5 ms·
The Best Magazine Articles Ever (2012)
- freediver 7y ago“Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?” was the reason I subscribed to The Atlantic.
- dang 7y ago2013 thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397031
- nkoren 7y agoNeeds https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/24/utopian-for-beginners https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/24/utopian-for-be...
- teh_klev 7y agoThat's a great article. Was also discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8180493 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8180493
- zeristor 7y agoThese articles all seem very good, I still have fond memories of reading Neal Stephenson's article on optical fibres around the world (although I'm thought it was David Brin who wrote it) However these all seem to be articles in American magazines, I assume there's a number of very good magazine articles in foreign magazines; although the US is known to have more magazines that focus on long form articles.
- hycaria 7y agoFor french folks here, M le magazine du monde is good. But somehow US magazines are even better.
- mixmax 7y ago"High tech cowboys of the deep seas" should definitely be on the list https://www.wired.com/2008/02/ff-seacowboys/ https://www.wired.com/2008/02/ff-seacowboys/
- mud_dauber 7y agoSeconded.
- flyingfences 7y agoIt is on the list.
- q-base 7y agoThe Mastermind from The Atavist needs a mention here as well. The best series of articles I have read in a long, long time. Beware that they may take a lot of your time if you start. https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind Also agrees on "Have you ever tried to sell a diamond" from The Atlantic
- soniman 7y agoThis is a trollish comment but do the DFW articles hold up?: radio article - talk radio is for stupid people cruise ship article - cruise ships are for fat people Maine state fair article - tourism is for boring people How much of his appeal was due to flattering the vanity of his readers?
- adolph 7y agoI haven’t read much of DFW outside of This Is Water [0]. In it he seems very aware of the outlook of contempt [1] folk of his intellectual milieu have for certain other segments of society and presents the case for reframing that viewpoint. 0. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI 1. http://www.econtalk.org/arthur-brooks-on-love-your-enemies/ http://www.econtalk.org/arthur-brooks-on-love-your-enemies/
- cjf4 7y agoThese sound like the assessments of someone who read a critique of the articles, but not the articles themselves.
- maroonblazer 7y agoWas going to reply with the very same sentiment. Also: >David Foster Wallace, “Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise.” Harper’s Magazine, January 1996 I much prefer the title he gave it when published in book form: "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again."
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mekane8 7y agoThe collection of his articles that were published in that book is wonderful. I loved the cruise ship one, and I really enjoyed his articles about the IL state fair and about tennis because I grew up in the same area that he was talking about.
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- hycaria 7y agoAfter we both read and enjoyed The voyeur's motel by Gay Talese (who didn't know before hand, being from outside of the US), my SO offered me his book Fame and Obscurity, which contains Sinatra's profile. The Bridge would probably appeal at a lot of folks here.
- Kaibeezy 7y agoClicked through looking for “The Last Shot” from Harper’s, 1993. Was not disappointed. Article is re the perpetuation of impossible dreams at the cost of disposability of lives underpinning pro sports. Includes the immortal line uttered by a kid dreaming of enough money to buy a Nissan Sentra: “That shit is milk.”
- thundergolfer 7y agoPaul Ford’s “What is Code?” for Bloomberg tech I think deserves a mention. Super ambitious and rewarding. I tried to purchase a paper copy because I like it so much but felt ridiculous paying $80 for a magazine.
- haste410 7y agoI would love a decent PDF as I don't like reading long form works on a screen. The best I've found is a scan of the magazine here: http://veryinteractive.net/library/what-is-code http://veryinteractive.net/library/what-is-code
- Kalium 7y agoI found that particular article to suffer significantly once reduced to static print. It takes advantage of the flexibility of being on a screen in ways that significantly enhance the experience.
- thundergolfer 7y agoAgreed. It's best enjoyed with the interactivity of the online version. I mostly wanted the hardcopy as a keepsake.
- msmagh 7y agoepub / mobi versions are available here: https://archive.org/details/whatiscode.html https://archive.org/details/whatiscode.html
- miesman 7y agoWell the goes the rest of the day
- raldi 7y agoI would include "The Wedding Merchants" by Caitlin Flanagan for The Atlantic in Feb 2001. All about how it's not actually traditional for weddings to be the expensive fancy extravaganzas they are today, and who made them that way and how they did it. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/02/the-wedding-merchants/302092/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/02/the-wed...
- randycupertino 7y agoOh I loved that article! It was helpful in my decision to have a smaller wedding. For one of favorite articles, I nominate this epic profile Tommy Tomlinson wrote in 2014 on college/NFL QB Jared Lorenzen: http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11382220/ex-nfl-qb-jared-lorenzen-lifelong-battle-weight http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11382220/ex-nfl-... Tomlinson one of my favorite writers, and the article is about Lorenzen's struggles played a role in my own starting to get healthier. So, degrees of separation, but I always felt like some day I'd read an article about Lorenzen making a big transformation. Very sad to realize with news of his passing a few weeks ago that it turned out differently. https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/07/ex-giants-qb-jared-lorenzen-dies-after-battling-myriad-of-health-issues.html https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/07/ex-giants-qb-jared-lorenze...
- mud_dauber 7y agoThis is great. Thank you!
- jumbopapa 7y agoThank you so much. Marriage will be coming up fairly soon in my life and I've been dreading the expense. I hope my girlfriend finds this article as eye-opening as I did. The amount of many spent on a ring, ceremony, and reception have no correlation with our love for each other.
- jumbopapa 7y ago> Feb 2001 It's interesting that this is from 2001. I feel like the problem has gotten even worse since then.
- rchaud 7y agoGreat timing for this link, as I just found my e-reader in a random corner of my apartment after thinking I'd lost it while traveling! I'll be adding these to the reading queue.
- neilkakkar 7y agoI'm stumped... What makes these great? Is it excellent writing? -\0/- Leafing through a few, they seemed pretty mediocre in terms of saying something new / teaching me something.
- Arete314159 7y agoThe Marriage Cure by Katherine Boo. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/18/the-marriage-cure https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/18/the-marriage-c...