Agreed that it was a pretty great issue this week. I'm glad the scandal with Batuman's Japan article from a few years ago didn't end her writing career at the magazine. I love Batuman's jokes like: "Standing in the busy square, gazing from the City Assembly building, constructed in the nineteenth-century Moorish Revival style, to a Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, renovated in the early-two-thousands Courtyard by Marriott style, I felt the words “center” and “periphery” slowly losing their meaning."
Wow, I totally forgot Batuman was behind that story. I think her fiction career has probably helped keep her status intact. Plus maybe it's somewhat behind the pivot away from the investigative for her, much as the "Caliphate" scandal at the Times lead to repositionings moreso than firings - just speculating. Yes - that line you cite was great, and the stuff about the peripheral was really brilliant in general.
Loved that Batuman piece, which I actually only read two days ago. (But now I have to look up the Japan piece Michael Bentley mentions.)
Here's the story: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/japans-rent-a-family-industry
and related coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/business/media/new-yorker-returns-award.html, https://newrepublic.com/article/160595/new-yorker-japan-rent-family-fabricated
Ah thank you.
Agreed that it was a pretty great issue this week. I'm glad the scandal with Batuman's Japan article from a few years ago didn't end her writing career at the magazine. I love Batuman's jokes like: "Standing in the busy square, gazing from the City Assembly building, constructed in the nineteenth-century Moorish Revival style, to a Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, renovated in the early-two-thousands Courtyard by Marriott style, I felt the words “center” and “periphery” slowly losing their meaning."
Wow, I totally forgot Batuman was behind that story. I think her fiction career has probably helped keep her status intact. Plus maybe it's somewhat behind the pivot away from the investigative for her, much as the "Caliphate" scandal at the Times lead to repositionings moreso than firings - just speculating. Yes - that line you cite was great, and the stuff about the peripheral was really brilliant in general.