Inter Alia
August 19, 2009
Inter Alia #18: Julia Child and the Ethical Appeal 4
by Garth Risk Hallberg
Julia Child turns out not only to have been a kind of unfussy feminist; she was also a terrific writer.
March 30, 2009
Inter Alia #17: N1BR, Blazing Saddles, and the Art of Fashionable Lateness 2
by Garth Risk Hallberg
A prize-winning journalist once told me this story: Early in his career, writing on spec for The Village Voice or some such organ of the alternative press, he had ventured to the set of Blazing Saddles to interview Mel Brooks. Flush with the wine of self-importance, he flourished his press pass for the security guard [...]
March 5, 2009
Inter Alia #16: Footnoting D.T. Max’s DFW Piece 14
by Garth Risk Hallberg
Well, Wyatt Mason beat me to it. Over at his blog, Sentences, the Harper’s critic has registered a couple of cavils with D.T. Max’s powerful, fascinating New Yorker article on David Foster Wallace, “The Unfinished.” First, Mason suggests, Max makes his case for The Broom of the System at the expense of what may be [...]
February 9, 2009
Inter Alia #15: Toward a Phenomenology of Snark 1
by Garth Risk Hallberg
Today on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, David Denby put in an appearance promoting his new book, Snark.
February 5, 2009
Inter Alia #14: My Political Blog Hangover and the Virtues of Finitude 5
by Garth Risk Hallberg
Among its many peculiar achievements, the Internet seems to have pushed the old “observer effect” – wherein by paying attention to a process we alter its outcome – into the realm of magical thinking. Back during election season, I remember, I had assembled a little rosary of blogs I’d cycle through every day – or, [...]
October 17, 2008
Inter Alia #13: Font Wars, the Phantom Menace 1
by Garth Risk Hallberg
Back in 2001, The Onion published a breathless report from a gala awards ceremony: The Fontys. A few dissenting voices groused about the night’s big winner, Helvetica Bold Oblique – “a bold as best font?” – but ebullience carried the night. “‘A million thanks to all the wonderful folks in the font community who believed [...]
