travel reading

Andrew Sullivan has got to be the most persuasive essayist around. His essay against hate crime legislation from the 1999 Best American had me convinced against my better judgment. His recent pro-Obama essay in The Atlantic is almost as convincing. Esp. his salient points about how much seeing his name (Barack Hussein Obama) and face on a TV screen might offer us hope for connectedness in the International community where we've managed to alienate ourselves so thoroughly. But, honestly, I couldn't help wondering how much Obama's face matters to Sullivan in another way, and smelling the most well-masked misogyny in his comments about Hillary...

Also, the New Yorker's publishing of Ray Carver's original draft of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" along with his correspondence with Gordon Lish about the edits was fascinating. He cut nearly 40% of the manuscript. It made me think about the art of editing; Lish really found the core of the story and chiseled it down until it meant something. It was really a collaboration.