Search Results for: fiction

[Fiction, not single-page] Life as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, and a trip to the tear-gas tent:

“Do you love the army?” my commander asks.

“Yes and no, I mean I definitely believe that it is important in a country like ours to serve in the army, but I hope for peace, and on a personal level, of course, boot camp presents its own hardships, and also—”

“Enough,” my boot-camp commander says.

“Are you afraid to die?” she asks. She skips two questions. She knows I am trouble, although I have barely caused any yet. Maybe trouble isn’t something you do, it’s something you are.

“The Sound of All Girls Screaming.” — Shani Boianjiu, Photos: Peter Sutherland, Vice

More #longreads from Vice

The Sound of All Girls Screaming

Longreads Pick

[Fiction] [Not-single page] Life as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, and a trip to the tear-gas tent:

“‘Do you love the army?’ my commander asks.

“‘Yes and no, I mean I definitely believe that it is important in a country like ours to serve in the army, but I hope for peace, and on a personal level, of course, boot camp presents its own hardships, and also—’

“‘Enough,’ my boot-camp commander says.

“‘Are you afraid to die?’ she asks. She skips two questions. She knows I am trouble, although I have barely caused any yet. Maybe trouble isn’t something you do, it’s something you are.”

Source: Vice Magazine
Published: Nov 2, 2011
Length: 13 minutes (3,276 words)

Top 5 #Longreads of the Week: Slate.com, The Atlantic, The Texas Observer, n+1, Guernica, a fiction pick, plus a guest pick from Marcus Sortijas.

Photo: Wikipedia

"Why’s This So Good?" No. 33: Michael Paterniti's Painted Ghosts

Nieman Storyboard’s “Why’s This So Good” explores what makes classic narrative nonfiction stories worth reading.

This week: Thomas Curwen takes a look at Michael Paterniti’s “The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy,” which was originally published in Esquire in July 2000.

The opening sequence of “The Long Fall” is a mere 500 words and, in my mind, an incantation of Gardner’s dream, one that stunningly hinges halfway through upon a couple making love (no better image of human vulnerability) seconds before the plane hit the ocean.

Before this image: a series of stills introducing Peggy’s Cove. After this image: the gathering momentum of the disaster with its disorienting and sinister intrusion upon daily life when out of the low ceiling of clouds comes first a sound – the first suggestion of a plane (“the horrible grinding sound of some wounded winged creature”) – and then silence, then an explosion and the backstory.

“Why’s This So Good?” No. 33: Michael Paterniti’s Painted Ghosts

Roger Fidler was a head of innovation for Knight-Ridder who convinced his company to let him set up a lab in the early 1990s to explore the creation of tablet computers. They were next door to a lab owned by Apple:

Fidler smiles through a scruffy gray Jobsian beard. He has known the answer for a long time. In 1994, while running a lab dreaming up the future of newspapers, Fidler starred in his own video demonstrating a prototype he cooked up that was remarkably like the iPad — black, thin, rectangular, with text and video displayed on-screen.

A narrator described technology that at the time sounded like science fiction: “Tablets will be a whole new class of computer. They’ll weigh under two pounds. They’ll be totally portable. They’ll have a clarity of screen display comparable to ink on paper. They’ll be able to blend text, video, audio and graphics together. . . . We may still use computers to create information but will use the tablet to interact with information — reading, watching, listening.”

“For Tablet Computer Visionary Roger Fidler, a Lot of What-Ifs.” — Michael S. Rosenwald, The Washington Post

See also: “The Tablet.” — John Gruber, Daring Fireball, Dec. 31, 2009

For Tablet Computer Visionary Roger Fidler, a Lot of What-Ifs

Longreads Pick

Roger Fidler was a head of innovation for Knight-Ridder who convinced his company to let him set up a lab in the early 1990s to explore the creation of tablet computers. They were next door to a lab owned by Apple:

“Fidler smiles through a scruffy gray Jobsian beard. He has known the answer for a long time. In 1994, while running a lab dreaming up the future of newspapers, Fidler starred in his own video demonstrating a prototype he cooked up that was remarkably like the iPad — black, thin, rectangular, with text and video displayed on-screen.

“A narrator described technology that at the time sounded like science fiction: ‘Tablets will be a whole new class of computer. They’ll weigh under two pounds. They’ll be totally portable. They’ll have a clarity of screen display comparable to ink on paper. They’ll be able to blend text, video, audio and graphics together. . . . We may still use computers to create information but will use the tablet to interact with information — reading, watching, listening.'”

Source: Washington Post
Published: Mar 9, 2012
Length: 11 minutes (2,926 words)

Top 5 #Longreads of the Week: The New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, GQ, The New York Times, Forbes, a fiction pick, plus a guest pick from Sujatha Santhanakrishnan.

[Fiction] Taking a trip to Times Square: 

Ginny had promised to take the girls to M&M World, that ridiculous place in Times Square they had passed too often in a taxi, Maggie scooting to press her face to the glass to watch the giant smiling M&M scale the Empire State Building on the electronic billboard and wave from the spire, its color dissolving yellow, then blue, then red, then yellow again. She had promised. “Promised,” Olivia said, her face twisted into the expression she reserved for moments of betrayal. “Please,” Olivia whined. “You said ‘spring.’”

“M&M World.” — Kate Walbert, The New Yorker

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M&M World

Longreads Pick

[Fiction] Taking a trip to Times Square:

“Ginny had promised to take the girls to M&M World, that ridiculous place in Times Square they had passed too often in a taxi, Maggie scooting to press her face to the glass to watch the giant smiling M&M scale the Empire State Building on the electronic billboard and wave from the spire, its color dissolving yellow, then blue, then red, then yellow again. She had promised. ‘Promised,’ Olivia said, her face twisted into the expression she reserved for moments of betrayal. ‘Please,’ Olivia whined. ‘You said “spring.”‘”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Mar 6, 2012
Length: 19 minutes (4,904 words)

Brendan I. Koerner's All-Time Favorite #Longreads

Brendan I. Koerner’s All-Time Favorite #Longreads