The Believer - February 2012

The February issue of The Believer did not disappoint again.   

For example, the interview with Chris Johanson by Natasha Boas captures a thoroughly unfettered authentic man who expresses clearly the need to practice his art form.  The business side of showing his art and the artist’s responsibility in this regard flies in the face of what he does best, the doing part.  It’s a perennial obstacle for any creative person.   

Katie Bachner’s interview with Sam Farber, collector of ‘outsider art’ exposes essential points on how art is defined in the mainstream and how the traditional definition may be changing; whether biography informs the content significantly; how ‘outsider art’ may be confidently forging its own path and smudging the lines between what is mainstream and what is not all the while protecting its unique aesthetic.

‘La Bibliothèque Impossible’ tells about a collection of work which few people know about, the Oulipians.

And then, the piece by Aaron Bobrow-Strain on the making of the USDA White Pan Loaf No. 1 was an amazingly informative, fascinating study on the origins of the enriched white loaf which occupies miles and miles of grocery store shelves throughout the continent.  Who would have thought that this spongy nothingness played such an important role in the military strategy of the country in the 40’s.

Each of the articles in this remarkable magazine has to be savoured.  There is so much packed into them.  For the time it takes for McSweeney’s Publishing to prepare the next issue, it takes me to read the one in my hands.  No gleaning over the words here.  In fact, to the contrary.  I feel enriched, just like  Pan Loaf No. 1 and well fortified for the creative day ahead of me.  

The Believer

The November/December 2011 issue of The Believer (www.believermag.com) just arrived.  If you have never read this magazine, I strongly suggest buying at least one copy.  It’s not your usual arts magazine.  No glossy pages here, no advertisements appealing to fat wallets and status conscious consumers.  It is a magazine whose main theme is ‘real’, calling it how it is, telling stories for the story’s sake, real-life pictures of lives lived or ideas expressed honestly.  It’s a magazine which even smells real, the paper is somewhere between newsprint and school  primer.  The pages all have a coloured margin, a different colour for each issue.  This issue is orange, the October issue was purple.

I had devoured the October, #84, issue.  It was no quick read, so much chunky word food but when # 85 arrived last week, my appetite for more was at its height.

It’s a magazine that succeeds in informing the reader on a variety of subjects which otherwise he might not discover on his own (ex:  The Dale Guild Society – Article entitled ‘The Last Man for the Job’).  This particular piece was written in a deeply heartfelt way.  It was not a story about monetary success but about how a person found himself following an ineluctable path directed by a passionate desire to save an art form which otherwise would be lost for ever.

And then there is ‘Stuff I’ve been reading’, Nick Hornby’s book review.  Just by the tone of the title and the reputation of the contributor, how could you not read him.  There is something wonderfully accessible about the style, so much so, that after reading his review on Claire Tomalin’s book ‘Charles Dickens – A life’, I ordered it.  A Christmas present for one lucky family member, me.

I anticipate the arrival of #86 with the same excitement as when I was a young girl waiting for my monthly teenage magazine to arrive.  Admittedly, The Believer is of a totally different content, but relatively speaking given the almost 50 years that separate the delivery of that teen mag and today, the level of importance I place on the content probably equates to the same, that is to say: enormous.

Thank you, McSweeney’s for this pleasure.