I'm sure that we were not alone in thinking that the last few issues of McSweeney's had not been living up to the high design and content standards that they had set for themselves over the years. We were beginning to wonder if, perhaps, the enterprise had run out of gas, and that Eggers & Co. had set their priorities elsewhere. And while the latter may very well have been the case, we are happy to announce that, with, at least, it's thirty-third issue, all those concerned have put McSweeney's back front and center. This is a knock-your-socks-off issue that asks – and boldly answers – the question, "What's so good about a newspaper, anyway?" McSweeney's 33 is, more or less, a what-if? fantasy of what the San Francisco Sunday paper could be like in an alternative universe where profit-driven capitalism did not govern all enterprise-related decisions. Originally published and distributed in San Franciso on December 9, 2009, it is now available to the rest of us. More or less patterned after the Sunday New York Times (only bigger – a whoppin' 15" x 22"!), this hefty newspaper edition of McSweeney's is filled with engaging, well written articles on all sorts of topics and at all lengths from (rough guess, here) 100 to 10,000 words. The graphics department has taken full advantage of the oversize "canvas" offered by these large broadsheets, and the printing and paper are excellent for full visual impact. There is a 96-page book review insert printed on extra high quality paper stock that is not only filled with reviews but also: interviews with the likes of Junot Diaz, Miranda July and James Franco; new, original short works of fiction by George Saunders, Deb Olin Unferth, Roddy Doyle and others; a gigantic feature on the work of J.G. Ballard by Geoff Nicholson; pages of letters; and more! There is an oversize 112-page magazine insert that is printed on an even higher grade of paper stock that is overflowing with in-depth essays on all and sundry as well as columns by Michael Chabon, Chip Kidd and others. And, of course, we have saved the best for last: there is an honest-to-God, good-old-fashioned, 16-page, full color comics section, filled with all new work by Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Alison Bechdel, Adrian Tomine, and plenty more. And, as if this weren't already enough, there's a bonus Acme Novelty Library, Rocket Sam cut-out by Chris Ware to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon. Don't miss this vibrant, full-blooded testimonial to the power and glory of newspapers.
ONE complete, bagged copy available.
One of the great allegorical novels of the twentieth century, one which places the car at the center of technologically acculturated concsciousness, Crash is one of the definitive mile-markers of the transition from modernism to post-modernism. A novel in the grand tradition of science fiction cautionary tale, Ballard's clinically precise language is pitch perfect in the creation and presentation of a milleau in which human sexuality is channelled through an eroticization of the automobile in which the act of driving becomes the equivalent of love making which climaxes in collision. (fair warning: during the reading of this book, you may find yourself feeling disoriented and uneasy when you get behind the wheel; driving may become difficult; you may need to pull over and collect yourself; you might have to just get out of the car and walk) As part of a special purchase, we've secured a healthy supply of this excellent UK edition (along with two other classic Ballard texts; see below) that we can now offer at a price so low that there's simply no excuse to put off reading this seminal text any longer.
Ballard's follow-up to Crash, Concrete Island extends the car-as-culture metaphor to include the highway system, in the middle of which we find our protagonists marooned on an island amidst the ceaseless traffic...
Part of a special purchase, we've secured a healthy supply of this excellent UK edition (along with two other classic Ballard texts; see below) that we can now offer at a great price!
Ballard's first major novel, The Drowned World contains a surrealistic - yet frighteningly realistic - portrait of a post-global-warming London and its surrounding environs. Ballard herein provides the first full scale representation of his unique ability to shape stunningly revealing psychological portraits by projecting the interior lives of the novel's protagonists onto the environments in which they find themselves...
This edition includes an interview, reading list, and notes on Ballard and his novels.
notable endorsements:
"Extraordinarily prescient.... Ballard is a prophet."—Philip Pullman
"One of the brightest stars in post-war fiction. This tale of strange and terrible adventure in a world of steaming jungles has an oppressive power reminiscent of Conrad."—Kingsley Amis
"The terrifying thing about Ballard is his logic; is this science fiction or history written ahead of its time?"—Len Deighton
Part of a special purchase, we've secured a healthy supply of this excellent UK edition (along with two other classic Ballard texts; see below) that we can now offer at a great price!
