Open Mike: How I Read 'The New Yorker'

Ken Tanaka wrote: "I've had a digital subscription to The New Yorker for many years but, somewhat embarrassingly, I seem to spend relatively little time with it. Its longer-form writing seems at odds with my increasing elderly A.D.D. syndrome."

Mike replies: Here's what I've lately been doing with the magazine—my "double writing life" having cut into my reading time quite a bit*. I take the print magazine, page through it from front to back, and systematically read the first two paragraphs or so of every article. Then decide which ones to read. I probably read three or four articles from every issue. (Okay, sometimes it's two or three.) But often, the ones I read, I read twice. This is a conscious decision because social science is revealing that people increasingly feel their attention frazzled and partitioned, "competed for" if you will, and our attention spans really are shortening. (I know you were joking, Ken, but it really isn't just age or A.D.D., it's a real thing, for all of us.) I still want to engage with my reading, though, so I decided I had to make an extra effort to pay attention.

(As an aside, I started doing this when I read a random article online that claimed that most people read only about a third of every online article they "read," even short ones. That instantly got me resolved to read the articles I start all the way to the end, and to pay settled and focused attention to them despite the ever-present pressure to flit off somewhere else. I'm a bit contrarian in ways like that. It's stubbornness, basically.)

Sparklers
The reason for my recent strategy with The New Yorker is that I find I can seldom guess from the title and the subject which articles are going to reward my attention. My goal is to find that one article in every issue or two that sparkles for me or puts previously half-formed thoughts into words. They're always there. Sometimes a great article will take me to worlds I had not imagined existed, or expand my understanding in satisfying ways. I'll give you two recent examples. One is "Thrill of the Hunt" by Abe Streep, from the March 14, 2022 issue. (Online as "The Great American Antler Boom.") It's all about the trafficking of antlers that are shed by elk every season. Never had the faintest foggiest, as my grandmother used to say, but it was really interesting (and only mildly disturbing) to read all about this hitherto hidden "industry." The second example is "The Fairy Tale War" by Anna Holmes, from the Feb. 7, 2022 issue. (Online as "The Radical Woman Behind 'Goodnight Moon.'") On the face of it, I would have thought I had perishingly little interest in the children's book Goodnight Moon and its previously-unknown-to-me author, Margaret Wise Brown. Wrong-O, plush-rabbit-breath. Anna Holmes hooked me from the sentence, "In fact, Brown was a seductive iconoclast with a Katherine Hepburn mane and a compulsion for ignoring the rules," midway through the first paragraph. The article was utterly fascinating. Who'd have known?

The corollary is that when I'm bogged in an article I don't want to be in, I don't doggedly slog to the end as I used to; I trigger the ejection seat. On the life's-too-short principle.

So I've basically acknowledged that I don't have the stuffing (the moxie, the grit) to read every article in every issue, but I still find it engaging and rewarding to pick and choose, then purposely concentrate.

Mike

*For those who aren't from here, TOP's fortunes have slid quite a bit in the last five years, in parallel with the plummeting digital camera market and the encroachment of YouTube, and I realized a little bit ago that I was going to have to find other ways to earn a bit o' money from the only dang thing I know how to do, which is write. My retirement plan being "to keep working" as I always say. Followed by, "that sounds like a joke and I only wish it were."

Book of Interest this Week

Home Fires Volume II: The Present. There is of course a Volume I: The Past.  TOP reader Bruce Haley has produced documentary work relating to conflict, humanitarian crises and environmental/industrial/land use issues for 30 years. He received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his coverage of the ethnic civil war in Burma.

This book link is a portal to Amazon.

Today at B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Ray Hunter: "In the December 17, 1990, issue of The New Yorker I encountered an article entitled 'A Single Person Making A Single Thing.' [Only available online to subscribers. —Ed.] It was the profile of Richard Benson, who was just concluding his MacArthur genius year. It was a remarkable story of an individual's dedication and pursuit of excellence, and is still a good (and pertinent) read today."

Mike replies: I remember that. I wonder if a compilation of The New Yorker's articles on photography over the years would make a good book...hey, we can dream.

Comments

[Keith Cartmell]

Which is why I generally prefer browsing in the library to find my next read. The serendipitous finds, things I never would have searched for, are usually the most rewarding. On the other hand, when I do know exactly what I want, title and author, I'll put a hold on it and collect it on my next trip.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

For a decade or so, when I was a kid living with my parents (and was old enough to read), I read the New Yorker largely by paging through looking for the cartoons.

But I did sometimes find an article that caught my attention. I'm pretty sure that's where I first encountered John McPhee, in particular.

More recently one or another of the people here has had a subscription, so I've looked at more recent issues as well.

I do strongly advise to avoid their fiction; but really that's just a matter of personal taste.

[Tex Andrews]

I'm still with you, Mike. I think you need to rebrand yourself a bit as a photography lifestyle guru, though. You'll need to augment what you currently do a bit---to include a little travel, for instance, and some museum reviews, with an added BTW, here's a great lunch spot--- but I think you are up to it. All of the stuff you write about winds up being interesting---even stuff I'm not that interested in---in a New Yorker sort of way.

You can do it.

[Sharon]

I have gotten off the internet more and re-engaged with reading. I used to devour anything written I could get my hands on but in recent years, i pretty much quit reading offscreen. Now I am reading a book every couple of days. Its wonderful! I subscribe to the New Yorker and look forward to your articles.

[Moose]

From out here on the Left Coast, the New Yorker has the quality of a magazine from another country, or planet, served with a whiff of snobbish condescension.

Other than the cartoons, of course. \;~)>

(Nevertheless, I hope it pans out as a decent paying gig for you! I'll read with the one or two free articles a month they offer.)

[louis mccullagh]

IMHO once a business starts going down it accelerates downwards.

I have advised companies. There are always 1 or 2 major faults that they just do not wish to tackle and having an advisor is never enough impetus to make the necessary changes.

I started a company in the depths of a recession and did very well. The difference I felt was that I was starting from scratch and had to market all day every day. In a recession companies reduce their marketing to cut costs. When you are starting you try HARDER, many ease off as they get established, that is why they start to fail.

When a business starts up I tell them to remember/note all that they are doing in their startup. Maybe 6-10 years later when they are wondering how to boost/save their business I tell them to do everything they did at the start of the business (redecoration/marketing/offers/hours open etc.)

TOP is reducing content which now appears at irregular times and comments take longer to appear. There is no onus on Mike to do anything he has no responsibility to the readers but it looks as if the only way is down which is very sad.

In photography which I did professionally for a good number of years (winning local and national wards and earning professional qualifications)I found that even the best established photographers were cutting prices I never did, I always charged more than them which shocked them.

It is self evident that if you are reliant on people who are ringing around then you will only get business at the lowest rate. It is the same in other businesses where companies are passive and solely competing against each other.

Photography website options:
Links to other sites and being paid.
Advertising.
Selling ebooks on photography (in-house manufacture/3rd party).
Tutorials virtual/normal-chargeable.
Presets for Photoshop etc.
Direct sales of products.
Photography holidays - guest speaker/tutor.
Online Photography sales of prints.

Some photographers manage all of the above.

[Ray Hunter]

In the December 17, 1990, issue of The New Yorker I encountered an article entitled "A Single Person Making A Single Thing." It was the profile of Richard Benson, who was just concluding his MacArthur Genius year. It was a remarkable story of an individual's dedication and pursuit of excellence, and is still a good (and pertinent) read today.

[Greg Heins]

This reminds me to ask which of your various topics will you be writing about: pool/snooker/billiards, automobiles, or cameras/photography?