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A review by owlette
Happiness: Ten Years of N+1: Ten Years of N+1 by Editors of N+1
3.0
n+1 is a pretentious, anti-populist literary magazine, and I say that half with love and half with scorn.
On the one hand, I am humbled not to have read a J.M. Coetzee or Issac Babel, but on the other hand, why use the word "sebaceous" when "oily" will do? Some topics are only accessible to the most well-read of the bookish humanities students, and the general readability of the prose tend to go downhill after Mary Karr's introduction. But this is the magazine that published Elizabeth O'Gieblyn "Babel," which still remains to be the more nuanced and clarifying writing on AI language models along with Ted Chiang's New Yorker piece. I'm still a fan of n+1 even if some of these writers and editors need to do me a favor and get over themselves.
My favorites from the collection:
- "Diana Abbott: A Lesson" by Benjamin Kunkel: a short story disguised as a review of J.M. Coetzee's oeuvre (or maybe it's the other way around?)
- "Gut-Level Legislation, or, Redistribution" by Mark Greif: an Aristotelian argument for wealth redistribution
- "Rise of Neuronovel" by Marco Roth: Although my discomfort after reading Mark Haddon's [b:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|1618|The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|Mark Haddon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1479863624l/1618._SY75_.jpg|4259809] was more to do with my ablism, I get what Roth means about these neuronovels' attempt to "combine the pathological and the universal."
- "Fish Rot" by Rebecca Curtis
My favorite n+1 pieces from the more recent issues:
- "Babel" by Meghan O'Gieblyn from Issue 40
- "HUMAN_FALLBACK" by Laura Preston from Issue 44, best paired with "Babel"
- "The Suitors of Helen" by Stephen Squibb from Issue 44
On the one hand, I am humbled not to have read a J.M. Coetzee or Issac Babel, but on the other hand, why use the word "sebaceous" when "oily" will do? Some topics are only accessible to the most well-read of the bookish humanities students, and the general readability of the prose tend to go downhill after Mary Karr's introduction. But this is the magazine that published Elizabeth O'Gieblyn "Babel," which still remains to be the more nuanced and clarifying writing on AI language models along with Ted Chiang's New Yorker piece. I'm still a fan of n+1 even if some of these writers and editors need to do me a favor and get over themselves.
My favorites from the collection:
- "Diana Abbott: A Lesson" by Benjamin Kunkel: a short story disguised as a review of J.M. Coetzee's oeuvre (or maybe it's the other way around?)
- "Gut-Level Legislation, or, Redistribution" by Mark Greif: an Aristotelian argument for wealth redistribution
- "Rise of Neuronovel" by Marco Roth: Although my discomfort after reading Mark Haddon's [b:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|1618|The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|Mark Haddon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1479863624l/1618._SY75_.jpg|4259809] was more to do with my ablism, I get what Roth means about these neuronovels' attempt to "combine the pathological and the universal."
- "Fish Rot" by Rebecca Curtis
My favorite n+1 pieces from the more recent issues:
- "Babel" by Meghan O'Gieblyn from Issue 40
- "HUMAN_FALLBACK" by Laura Preston from Issue 44, best paired with "Babel"
- "The Suitors of Helen" by Stephen Squibb from Issue 44