The Jan. 26 New Yorker article "The Dystopians" is FANTASTIC!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

It's worth buying the magazine for. (I subscribe). This is a link that will give a taste, but unfortunately, I think you may have to subscribe to the site or the magazine to get the complete article. (Maybe you just have to register, I'm not sure)

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/26/090126fa_fact_mcgrath

Anyway, if you are an aficionado of doom and gloom, black swans, financial collapse, peak oil, Wall Street, urban and suburban survivalism, societal collapse, gold futures, boat living, etc.etc. - This is the article for you!

Extremely well-written and entertaining (believe it or not, given the topics>)

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Please repost this in the Energy/Environment Forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=115">Here is the link.

There is a lot of dystopian thinking there, and while much of it is well-informed, it tends to become a little like an echo chamber, with belief in certain scenarios used as shibboleths. A little more depth couldn't hurt.

Registration is required to read it online, but The New Yorker seems to be a classy rag. Anyway, the article will probably be available without charge in about a week, which is usually how The New Yorker does things.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be visiting my local newsstand as soon as my case of the Bubonic Plague has resolved.

--p!

[DeepBlueC]

2. It was a good article...I too subscribe

Also liked that one on health care. Gives me hope.

[catzies]

3. Can't wait to get to it - got it in the mailbox today. Never miss an issue.

I've given up beer this year to afford to keep The New Yorker because I've had it for 15 years.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. I subscribe to the New Yorker.

My dad was reading it when it was on papyrus scrolls, I think. :D

Lots of good articles, Seymour Hirsch, Malcolm Gladwell, etc.

Although I don't read their fiction. I read some of the stories and thought they had no point to them.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. You know, I love the articles and the cartoons but I have never really

liked most of the fiction and I have been a suscriber for years and years. Every once in a while there is an exception, but usually its a no go.

They had a story last week or the week before about a yuppie dinner party gone bad (the other couple didn't show up AND was having a party of their own that they didn't invite the dinner makers to and the husband dinner maker had to go there and then have a confrontation with the party giver about how they didn't like each other anyway and so on and so on) - a lost cause to recreate Updike or Cheever. OR:

the complete opposite "We Collect Dung For Fuel and Have Funny Names and Family Problems Too" short story. They just seem to swing between those 2 extremes.