I'm looking for really sharp, insightful writers who talk about books and culture. Are there any bloggers out there on the level of James Wood, Robert Hughes, Sontag, Amis?
I'm hopeless at remembering names but the LRB has some pretty good stuff.
No.6427
Anonymous
2025-07-21 19:42:39
>>6426
Here, for example, is Adam Mars-Jones on the new Houellebecq.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n23/adam-mars-jones/the-pope-of-course
Here, for example, is Adam Mars-Jones on the new Houellebecq.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n23/adam-mars-jones/the-pope-of-course
The LRB is good but why does the "establishment" still have any power over literature of all things (which requires no connections or capital to be good)
>>6430
there is always a need for criticism. whether it could be more 'distributed' I am unsure. I never really get the feeling reading the LRB that it truly reflects the establishment. it's too genuinely highbrow and elitist for that.
there is always a need for criticism. whether it could be more 'distributed' I am unsure. I never really get the feeling reading the LRB that it truly reflects the establishment. it's too genuinely highbrow and elitist for that.
No.6432
Anonymous
2025-07-21 20:58:26
Fair point
LRB is one of the remaining vestiges of a time when the elite prioritized academics and intelligence. It's a product of just how deeply ossified the class system is in the UK, that it could still last this long into Anno Domini 2025. Truly, one must give some sort of kudos for that...
No.6440
Anonymous
2025-07-22 11:02:51
>>6439
Sounds based.
Sounds based.
Short stories or critical essays published outside "the establishment" are worthless, characterized by appeals to base emotions, trivia to make the idiot reader feel intelligent, and ESL grammatical structures and vocabulary, to make the idiot feel right at home.
Is there even one example of a worthwhile short story or non-political essay published by an independent blog that has remained valuable after a decade or more?
But The New Yorker and others are not much better, since about 2012
Is there even one example of a worthwhile short story or non-political essay published by an independent blog that has remained valuable after a decade or more?
But The New Yorker and others are not much better, since about 2012
>>6441
Yes it's sad but Ventoux is going to change that!
Check it out https://ventouxmag.substack.com/p/issue1 and contribute guys. We can make the change together! :) :) :)
Yes it's sad but Ventoux is going to change that!
Check it out https://ventouxmag.substack.com/p/issue1 and contribute guys. We can make the change together! :) :) :)
No.6444
Anonymous
2025-07-22 13:03:25
>>6441
>and ESL grammatical structures and vocabulary, to make the idiot feel right at home.
The monolingual cries as he strikes out at you!
>and ESL grammatical structures and vocabulary, to make the idiot feel right at home.
The monolingual cries as he strikes out at you!
>>6445
He was complaining about dumbed down grammar. The kind used by retards or euros. ESLs.
Vladimir Nabokov wouldn't be an ESL.
Do you need to work a bit more on your English reading comprehension?
He was complaining about dumbed down grammar. The kind used by retards or euros. ESLs.
Vladimir Nabokov wouldn't be an ESL.
Do you need to work a bit more on your English reading comprehension?
No.6449
Anonymous
2025-07-22 17:23:45
>>6431
Not nearly elitist enough. After Mary Kay-Wilmers finished as editor, they started in earnest on the diversity slots each issue
Not nearly elitist enough. After Mary Kay-Wilmers finished as editor, they started in earnest on the diversity slots each issue
London Review of Books, as mentioned.
>>6450
Also, I don't see the LRB as 'establishment'. In fact, I think it represents a counter-elite which has set itself up as enemy of the elite. Remember it published Mearsheimer and Walt's exposé on the Israeli lobbies' influence in the USA after the Atlantic wouldn't.
I miss the classified advertisements, I wonder what the people behind the ads looked like.
It is true it has more diversity picks than previously, but this is partly because much of the 'stable' has started to--well--die of old age. Putting forward a joke like Srinivasan as a serious philosopher was an early sign of decline.
Why was the LRB good? It was funded by M. K.-W. and heavily in debt to her family trust too. Not supported by 'NGO' or governments.
Also, I don't see the LRB as 'establishment'. In fact, I think it represents a counter-elite which has set itself up as enemy of the elite. Remember it published Mearsheimer and Walt's exposé on the Israeli lobbies' influence in the USA after the Atlantic wouldn't.
I miss the classified advertisements, I wonder what the people behind the ads looked like.
It is true it has more diversity picks than previously, but this is partly because much of the 'stable' has started to--well--die of old age. Putting forward a joke like Srinivasan as a serious philosopher was an early sign of decline.
Why was the LRB good? It was funded by M. K.-W. and heavily in debt to her family trust too. Not supported by 'NGO' or governments.
>>6451
Not being funny but given the state of contemporary publishing if you're not going to disproportionately review books by 'diverse' authors you're probably going to struggle to fill your magazine every month.
> I wonder what the people behind the ads looked like.
I always vaguely imagined crazy Merry from peep show, lol
LRB is consistently strong on Israel-Palestine and related issues. See Pankaj Mishra from last year.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n06/pankaj-mishra/the-shoah-after-gaza
Not being funny but given the state of contemporary publishing if you're not going to disproportionately review books by 'diverse' authors you're probably going to struggle to fill your magazine every month.
> I wonder what the people behind the ads looked like.
I always vaguely imagined crazy Merry from peep show, lol
LRB is consistently strong on Israel-Palestine and related issues. See Pankaj Mishra from last year.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n06/pankaj-mishra/the-shoah-after-gaza
>>6455
> Those driven to scan Joe Biden’s face for some sign of mercy, some sign of an end to bloodletting, find an eerily smooth hardness, broken only by a nervous little smirk when he blurts out Israeli lies about beheaded babies. Biden’s stubborn malice and cruelty to the Palestinians is just one of many gruesome riddles presented to us by Western politicians and journalists. The Shoah traumatised at least two Jewish generations, and the massacres and hostage-taking in Israel on 7 October by Hamas and other Palestinian groups rekindled a fear of collective extermination among many Jews. But it was clear from the start that the most fanatical Israeli leadership in history would not shrink from exploiting a widespread sense of violation, bereavement and horror.
> Those driven to scan Joe Biden’s face for some sign of mercy, some sign of an end to bloodletting, find an eerily smooth hardness, broken only by a nervous little smirk when he blurts out Israeli lies about beheaded babies. Biden’s stubborn malice and cruelty to the Palestinians is just one of many gruesome riddles presented to us by Western politicians and journalists. The Shoah traumatised at least two Jewish generations, and the massacres and hostage-taking in Israel on 7 October by Hamas and other Palestinian groups rekindled a fear of collective extermination among many Jews. But it was clear from the start that the most fanatical Israeli leadership in history would not shrink from exploiting a widespread sense of violation, bereavement and horror.
No.6457
Anonymous
2025-07-22 18:53:34
>I'm unambiguously hostile to Israel because it's a mendacious state
And this was back in 2009... v strong for back then.
Her offhand remark inspired this whinge from a particularly bad novelist (the title says it all): https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/what-do-george-galloway-the-london-review-of-books-and-the-third-reich-have-in-common-a-dangerous-certitude-when-it-comes-to-israel-8517179.html
And this was back in 2009... v strong for back then.
Her offhand remark inspired this whinge from a particularly bad novelist (the title says it all): https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/what-do-george-galloway-the-london-review-of-books-and-the-third-reich-have-in-common-a-dangerous-certitude-when-it-comes-to-israel-8517179.html
The New Atlantis is also good btw.
No.6460
Anonymous
2025-07-23 00:17:29
>>6447
>He was complaining about dumbed down grammar. The kind used by retards or euros. ESLs.
Midwit Americans love to pull this shit, grouping "Europeans" with their own fellow retards (who are not English as Second Language learners, by the way). English people themselves do not do this, because the literate ones have been steeped in English literature enough to have no deep thirst for well-written language. The Americans, on the other hand, deprived of any literature by the cultureless society they have built for themselves, lash out at Le Evil Foreigners online when they search for something substantial to read but fail to find it on social media and Substack. They are so ignorant that they have moved on from their perpetual insecurity over being monolingual and trapped in their bubble, and instead metamorphed it into an attack against outsiders for ruining their precious Anglophone environment. They whine the same way about "foreign audiences" ruining their movies - I remember a particularly butthurt piece a few years ago decrying the fall of capeshit because of muh forruners. I feel in full license to call you morons out on this, which I will continue to do.
>He was complaining about dumbed down grammar. The kind used by retards or euros. ESLs.
Midwit Americans love to pull this shit, grouping "Europeans" with their own fellow retards (who are not English as Second Language learners, by the way). English people themselves do not do this, because the literate ones have been steeped in English literature enough to have no deep thirst for well-written language. The Americans, on the other hand, deprived of any literature by the cultureless society they have built for themselves, lash out at Le Evil Foreigners online when they search for something substantial to read but fail to find it on social media and Substack. They are so ignorant that they have moved on from their perpetual insecurity over being monolingual and trapped in their bubble, and instead metamorphed it into an attack against outsiders for ruining their precious Anglophone environment. They whine the same way about "foreign audiences" ruining their movies - I remember a particularly butthurt piece a few years ago decrying the fall of capeshit because of muh forruners. I feel in full license to call you morons out on this, which I will continue to do.
>>6458
At first glance, it looks like something TLP would make an article out of ("She looks at him because she wants marriage, and he is the one who can give it to her, but he is currently in the Matrix with a 600-year-old succubus stuck in a 14-year-old body").
Do you have good pieces to recommend?
>>6454
This is great.
At first glance, it looks like something TLP would make an article out of ("She looks at him because she wants marriage, and he is the one who can give it to her, but he is currently in the Matrix with a 600-year-old succubus stuck in a 14-year-old body").
Do you have good pieces to recommend?
>>6454
This is great.
No.6464
Anonymous
2025-07-23 02:25:24
Posting this in case some don't know it: https://www.aldaily.com/
I wish there were more independant agregators like these. It's basically a good subreddit without comments.
I wish there were more independant agregators like these. It's basically a good subreddit without comments.
No.6468
Anonymous
2025-07-23 10:28:54
>>6462
It is normally humorless and direct, but has some good ideas. This was a great one:
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/do-elephants-have-souls
also
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-illusionist (unbelievably cutting)
It's a conservative outfit in case that wasn't clear. It published a ~150 page analysis a few years ago about how homosexuality was not inborn but socially acquired. Even so, very interesting sort of publication, and it doesn't seem to be supported either by the Israeli faction and is certainly not supported by the techno-globalist faction (Thiel, Musk, embryo selection, gene modification etc).
It is normally humorless and direct, but has some good ideas. This was a great one:
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/do-elephants-have-souls
also
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-illusionist (unbelievably cutting)
It's a conservative outfit in case that wasn't clear. It published a ~150 page analysis a few years ago about how homosexuality was not inborn but socially acquired. Even so, very interesting sort of publication, and it doesn't seem to be supported either by the Israeli faction and is certainly not supported by the techno-globalist faction (Thiel, Musk, embryo selection, gene modification etc).
No.6471
Anonymous
2025-07-23 10:51:17
>>6456
i always liked this one
i always liked this one
No.6472
Anonymous
2025-07-23 10:56:37
I've long wondered if some of the ads in the LRB were spy recruitment or coded messaging. If you look at the reader statistics (which the LRB puts out because they want to appeal to advertisers), some absurdly high proportion of readers have postgraduate-level degrees, and perhaps various groups would be interested in people like that. (but then again, perhaps it is just an absurdist sense of humor)
see e.g.,
>Kane joined MI5 in October 1991 after responding to an oblique job advertisement in the 12 May edition of The Observer titled "Godot isn't coming", a reference to the play Waiting for Godot in which Godot never arrives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delores_Kane
>>6470
One likes to think so. I hope very deeply there are LRB girls out there waiting for Red Scare guys like me.
see e.g.,
>Kane joined MI5 in October 1991 after responding to an oblique job advertisement in the 12 May edition of The Observer titled "Godot isn't coming", a reference to the play Waiting for Godot in which Godot never arrives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delores_Kane
>>6470
One likes to think so. I hope very deeply there are LRB girls out there waiting for Red Scare guys like me.
I seriously considered putting an advert for Petrarchan in the LRB but I'm vaguely broke and it's a bit expensive.
No.6475
Anonymous
2025-07-23 12:20:18
I always rely on the unmatched services of Robert T Wigger, Esq.
>>6474
How much is it for a brief ad?
Perhaps you could smuggle the URL somehow into the letters page.
I think an ad in the LRB would be pretty based.
How much is it for a brief ad?
Perhaps you could smuggle the URL somehow into the letters page.
I think an ad in the LRB would be pretty based.
>>6476
Funnily enough now I'm looking I can't find the prices. I do remember seeing them somewhere though, or maybe I'm hallucinating...
Funnily enough now I'm looking I can't find the prices. I do remember seeing them somewhere though, or maybe I'm hallucinating...
>>6477
If you have the print edition, are there are still personal ads at the back? I only look at the web copy and there's no page on there. The idea of putting a personal in is sad but intriguing, but I doubt it will lead to any success for people below the age of 40
If you have the print edition, are there are still personal ads at the back? I only look at the web copy and there's no page on there. The idea of putting a personal in is sad but intriguing, but I doubt it will lead to any success for people below the age of 40
No.6479
Anonymous
2025-07-23 13:34:15
No.6480
Anonymous
2025-07-23 13:39:03
>>6478
In the most recent copy I own, dated December 2024 - I stopped getting it in print because getting it shipped internationally meant that it arrived erratically or not at all - there is exactly one personal.
> Sociable, upbeat, intermittently nerdy Londoner, F58, WLTM nice non-sedentary bloke to 64, who might honestly say similar things about himself. Niche enthusiasms welcome (mine: food, crosswords, hiking, 70s/80s song lyrics). Reading, cultural stuff, of course - no tweeds or monocles.
There is an email address provided, which I am happy to provide if there are any older gentlemen reading /pt/ for whom it may be of interest :P
In the most recent copy I own, dated December 2024 - I stopped getting it in print because getting it shipped internationally meant that it arrived erratically or not at all - there is exactly one personal.
> Sociable, upbeat, intermittently nerdy Londoner, F58, WLTM nice non-sedentary bloke to 64, who might honestly say similar things about himself. Niche enthusiasms welcome (mine: food, crosswords, hiking, 70s/80s song lyrics). Reading, cultural stuff, of course - no tweeds or monocles.
There is an email address provided, which I am happy to provide if there are any older gentlemen reading /pt/ for whom it may be of interest :P
btw I found the reader demographics of the LRB mentioned at >>6473
>84% hold a first degree, 48% hold a higher degree
>84% hold a first degree, 48% hold a higher degree
No.6482
Anonymous
2025-07-23 14:45:32
>>6425 (OP)
Thank you for reminding me of the existence of James Wood, who I am mostly acquainted with for inventing that phrase 'hysterical realism'.
I am reading his book 'How Fiction Works' at the moment and it is very good indeed.
Thank you for reminding me of the existence of James Wood, who I am mostly acquainted with for inventing that phrase 'hysterical realism'.
I am reading his book 'How Fiction Works' at the moment and it is very good indeed.
>>6481
These are the current stats.
"91% of our readers have a degree (and 60% of those have a Masters, PhD or equivalent)
Our readers are highly affluent, and 70% of them hold senior positions in their workplace"
These are the current stats.
"91% of our readers have a degree (and 60% of those have a Masters, PhD or equivalent)
Our readers are highly affluent, and 70% of them hold senior positions in their workplace"
>>6483
I'm an LRB subscriber with no degree. Happy to be dragging the average down, as usual.
I'm an LRB subscriber with no degree. Happy to be dragging the average down, as usual.
No.6488
Anonymous
2025-07-23 16:40:42
>>6487
based
based
Is there any """counter-culture""" media left that doesn't suck? Or is it doomed to fail in the fragmented world of today?
No.6534
Anonymous
2025-07-25 19:41:01
>>6531 (me)
And I mean either unserious but amusing like Vice, or more serious like Hunter S Thompson, etc.
And I mean either unserious but amusing like Vice, or more serious like Hunter S Thompson, etc.
>>6531
Keeping It Real Art Critics (KIRAC) in the Netherlands
Keeping It Real Art Critics (KIRAC) in the Netherlands
>>6535
Never heard of this but it actually looks interesting, thanks!
Never heard of this but it actually looks interesting, thanks!
>>6537
The ones where they skewer artists / critics are the best. The most (in)famous one is honeypot where they humiliate some spergy dutch rightoid, unfortunately I can't bear to watch it so I've never seen the end lol
The ones where they skewer artists / critics are the best. The most (in)famous one is honeypot where they humiliate some spergy dutch rightoid, unfortunately I can't bear to watch it so I've never seen the end lol
>>6539
Why couldn't you bear to finish it? I haven't seen it yet, but it seems like he (the philosopher) was well aware of what was going on, but was too controlled by his dick.
The same woman which was used to lure the philosopher also had sex with Michel Houellebecq on camera for KIRAC Ep. 27, which made a media splash when it was announced, encountered several lawsuits from H. which all failed, and is still unreleased after a few years. I think they are trying to string out publicity.
This is a photo of the woman. If you ask me, she has a particularly Dutch look about her, which will not suit everybody's tastes. It is just one of those things.
Why couldn't you bear to finish it? I haven't seen it yet, but it seems like he (the philosopher) was well aware of what was going on, but was too controlled by his dick.
The same woman which was used to lure the philosopher also had sex with Michel Houellebecq on camera for KIRAC Ep. 27, which made a media splash when it was announced, encountered several lawsuits from H. which all failed, and is still unreleased after a few years. I think they are trying to string out publicity.
This is a photo of the woman. If you ask me, she has a particularly Dutch look about her, which will not suit everybody's tastes. It is just one of those things.
As an aside, Dutch people have very long and broad faces compared to, say, the English.
>>6539
I saw that there is a lot of use of sex in the show, which is interesting... I will simply begin at the beginning. I like that it seems to have a pointed edge towards bringing down or shaking establishment opinions on art. It seems that that is what is missing most of all from the counterculture. Anyway, there isn't much point in me talking about it before I've even seen it lol.
>>6541
She looks a lot like a Dutch friend I have, except he is male lol.
I saw that there is a lot of use of sex in the show, which is interesting... I will simply begin at the beginning. I like that it seems to have a pointed edge towards bringing down or shaking establishment opinions on art. It seems that that is what is missing most of all from the counterculture. Anyway, there isn't much point in me talking about it before I've even seen it lol.
>>6541
She looks a lot like a Dutch friend I have, except he is male lol.
No.6546
Anonymous
2025-07-26 11:50:35
>>6544
Personally, I find them unusual-looking.
Personally, I find them unusual-looking.
No.6547
Anonymous
2025-07-26 11:51:44
>>6543
its like the way they evolved to be tall was by stretching in vertical aspect ratio
its like the way they evolved to be tall was by stretching in vertical aspect ratio
No.7249
Anonymous
2025-08-22 03:59:49
bumping because this is an important topic
The LRB has become a bit more like the Guardian unfortunately, they don't publish anything remotely conservative nowadays.
New Left Review is still great
The LRB has become a bit more like the Guardian unfortunately, they don't publish anything remotely conservative nowadays.
New Left Review is still great
No.7251
Anonymous
2025-08-22 04:08:18
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n05/tony-wood/why-did-he-turn
As an aside, this was interesting.
rip Vargas Llosa
As an aside, this was interesting.
rip Vargas Llosa