n+1

The Most Privileged Writers in America Are Whining

keith and emily

FURTHER SIGNS OF BIG FIVE COLLAPSE

Why are New York lit-media’s glamor couple, Keith Gessen and Emily Gould– Scott and Zelda without the charisma or talent– always whining?

First we saw Emily Gould in an essay early last year complaining how she spent a $200,000 book advance on a $1,700-a-month Brooklyn apartment and cat expenses.

http://www.metafilter.com/136982/How-much-my-novel-cost-me-by-Emily-Gould

An inadvertently hilarious tale of arguments with Mom; the health problems of her cat, Ruffles; envy of Lena Dunham; crying at high-priced Broadway plays; and the like. Woe is me!

THIS is the essay which caused lit critic Ed Champion to blow up his mind and career last summer in an 11,000-word rant which called Gould a literary narcissist; prelude to the first of Ed’s two nervous breakdowns.

Or maybe it was Emily Gould’s essay collection, And the Heart Says Whatever.

Whatever.

Now we have Keith Gessen adding to the Insider whine with an essay in the newest issue of his literary journal, n+1. The essay is titled “Brief History of a Small Office.” It chronicles the amazing fact that an intellectual journal written in dense prose and containing a ton of academic jargon per page isn’t swimming in bucks. The attitude is akin to Emily Gould’s: We’re special. Somebody pay for us! (Realities of the market are unacknowledged, because n+1‘s editors are, er, “Marxists.”)

Meanwhile, in just the past few months n+1 magazine has received splashy write-ups in both the New York Times and Washington Post. Merely one of n+1‘s staff of well-bred and well-connected editors, Keith Gessen regularly writes for America’s best-paying magazines. In just the past year, for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and New York magazine, among other outlets. Things couldn’t conceivably be better for these folks.

Keith Gessen and Company are apologists for Big Five publishing as well as recipients of its largesse. Yet it’s not enough! Maybe things aren’t quite as cushy in the posh New York literary world as we’ve been told.

-KW

Five Questions for n+1 Magazine

empire state

We’re working on a New Pop Lit “Opinion” piece about New York City-based literary magazine n+1. They were given the opportunity to answer a few questions, which they passed on. Still, the questions are worth posting publicly, on the off chance that one of their staffers cares to answer them.

1.) Has n+1 made too many compromises with institutional power and money?

2.) Have there been internal disputes at n+1 regarding outreach to individuals of extreme power and money?

3.) Does such outreach harm n+1’s credibility?

4.) Does the Daniel Handler incident reveal a problem with racism and privilege at the core of New York’s literary scene?

5.) Was Frank Guan told not to answer questions about his Tao Lin essay at n+1, once the scandal hit?

-K.W.

Latest Seedy Lit-Establishment Scandal

What’s new in the clubby world of New York literature?

There seems to be controversy about a memoir by television producer Lena Dunham, which was attacked by a blogger named Kevin Williamson. Author Emily Gould has come to Dunham’s defense, in this Salon article:

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/03/the_rights_lena_dunham_nonsense_just_wont_stop/

Lena Dunham apparently received a staggering $3.7 million advance for the memoir from Random House, the same Big Five publisher who gave fellow scandal-subject Tao Lin a mere $50,000 for one of his books.

http://gawker.com/5966563/here-is-lena-dunhams-37-million-book-proposal

Meanwhile, Emily Gould has apparently had her own dispute with Lena Dunham.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/21/emily-gould-lena-dunham_n_5607265.html

Emily Gould was also at or near the center of the recent Ed Champion blow-up.

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/new-york-lit-emily-gould-ed-champion-subtweet-war/

Emily Gould is also dating Keith Gessen, editor of the chic Brooklyn literary journal n+1, which recently published a long profile of Tao Lin by Frank Guan. To date, both Guan and the journal have refused to answer our questions about the profile.

Are you keeping score?

Are we seeing the cannibalistic death throes of a corrupt and incestuous artistic scene? Sure seems that way.

Emily Gould refers to Kevin Williamson as a “right-wing blogger.” Keith Gessen and his magazine have repeatedly stressed how left-wing they are. We’re forced to ask: What’s the difference? Members of their scene all seem to come from affluent, well-connected backgrounds. Their “art” invariably isn’t concerned with the larger world, but an obsession with self.

Lena Dunham’s memoir fits the model. Per Gawker, “it’s an invitation to get lost in the mind of a girl who is lost in her mind.” Emily Gould herself in her Salon argument for the book doesn’t argue for the artistic value of scenes of Dunham masturbating next to her sister. The scenes are justified and advocated for as therapy, a story Lena Dunham simply had to tell. (Inflicted on the public for a mere $3.7 million.) Tao Lin writes in the same vein of course; advertisements/exhibitions of self, but apparently doesn’t do solipsism well enough.

The larger question is whether any of these characters are generating meaningful ideas about art, culture, and the world. The question is whether this literary scene is creating relevant and meaningful literature.

-K.W.

Stonewalling the Tao Lin Story?

Tao Lin III

As this blog has previously indicated, there’s much reluctance to talk about Tao Lin on the part of literary people who a mere two weeks ago were quite voluble on the subject.

Case in point: Brooklyn-based Insider lit journal n+1. They just came out with a very long essay on Tao Lin, “Nobody’s Protest Novel,” by Frank Guan.

https://nplusonemag.com/issue-20/reviews/nobodys-protest-novel/

Is Guan, or anyone at n+1, willing to discuss the essay?

Not so far. Perhaps they’re trying to get in touch with us and failing. Here’s our email: newpoplit@gmail.com

Dear n+1: We’ll give you all the attention we can for your new issue!

***********************

Also mum: Another influential lit mag, this one on the other coast, in San Francisco: The Believer. Tao Lin is part of a September 2014 online “exclusive,” interviewing, for The Believer, Insider’s Insider poet Ben Lerner.

http://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=interview_lerner_2

In his n+1 essay, Frank Guan portrays Tao Lin as “marginal.” Not so much.

Frank Guan also attacks “incurious overseers.” We at NEW POP LIT aren’t overseers exactly– but we are curious! Let’s discuss.

(Stay tuned for more on this topic at http://www.newpoplit.com)

-K.W.