n+1 Issue 1: Negation

by n+1, Sam Lipsyte, Masha Gessen

Polemics against the New Republic, McSweeney's, and the Weekly Standard, Mark Greif's "Against Exercise" and "Mogadishu, Baghdad, Troy," Keith Gessen's "Eggers, Teen Idol," Benjamin Kunkel's "Horse Mountain," Patrick Giles on James McCourt. Plus the first and only English-language translation of Vladimir Sorokin's The Norm.

Genres: Essays, Literary Criticism, Fiction, Short Stories

182 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

n+1 is a print journal of politics, literature, and culture, published originally twice a year and now three times a year.

Reviews

[Lucas Gelfond · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time, hopefully of many, I've ever read a physical literary magazine all the way through rather than picking random articles online, and I'm so glad it was this one. I came to the early n+1 stuff after reading AO Scott's "Among the Believers" about the nascent small magazine movement of the early 2000s; I was drawn to his description of these magazines' "programmatic insistence on progress," "defiant optimism" and hope to "organize a generational struggle against laziness and cynicism, to raise once again the banners of creative enthusiasm and intellectual engagement."

Negation echoes all of these; uncompromising, erudite long form fiction and nonfiction on a variety of topics, virtually all incredibly readable, often funny. My favorites in here: "Eggers, Teen Idol" (a piece about a high schooler running an eminent gossip blog about Dave Eggers), "Paranoiastan" (Masha Gessen's account of the absurdity of Russian secret police), "Mogadishu, Baghdad, Troy" (a piece tying the horrors of the Iraq War to the American invasion of Somalia and, previously, Greek and Trojan warriors), "W." (shitting on George W. Bush, always funny), "Against Exercise" (Mark Greif's tirade against fitness and running in public space, among other things), "Horse Mountain" (sharp, cutting fiction about an old man climbing a mountain), and "The Black Iron Prison" (a piece about the culture war written by Josh Glenn, who gave me a copy of this magazine!)

Anyways, I'm reminded that (a) I love short stories/essays, often more than longer fiction and nonfiction pieces and (b) I need to open myself to reading literary magazines instead of just books, because this was a really wonderful experience.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Single best debut of any periodical created in my lifetime. I stumbled on to this at Goehring's bookstore in Gainesville, FL around 2005--there was only one copy on the shelf and it's loneliness warranted investigation. Cracking it open, it was almost immediately obvious that this was going to be a worthwhile issue. What I would not have guessed is that N+1 would still be rivaling its initial greatness seven years later. I fully expected the brilliance to fade away and am thoroughly impressed by its determination to disappoint that expectation.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

surprised to find the issues have been getting better since the beginning rather than worse.