Lethem Goes to Inland Empire
Pomona college isreporting that Jonathan Lethem has been selected from a pool of seventy-five applicants as the Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing. The position, which was held by David Foster Wallace from 2002 through 2008, has been vacant for two years. Foster Wallace oncecalled the professorship (in a Profile of him that ran in the magazine) a “lottery-prize-type gig." There was arumor that he was awarded one million dollars to join the faculty, though Pomona denies the figure.
Otherfinalists included Chris Abani and Edie Meidav. Lethem will begin teaching in the Spring of 2011.
Takes
Ed Caesar on Nick Paumgarten’s “Up and Then Down”
A story about a man trapped in an elevator for forty-one hours has just the right amount of anxiety.
Sketchpad
The World’s Fair That Wasn’t
“Tomorrowland Amerifair,” a previously unpublished piece by the late artist and writer.
Personal History
The Eighteen Letters Project
My son hadn’t even been born when I started secretly writing him a birthday letter each year. As he neared adulthood, I wondered how he would receive them.
Takes
Hanif Abdurraqib on Ellen Willis’s Review of Elvis in Las Vegas
The magazine’s first pop-music critic was never afraid to be overtaken by unexpected delight, even if it came at the expense of some preëxisting skepticism.
Book Currents
Nicholas Thompson and the Art of the Run
TheAtlantic C.E.O.—and author of “The Running Ground”—discusses four books about how demanding physical pursuits can change your life.
Laugh Lines
Laugh Lines No. 46: Restaurants, Part 3
Can you guess when theseNew Yorker cartoons were originally published?
Laugh Lines
Laugh Lines No. 45: For Movie Buffs, Part 2
Can you guess when theseNew Yorker cartoons were originally published?
Laugh Lines
Laugh Lines No. 44: Elections
Can you guess when theseNew Yorker cartoons were originally published?
Open Questions
Is “Six Seven” Really Brain Rot?
The viral phrase is easy to dismiss, but its ubiquity suggests something crucial about human nature.
Book Currents
Salman Rushdie’s Literary Inspirations
The author of “The Eleventh Hour” looks back on a few works—by Mikhail Bulgakov, Franz Kafka, Voltaire, and E. M. Forster—that have helped him craft his own.