I have read them all hoping against hope to hear the authentic call
May 10, 2012 9:45 AM Subscribe
The Baffler has returned. Again.
Noted by in comments by mrgrimm here and RogerB here, it appears that The Baffler is resuming publication with Issue 19.
Sporadically published since it inception, this is the publications second resurrection. John H. Summers (prev) has purchased The Baffler and has signed a contract for publication through 2016, so the bold can subscribe here and commodify their dissent. You can also toss your money to them at kickstarter, which features a video and the best succinct outline of their plans.
The theme for The Baffler 19 is antibusiness and includes contributions by the founding editor Thomas Frank, previously discussed here. Maureen Tkacik (prev) fires off a salvo at the Atlantic, essentially arguing that in previous eras the CIA had to buy out lefty cultural organizations and now private enterprise like the Atlantic does the job for them. A bit more info and background on the piece from a conservative blog here.
Summers lofty ambition? Dwight Macdonald’s seminal Politics publication: with long form (~10,000 word) art and criticism. Of course, the masthead notes “No interns were used in the making of this Baffler.”
Noted by in comments by mrgrimm here and RogerB here, it appears that The Baffler is resuming publication with Issue 19.
Sporadically published since it inception, this is the publications second resurrection. John H. Summers (prev) has purchased The Baffler and has signed a contract for publication through 2016, so the bold can subscribe here and commodify their dissent. You can also toss your money to them at kickstarter, which features a video and the best succinct outline of their plans.
The theme for The Baffler 19 is antibusiness and includes contributions by the founding editor Thomas Frank, previously discussed here. Maureen Tkacik (prev) fires off a salvo at the Atlantic, essentially arguing that in previous eras the CIA had to buy out lefty cultural organizations and now private enterprise like the Atlantic does the job for them. A bit more info and background on the piece from a conservative blog here.
Summers lofty ambition? Dwight Macdonald’s seminal Politics publication: with long form (~10,000 word) art and criticism. Of course, the masthead notes “No interns were used in the making of this Baffler.”
That's good news. My household turned to The Baffler after it seemed to us that the editorial staff at AdBusters had decided to sublime and leave all the messy implementation details to the meat bags.
posted by mph at 11:11 AM on May 10, 2012
posted by mph at 11:11 AM on May 10, 2012
Very happy to have The Baffler back.
But dang, the quality of the print journal -- the look and feel, not the words on the page -- really took a nosedive after the move to the MIT Press.
No. 18 (renumbered Vol.2 No. 01 to recognize the previous rebirth) featured heavy matte covers with color on the inside flaps, too; bright, heavy book paper pages throughout that feel good in your fingers and offer high contrast for the text and occasional color images; and, amazingly, a CLOTH BOOKMARK stitched into the binding. So you don't feel the need to bend a corner of any of those beautiful spreads.
No. 19? Lighter cover stock; no color anywhere inside the journal, not even on the inside covers; interior pages are plain old offset stock that's not far from newsprint; and definitely no built-in bookmark.
Yeah, yeah, it's the words that matter. But as the editors noted in the call for subscribers in No. 18:
But if you subscribe, you can read it online via the MIT Press' online portal. Or you can just read it from the page, thin as No 19's papery pages may be.
posted by notyou at 11:14 AM on May 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
But dang, the quality of the print journal -- the look and feel, not the words on the page -- really took a nosedive after the move to the MIT Press.
No. 18 (renumbered Vol.2 No. 01 to recognize the previous rebirth) featured heavy matte covers with color on the inside flaps, too; bright, heavy book paper pages throughout that feel good in your fingers and offer high contrast for the text and occasional color images; and, amazingly, a CLOTH BOOKMARK stitched into the binding. So you don't feel the need to bend a corner of any of those beautiful spreads.
No. 19? Lighter cover stock; no color anywhere inside the journal, not even on the inside covers; interior pages are plain old offset stock that's not far from newsprint; and definitely no built-in bookmark.
Yeah, yeah, it's the words that matter. But as the editors noted in the call for subscribers in No. 18:
SUPREMACYMeFi's own David Graeber appears in No. 19 with a terrific story on the slackening pace of technological advancement ("Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit"). The takeaway? Capitalism retards imagination and progress. The essay is, unfortunately, not available online, otherwise I'd link it.
It resides in the written word, printed in neat columns on the papery page. You can tweet all you want. Twenty years from now nobody will give a damn.
But the authorial majesty of this Baffler, like all other Bafflers, will still be fully intact then. Whatever we choose to splatter over the page today will still be as true then as what's written in the Federalist Papers, only a little more fun to read.
Yes, the medium is the message, my friend, and the message of this particular medium is SUPREMACY: ink + paper + careful typesetting = eternal rightness.
...
But if you subscribe, you can read it online via the MIT Press' online portal. Or you can just read it from the page, thin as No 19's papery pages may be.
posted by notyou at 11:14 AM on May 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
great news. i liked their article on the Atlantic.
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 11:59 AM on May 10, 2012
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 11:59 AM on May 10, 2012
This hipster zine that bashes consumerism offers a FREE TOTEBAG with a $50 order. Woo hoo!
posted by Yakuman at 12:47 PM on May 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Yakuman at 12:47 PM on May 10, 2012 [2 favorites]
I bought a two-year subscription in 2003. I believe it is still active, though #19 has not found me yet.
posted by mrgrimm at 4:53 PM on May 10, 2012
posted by mrgrimm at 4:53 PM on May 10, 2012
Email them, mrgrimm, with your subscriber details and mention it. Given all the changes in personnel and systems, it's almost inevitable that a shoestring operation such as the Baffler is going to suffer some screwups
I went ahead and re-resubscribed and noted my old sub number. The new subscription people linked my old sub to the new one and it looks like I'm good to go for several more issues.
Probably.
posted by notyou at 9:00 AM on May 11, 2012
I went ahead and re-resubscribed and noted my old sub number. The new subscription people linked my old sub to the new one and it looks like I'm good to go for several more issues.
Probably.
posted by notyou at 9:00 AM on May 11, 2012
Oh, I will. I'm just apparently operating on the same sense of urgency as the pub. I'll get to it sometime in 2015.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:58 AM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by mrgrimm at 10:58 AM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]
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posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:07 AM on May 10, 2012