Thursday, May 24 2012Paul Fussell is dead. He left behind works on war that will outlast us all by many generations. Below are a few of his thoughts about his role as a writer on the subject of war, informed by his own brutal experiences as foot soldier in Europe in World War Two. They form the opening paragraph, fittingly, of “Wartime.” This book is about the psychological and emotional culture of Americans and Britons during the Second World War. It is about the rationalizations and euphemisms people needed to deal with an unacceptable actuality from 1939 to 1945. And it is about the abnormally intense frustration of desire in wartime and some of the means by which desire was satisfied. The damage the war ... Continue reading →
From the Department of Wonderful Things Unearthed on Twitter, one of the better pieces of fan mail anyone's ever received. Typically, journalists don’t get much fan mail so much as letters from The Concerned Public, weighing in on their take with whatever the matter of the day is. It makes sense: Reporters at daily newspapers—especially those who quietly, diligently, and often thanklessly hack away on metro beats—are usually tasked with the gathering of facts first and foremost, and then, the clear-eyed relaying of those facts (usually in a well-established format, like the inverted pyramid). Where there’s room for creativity, it’s in the subtle details, and they usually don’t end up the recipients of epic pieces of fan mail from world-renowned authors. Until they do. Earlier ... Continue reading →
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As we all know, there’s a dearth of female bylines among the biggest publications. While there have been a variety of explanations for why that is, one thing that keeps coming up is that those titles just don’t see that many pitches from women. Well ladies, you’re in luck. A panel of pros wants to help you out. On May 29 at Public Assembly in Williamsburg, a decorated group including Evan Ratliff, founder of The Atavist; Carolyn Ryan, Metro editor of The New York Times; Jessica Pressler, contributing editor to New York and Katherine Lanpher, an award-winning print and broadcast journalist, will be discussing the best techniques for pitching ideas. The event — “Throw Like a Girl: Pitching the Hell Out of Your Stories” — ... Continue reading →
Correction to this article IT IS, says Gabriel Demombynes, of the World Bank’s Nairobi office, “a tremendous success story that has only barely been recognised”. Michael Clemens of the Centre for Global Development calls it simply “the biggest, best story in development”. It is the huge decline in child mortality now gathering pace across Africa. According to Mr Demombynes and Karina Trommlerova, also of the World Bank, 16 of the 20 African countries which have had detailed surveys of living conditions since 2005 reported falls in their child-mortality rates (this rate is the number of deaths of children under five per 1,000 live births). Twelve had falls of over 4.4% a year, which is the rate of decline that is needed to meet the millennium ... Continue reading →
