battboyy

Just wondering if anyone else out there in DVD Talk land is a fan of McSweeney's. For those of you who don't know, McSweeney's is both a quarterly journal that comes out three times a year and a website. The website is located at http://www.mcsweeneys.net. You can check out the website to get a small sampling of what they do. If any interest is shown, I'll put together some sort of list of some of my favorite pieces that have appeared on it. I'm not really sure how to describe McSweeney's. I guess it's really just a collection of writings that its founding editor, Dave Eggers, and its other editors enjoy. These pieces can vary from three sentences long, like A MEANINGLESS STORY FRAGMENT CYNICALLY DESIGNED TO APPEAL TO THE EDITORS OF THIS JOURNAL, WHOSE WEAKNESS FOR PHRASES SUCH AS "COME ON, POPS," IS WIDELY KNOWN & REMARKED UPON, to a 50 page non-fiction article written about a correspondence with the UnaBomber (both appear in issue #3 of the journal). I don't know what else to write. If this topic picks up, I'll probably be able to respond to particular posts.

Swell41

I love McSweeney's, got issues 3 thru 6, and I know someone else around here has quoted 'Frog and Banjo' from no. 6 in their sig, so they must like it too. I dunno. I get a bit of slack for it my graduate writing program because I suppose some think it's rather trendy, but f that. It's just hilarious and entertaining work.

Have you gotten 6 yet? A singular experience, for sure.

Benjamin.
"Yes but what do *I* think?"
http://www.benjaminbirdie.com

Yancey

Sure I am. It is trendy admittedly, but I was a fan of Might too. I am reading Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn right now, much better than Eggers' book. Neal Pollack's was very funny as well.

battboyy

I guess I got lucky, no one I know seems to know what the hell it is, so I don't get any flack for its 'trendiness'. I've actually had issue 6 for a while now. I picked it up at a reading I went to in Manhattan about a month ago. The reading was for Jonathan Lethem's new short story/novella which was released by McSweeney's presses, This Shape We're In. Dave Eggers was also there, but they each only read one thing a piece (at the same time, no less). But that was made up for by They Might Be GIants playing about ten songs, Zadie Smith reading a short story (she's probably also considered trendy, but I haven't read White Teeth and know very little about her), Neal Pollack standing across from me on the balcony (sadly, he didn't read anything) and Lydia Davis reading four or five pieces (the highlight of the evening for me). But I was talking about issue 6, wasn't I? So I picked it up and really enjoyed it. I especially liked the pictures of the guy and the van, 'Oral History with Hiccups', 'Sketch for Little Lit' (Frog and banjo), and 'Dave Ford's Drawings by Truck'. Admittedly, Eggers' book was flawed, but I still loved it. I was astounded by the first chapter and flew through the rest of it. If you're liking Motherless Brooklyn, I'd also recommend you read Gun with Occasional Music. It's also by Lethem. It's very different from Motherless Brooklyn, but it's another mystery story where the style (or, in this case, probably setting) is more important than the mystery itself. I'm done rambling.

Alyoshka

I wanted to resurrect this one. Me and my friends got the McSweeney kids to come to our literary festival at school earlier this year. Most of the writers who came were pretty cool but a few have huge egos. It is very trendy but it's good writing so who cares?

Anyone read Stephen Dixon's "I" book yet?

mnementh

Resurrecting an old thread- Is anyone reading issue 33, the San Francisco Panorama?