When the band broke apart, I cleaned up and moved back in with my mother. I got a job as a substitute teacher. One period I might be covering a history class, the next running a chemistry lab. I was grateful to the student who said, "Mr. Lipsyte, I really think you should wear protective goggles during this experiment." I was not as grateful to the one who said, "My dad told me all subs are losers."
Not all subs, I thought, but quite possibly me. I was eager, in fact, for a quiet, unambitious existence, a long, boring, soul-mending sojourn. I didn't foresee that two events would infuse this period with an intensity I haven't quite known since.
First came a phone call from Gordon Lish, the famous fiction editor. I'd received encouraging rejections from his magazine in college, but I'd lost my drive and nerve for writing fiction. Now I began to rediscover it, and after I sent in a new story he offered me a spot in a private seminar that some considered a cult. I had already attended twelve-step meetings and they'd helped me, so I figured there were good cults and bad cults. My mother, a journalist and a novelist, had reservations about the class, but also seemed happy that somebody had taken an interest in her no-longer-so-promising son.
Esta historia es de la edición July 10 - 17, 2023 (Double Issue) de The New Yorker.
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Esta historia es de la edición July 10 - 17, 2023 (Double Issue) de The New Yorker.
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BADDIE ISSUES
\"Wicked\" and \"Gladiator II.\"
LET'S MAKE A DEAL
\"Death Becomes Her\" and \"Burnout Paradise.\"
ANTI HEROES
\"The Franchise,\" on HBO.
FELLOW-TRAVELLERS
The surprisingly sunny origins of the Frankfurt School.
NOW YOU SEE ME
John Singer Sargent's strange, slippery portraits of an art dealer's family.
PARIS FRIEND - SHUANG XUETAO
Xiaoguo had a terror of thirst, so he kept a glass of water on the table beside his hospital bed. As soon as it was empty, he asked me to refill it. I wanted to warn him that this was unhealthy - guzzling water all night long puts pressure on the kidneys, and pissing that much couldn't be good for his injury. He was tall, though, so I decided his insides could probably cope.
WILD SIDE
Is Lake Tahoe's bear boom getting out of hand?
GETTING A GRIP
Robots learn to use their hands.
WITHHOLDING SEX FROM MY WIFE
In the wake of [the] election, progressive women, who are outraged over Donald Trump's victory at the ballot box, have taken to social media with public, vengeful vows of chastity. - The Free Press.
DEADLINE EXTENSION
Old age, reborn.