The Longreads Blog

Our Longreads Member Pick: My Body Stopped Speaking to Me, by Andrew Corsello

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For this week’s Member Pick, we’re excited to share “My Body Stopped Speaking to Me,” a personal story from GQ writer and National Magazine Award winner Andrew Corsello about a near-death experience. The piece was first published in GQ in 1995. Corsello explains:

I was circling the drain in the spring of 1995—convalescent, out of money, literally within days of quitting the business—when David Kamp, a friend from college who’d become a senior editor at GQ, called to ask if I’d be interested in a staff-writing job. ‘You know I’m damaged goods, right?’ I asked. He didn’t, but made things happen anyway. The day I arrived at GQ, David introduced me to the mag’s longtime editor, Art Cooper, an old-school manly man’s man who’d have insisted on christening my arrival with a hard drink or three (even though it was 11:00 a.m.) had David not preempted it. ‘Now, Art,’ David explained as Art took my hand, ‘you can’t take it personally when Andrew declines the drink you’re going to offer him—he’s been told by doctors he can never drink again.’ Art asked why. Over the next 15 minutes, I told him the bizarre story of my near-death from liver failure six months before. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘That’s your first piece for the mag!’ At which point I reflexively wondered, ‘But what’s the angle?’ And, answering myself, said, ‘How about, “If I were in an HMO, I’d be dead”’? Before I could finish my next sentence, Cooper said, ‘Nah, just write the story.’ But what about, you know, the health care angle… ‘Huh?’ Cooper said. ‘Forget that. Just…write the story, like you just told it.’ But what about… We went back and forth several more times, with me burping up inane buzz-crap like ‘nut graf’ and ‘policy relevance’ and Cooper saying ‘Write the story.’ Finally, half laughing, half pissed, he growled, ‘Just write the fucking story.’ So I left his office, sat at my new desk, created a new file, sat staring at the screen for several minutes and then realized: The story was already written, and written as well as it ever could be (at least by me), in my journal. Creating this piece, which Kamp edited, was almost entirely a matter of splicing journal entries together.

Even now it amazes and annoys me: that until the moment Art Cooper told me to write the fucking story, it had never even occurred to me to use in my published work the voice in which I had been speaking to myself for years. That is, it hadn’t occurred to me to publish work…in my own voice. How stupid is that? All this is to say that this story, or rather the editorial injunction that birthed it, taught me that a vivid writing voice is less a matter of talent—far less—than license. Dave Kamp’s headline for this piece plays at multiple levels.

Read an excerpt here.

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Illustration by Kjell Reigstad

“Deep Inside Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco” —Austin Carr, Fast Company

Longreads Guest Pick: Pravesh Bhardwaj on Alice Munro's 'The Bear Came Over the Mountain'

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Today’s guest pick comes from frequent Longreads contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj:

“I am a filmmaker based in Mumbai. These days I am writing a screenplay, which might become my next film. I spend more time ‘trying to write’ than doing the real writing. So I have made a deal with myself: Read a piece of fiction I have not read before, and read it online so that I don’t run away from the computer—and then go back and take another stab at writing. The idea is to relax in front of the screen that scares me as I have not written enough on the day.

“Alice Munro’s ‘The Bear Came Over the Mountain’ (The New Yorker, 1999) is one of the finest stories I have ever read. It is about Grant and Fiona, who have been married for many decades, and how their relationship changes once Fiona gets institutionalized as she is in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. I am yet to see Sarah Polley’s film adaptation (Away From Her). Maybe I will, after I have read the story a few times—maybe never. Yes, I love the story that much.”

Read the story here.

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articles read & loved no. 51

dietcoker:

“My Father, the Good Nazi.” Philippe Sands, Financial Times

My Top 5 #Longreads on the Business of Film, Music and Books

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Mark Armstrong (that’s not him above) is the founder of Longreads, and editorial director for Pocket.

This past week’s Steven Soderbergh speech on “The State of the Cinema” isn’t as big a downer for film lovers as these choice quotes might have you believe:

“Shouldn’t we be spending the time and resources alleviating suffering and helping other people instead of going to the movies and plays and art installations? When we did Ocean’s Thirteen the casino set used $60,000 of electricity every week. How do you justify that? Do you justify that by saying, the people who could’ve had that electricity are going to watch the movie for two hours and be entertained—except they probably can’t, because they don’t have any electricity, because we used it.”

Or:

“When people are more outraged by the ambiguous ending of The Sopranos than some young girl being stoned to death, then there’s something wrong.”

Soderbergh does offer some encouraging news about the amount of independent films being distributed:

“In 2003, 455 films were released. 275 of those were independent, 180 were studio films. Last year 677 films were released. So you’re not imagining things, there are a lot of movies that open every weekend. 549 of those were independent, 128 were studio films. So, a 100% increase in independent films, and a 28% drop in studio films…”

The downside, of course, is that it’s harder to get them seen:

“…and yet, 10 years ago: Studio market share 69%, last year 76%. You’ve got fewer studio movies now taking up a bigger piece of the pie and you’ve got twice as many independent films scrambling for a smaller piece of the pie. That’s hard. That’s really hard.”

For further reading, the Soderbergh speech reminded me of a few other excellent #longreads about the business of art:

1. “Letter to Emily White at All Songs Considered” (David Lowery, June 2012)

Lowery, the founder of bands including Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, paints a bleak picture of the state of the music industry, particularly when it comes to professional studio musicians.

2. “The Business of Literature” (Richard Nash, VQR, Spring 2013)

Nash offers historical context for those worried about the future of books: “Book culture is in far less peril than many choose to assume, for the notion of an imperiled book culture assumes that book culture is a beast far more refined, rarified, and fragile than it actually is.”

3. “Some Thoughts on Our Business” (Jeffrey Katzenberg, Letters of Note, 1991)

Katzenberg’s memo to colleagues at Disney, which in addition to having allegedly inspired the memo in Jerry Maguire, also addresses the blockbuster mentality.

4. “I’m for Sale” (Genevieve Smith, Elle, April 2013)

Smith searches for a balance between creative fulfillment and financial security. 

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What are you reading (and loving)? Tell us.

(Photo by Thore Siebrands, via Wikimedia Commons)

“A Trip to Japan in Sixteen Minutes.” Michelle Legro, The Believer.

Longreads Guest Pick: Baxter Holmes on 'The Prophets of Oak Ridge'

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Baxter covers the Celtics for The Boston Globe, which he joined in 2013 after spending three and a half years as a sports reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. He’s a proud Oklahoman from a no-stoplight town where humans are outnumbered by cow and buffalo:

“A nun. A super-secure nuclear-weapons facility. A break-in. Click-bait, all of that. All ingredients succinct enough for an enticing tweet, which these days count. But Dan Zak, one of the best in this racket, has far more than a wild premise; he also wrote the hell out of his piece, ‘The Prophets of Oak Ridge,’ in the Washington Post. It’s my favorite longread of the week. Exquisite reporting, beautiful pacing (and writing), but no overwriting—a key. The online layout is ‘Snow Fall’ sexy, and the illustrations set it apart. The story itself bounces chronologically off their suspenseful B&E, keeping you in real time while divulging just enough history—but not enough to bore you. Some stories are as fulfilling as a top-dollar steak, medium rare, with nice fixings on the side. This is one of them. (But no spoilers.) Well done, Zak. You took a gripping narrative and turned it topical by showing how much the U.S. doles out per year on nuclear weapons. You also made me care about these servants of God, especially Sister Megan. I now give a damn about their trial. In all, this is newspapers at their finest. Long live print—and print will live on with stories like this.”

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What are you reading (and loving)? Tell us.

Now on Newsstands: Modern Farmer

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One of our favorite parts about running Longreads is getting to know all the excellent magazine, book and online publishers out there producing great storytelling. We thought it would be fun to profile them—starting today with Modern Farmer. We spoke with deputy editor Reyhan Harmanci about their inaugural issue, out now.

Publication: Modern Farmer (inaugural issue)

Founded: April 2013

HQ: Hudson, New York

Editors: Ann Marie Gardner (Editor-in-Chief), Reyhan Harmanci (Deputy Editor), Andy Wright (Senior Editor), Jake Swearingen (Web Editor)

How did the magazine come together?

“The whole operation began when, a few years ago, Ann Marie was working for the New York Times and Monocle, and traveling a lot for stories. Living in upstate New York, she was surrounded by farmers, gardeners, people really connected to the food and the land; the fact that people everywhere were having the same conversations about food security, sustainability, localism, etc., surprised and inspired her. She began working on this in earnest about a year ago, and found an investor this fall. The editorial team (or part of it) began working in November.

“The basic idea behind MF is that knowing where your food comes from is extremely important — and, thanks in large part to climate change, so is self-reliance. We want to cover agriculture on a global scale, tell fascinating stories and also have fun. It doesn’t hurt that farms often have baby farm animals, key to any digital media operation.”

Tell us about the #longreads in the latest issue:

“Probably my favorite story in the magazine is by Jesse Hirsch (who has since come on as our staff writer) about the global wild pig explosion. It really needs to be read to be believed: boars are taking over the world and we can’t do anything to stop it. Less fun but extremely important is Mac McClelland’s story about humane slaughter—what does it even mean? How much should we care?”


Subscriptions: 
Print and digital

“Career Arc: Harrison Ford.” Alex Pappademas, Grantland.