McSweeney's

created by wharfinger

(thing) by wharfinger (6.2 y) (print) ? 2 C!s Sun Aug 20 2000 at 16:21:24

McSweeney's Quarterly is a "literary magazine" of sorts edited and published by David Eggers, of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fame. http://www.mcsweeneys.net (entitled "McSweeney's" with a subtitle that changes every few months) is a related website, started around the same time as a way for Eggers to get the editor out of his system and publish small pieces of his own while he was working on AHWoSG. If I recall correctly, that would have been around the summer of 1998 or thereabouts.

I've got issue #4 of the print version, and for the most part it's nothing to write home about (yes, I know Jonathan Lethem thinks Kafka is funny; no, I don't care), but the website has been consistently worth reading since I started visiting it in autumn 1998. Back then it was updated only twice a week or so, but as the Eggers self-promotion machine has gained momentum, there's been a flood of submissions and it's usually updated every weekday now. I'm sure there are literati out there who think it was better before it was hip, but they're just like that. It has gotten a bit more "normal" over time, but you can't stay in the same place forever.

Among other treats, the following have appeared on the website:

A series of bizarre and surrealistic pieces by the nonexistent Lucy Thomas, who is actually Dave Eggers writing under the name of his five-year-old niece or something. Eggers' style is a delight in small doses, but it's mannered to the point where in large doses it would be unendurable; for that reason I haven't attempted to read AHWoSG (the self-promotion machine doesn't help either).
Interviews with Drivers of Lunch Trucks
Short Fiction Starring or Mentioning David Gergen: One of these is written using only the letters in David Gergen's name. It is a thing of great beauty, I kid you not. Others are more ordinary, but also very good.

I saw Eggers read from AHWoSG this winter at Wordsworth Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He's charming and amusing, but again: Small doses. I did get my issue #4 signed, just because I could. My grandchildren will not have heard of this guy, however momentarily entertaining he may be. The best part of the reading was when Eggers complained about how the economics of the publishing industry have gotten so out of whack that editors hardly edit any more; AHWoSG was edited by Eggers and his friends because the publisher couldn't be bothered. I'm as shocked and horrified by that as he is, and so should you be. Eggers, as an editor, edits, and enjoys doing so. This shows in the website and in the print magazine: Eggers is a very detail-oriented person who cares very much about doing things right. I love that.

printable version
chaos

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius	tell it to Sweeney	Dave Eggers	The Brunching Shuttlecocks
Interviews with Drivers of Lunch Trucks	Jonathan Lethem	The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature	She is stupidly keeping herself a secret, when I know she has sparkly things to show me
You Shall Know Our Velocity	A hippie, a nun, and a bus driver	howling fantods	Tom Tomorrow
Neal Pollack	Amanda Davis	The New Sins	Hell hounds on my trail
Lucy Lawless	O'Reilly	You'll be something special one day. And you -- you have to take care of your sister.	Lolita
67 reasons why Butterfinger McFlurries suck	Frog and Banjo	A Very Sad Story About a Frog and a Banjo	Buckaroo Banzai

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