The Guy Who Ran McSweeney’s Wants To Re-Teach Us How To Read, Using An App

“This might all sound very precious, or very insufferable. But Horowitz is used to people feeling that way: It’s the same sort of criticism that’s long been levied at McSweeney’s, the indie publishing organization that Horowitz ran for the better part of a decade. The cabins expand upon the aggressively twee style that made McSweeney’s publications into bookshelf fixtures in Brooklyn studios and dorm rooms across the land, but the work Horowitz does in those cabins is anything but stale.”

Is Satire Legitimate If It’s Not Directed Against The Powerful?

Siddhartha Deb: “Without principles beyond that of pushing the boundaries of what one has the right to say – and without empathy and engagement with the diversity of the world in which we live – all satire can reliably do is add to a sense of outrage, the one universal quality we still have in common.”
James Parker: “Satire, to do its moral work, must itself be more or less moral. And the law is this: Broadly speaking, if it strikes upward, outward or inward, it’s satire, if it strikes downward, it’s bullying.”

Is Graffiti Art Or Isn’t It?

“While the end result – graffiti – can be seen as a pain in the backside for the authorities, arguably a blight on communal areas, the perpetrators, consciously or unconsciously, question long-accepted norms about how our cities and spaces should be used.”

Hollywood’s Hole In The Middle, Where Oscars Are Born

“In pursuit of global audiences and trying to combat the arrival of mammoth flat-screen televisions in America’s living rooms, Hollywood has steered sharply toward event movies. The likes of ‘Spectre,’ ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Hunger Game’” work so hard to get people into theaters — and make the 3-D tickets and costly concessions palatable — that consumers just can’t be bothered to check out the more modest offerings. They will catch those on their enormous televisions.”