The Believer, Issue 114

(Paperback)

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The Believer, a five-time National Magazine Award finalist, is a bimonthly literature, arts, and culture magazine. Thisissue, the annual Music Issue, features Karen Tongson on her namesake, Karen Carpenter, and how theparticular whiteness of the Carpenters' sound took off in the Philippines; Michael Snyder on a territory innortheast India in which contemporary Christian gospel is effecting near totalcultural assimilation; PhillipPantuso on Guyanese songbird smugglers and the "bird races" in Queens that their finches are being trained for;Stephanie Elizondo Griest on dancers who place art above everything else in their lives; and Sandi Rankaduwaon the evolution of female emcees. There will also be (among other things) a special section on unreliablesongwriters; a visual examination of Italo Disco's map to humanity's apotheosis via glitter and robot sex; andinterviews with Enya, the LA Phil's Deborah Borda, punk bassist Mike Watt, rapper and producer Lil B, andlegendary rock muse Bebe Buell.

Reviews

"The Believer... puts out a welcome mat for pluralism and wide-eyed curiosity... decidedly youthful, not only in their characteristic generational concerns--the habit of nonchalantly blending pop culture, literary esoterica and academic theory, for instance, or the unnerving ability to appear at once mocking and sincere--but also in the sense of bravado and grievance that ripples through their pages." --New York Times "It's got people talking in the lofty reaches of the book world, and--with its high-low mix of literary and pop-culture commentary and McSweeney's pedigree--it's a magnet for younger readers." --San Francisco Chronicle "Focusing on the art, not the business, of writing, Believer is smart, jaded and a bit self-indulgent, just like a good literary magazine should be." --Chicago Tribune "An impassioned and sometimes precious magazine that, with its retro typefaces and eccentric illustrations, seemed to revel self-consciously in its identity as printed matter." --Los Angeles Times "Without a doubt, this Believer is heaven-sent." --Washington Post