in his paintings is the presence of the hand)
--> about the hand of the artist (in dafen, can be anyone's hand)
-the painter of potato eaters (concerned about laborers and the poor)
-for the "copiers," the smaller the image you give them to paint from, the better (the blurrier the better)
-mental labor, conceptual labor
-digital age: age of lack of veracity of information (lack of interest in veracity) --> political system
-van gogh is considered the easiest to paint (what we want in his paintings is the presence of the hand)
--> about the hand of the artist (in dafen, can be anyone's hand)
-the painter of potato eaters (concerned about laborers and the poor)
-for the "copiers," the smaller the image you give them to paint from, the better (the blurrier the better)
-mental labor, conceptual labor
-digital age: age of lack of veracity of information (lack of interest in veracity) --> political system
December 7, 2013
This was The Beliver's 2013 Art Issue. Lots of great interviews, plenty to think about.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews