| Title | : | The Baffler, No. 30: Panic! Room |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 219 |
| Publication | : | First published March 1, 2016 |
Scapegoating, xenophobia, and demagogic posturing afflict our body politic, especially in a presidential campaign year. But as fear brews in our culture, there are other ailments too. Please hold our hand as Angela Nagle takes the temperature of the sex hysteria within the 4chan Internet enclave, Corey Pein examines the craze for cryonics, David Graeber diagnoses “despair fatigue” in austerity Britain, Kade Crockford nurses the terminally sick idea of a free and peaceful country, Cosmo Garvin scans the municipal corruption in California’s state capital, and Tom Frank holidays in Martha’s Vineyard.
Sober pundits intone, how do we balance liberty and security, freedom and security? We? Balance? The bywords of America in 2016 are more like plutocrats and jittery. Not since the late 1950s has a sense of impending doom so twisted the nation’s mood. Welcome to the panic room.
The Baffler, No. 30: Panic! Room Reviews
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Excellent throwback piece from David Berman, Thomas Frank on-point as usual, some other great stuff, two fiction pieces were good and the poetry, as usual, kinda stunk.
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A sample issue of this magazine was sent to my college, and they passed on getting a subscription, and so when I returned from Sicily I found this in a free bin in the little cafe attached to the library. I read it in one day (today, Feb 2nd) because I had nothing else to do. Really, I started the Ottessa Moshfegh piece—the highlight of the LAST lit mag I read just a day before—at 6 AM and now at 4 PM I'm calling it quits. I don't particularly like this magazine. I think if I wanted Leftist commentary, I should've turned to the Jacobin instead.
Enjoyed: the design! The quirkiness. This had little one-panel spots like Richard McGuire does in The New Yorker, it had "Exhibitions" about America's intricacies and irony, it had full-color pages for the majority of pages, even if that just meant nice red bordering and colored quotes removed and expanded because they had PUNCH. Cool! I'm sure if I read The Believer it would read like this.
"Everybody Freeze" was a good, revelatory article. And "People are Streinz" was a streinz but good short story translated from Greek.
However, the poetry wasn't holding me. "The Sunstroke" confused me. All the new nonfiction was COMMENTARY, which meant it often wasn't creative enough to be housed in Guernica, but had a certain pop political / armchair sociology quality to it that barred it from other publications. Each piece snaked around a lot before plopping towards and ending I didn't think it deserved. Often, I was emotionally detached from the subject matter, or needed to already hate the Clintons to relate. A lot of Clinton hate. Woof.
OK, thanks The Baffler. I'm gonna go somewhere else now and read photo guides and geoengineering tell-alls and AGNI. I'm going to rate this issue a 4/10. -
Another great issue from The Baffler, although not my favorite. The short stories weren't really my taste this time around. And the articles were a bit too niche to make a significant impact on me. However, as always, quality work from great writers. This issue also had some of the best artwork and photography that I've seen. Some pieces of particular interest:
Homeland by Nina Berman
The Locked Room by Ottessa Moshfegh
Clip-On Tie by David Berman
Withering on the Vine by Thomas Frank
The New Man of 4chan by Angela Nagle
Everybody Freeze! by Corey Pein
Ulysses XXI by Benjamin Fondane
Exhibit D by Greta Pratt
