is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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That Doesn't Need To Be Said.
That Doesn't Need To Be Said.
For about twenty minutes just now I had posted a huge entry on today's NYT Sunday Magazine article on The Believer, a magazine that I sometimes write for (indeed, I'll have a piece in their October issue, an interview with the philosopher of law Peter Fitzpatrick). There was nothing really wrong with the entry. But currently I am more-than-usually afflicted with a little something I like to call "That Doesn't Need To Be Said" syndrome. And when I'm in that mood (the syndrome is more of a mood than a form of judgment) it's better to err on the side of NOT SAYING. So I took it down.
Now, it used to be that diary entries would spring from my head, fully formed like Athena straight outta Zeus. But lately I always have either nothing at all in there (by which I mean, my head), or I�m working on five disjointed entries at once. Today it is five disjointed entries at once. They'll probably show up here sooner or later. Unless what they contain simply does not need to be said.
(Ha. Like the whole thing about sensible shoes needed to be said. Or the thing about 20-year-old vocal affect. Et cetera. It's a mood not a form of judgment.)
Anyway, you should read the article in the NYT Sunday Magazine, because it is good, and fair-minded, and interesting. There are some moments in it that make me consider my own invisibility in the world of small magazines, and my complicity in that invisibility, and the choices, some ethical, some selfish or weak, I've made that help to create those conditions. Perhaps I'll say more about that later. The long and the short of it is that I'm fine with the outcome of a form of ambition that isn't trying to enter into the annals of history. It is encouraging that a journal I haven't seen, called n+1, is getting attention, and being described as having a mission almost identical to the one I set forth for h2so4 in 1993 (n+1 is described this way, but it seems to be more negation-oriented than h2so4). Because it's a good mission. And I'm glad that the folks at The Believer are getting the attention they deserve, even if I would rather it not be Heidi Julavits whose face covers a whole page of the article. Her editorial in The Believer's first issue was in dire need of an editor, and also was written in a tone such that it would only preach to the converted. A missed opportunity. However there is so much to love about The Believer, including the fact that it lets me decide what a philosopher is, and also the fact that it is dedicated to lavishing attention on what is not selling, or what is not the hottest thing right now. It decouples editorial attention from the sales and advertising regime. And that is why it should be my boyfriend even though, on occasion, I do not like what it says. After all, all boyfriends are like that.
11:44 p.m. - September 11, 2005
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