A note from the editors of the Believer
The return of the boomerang child; a venting of spleen; reviews by sailors from the Chatham dockyards; Mass Observation; attempted titillation
Tales from an Oscar nominee; a quantitative analysis of Jennifer Aniston’s career as a subject of mental occupation; the Toddler’s Truce
The psychological preoccupations of Americans; the Lost Booker Prize; mentions of Marshall McLuhan; devouring the oeuvre of Muriel Spark
Accolades for the Scientist of the Month; devastating effects of the World Cup; unsatisfactory e-reading experiences; the inevitable failure of impeccable taste
Dirty bits and dated couplings; sometimes-crazed introspection; Negative Twenty Questions; fortuitous typos; a singular and inimitable consciousness
The surprising discovery that some old shit isn’t so bad; how to make yogurt; a handy guide to Hellenic philosophy; humanistic long-form poetry
True confessions of a literary fattist; mixed feelings about Dickens’s output; inaccurate descriptions of Donovan; an elevated study of self-consciousness
A contender for Goal of the Month; crushing on Elizabeth Bishop; spectacularly crashing and burning; the constructs of taste
Typical activities of Believer readers; unpromising subjects; cells that grow like kudzu; fiction written by arty, ignorant, unemployed losers
A sub-Updikean marriage; familiarity with the deranged and fanatical; teenage athletes as the embodiment of a community’s aspirations
The observation of obscure American figures; poor decisions made by missionaries; properly funny bedtime reading; a cat-gotten tongue
Reading life as memento mori; unlikely celebrity pairings; apocalyptic humor; the darkness of North Korea; controversial views on Tom Sawyer
Overstating the salvific effects of Great Literature; the introduction of a slogan; an advertorial for Body Shop Vanilla Shower Gel; the straight-edge scene
A righteous fury; the over-full cast of history; the sacrifices asked of a columnist; violent death; joys offered by the Waboba ball
Violent interests in the arts; everybody’s favorite literary biographer; the unwanted and feckless sons of Charles Dickens; a shadow side