Earlier this year, faced with some expiring miles from an airline I no longer fly, I exchanged them for a bunch of magazine and newspaper subscriptions. One of them was to The New York Observer, which I find so annoying I’m looking forward to my subscription lapsing so I’ll no longer have to suffer its whiny sense of entitlement.

It’s as if the go-go ’80s never went. Several times an issue I’m tempted to throw the magazine across the room and shout, “Die, yuppie scum!”

Surprisingly, the April 4th issue had a couple of quotes worth sharing, which I never expected. And to show I’m unafraid of exposing my ignorance, I’ll add that they’re both from writers I hadn’t heard of before. I’m assuming that when you hear their names, you’ll think, “Has this guy been living in a cave?” But I’m risking your disapproval anyway.

First, a review of Otherwise Known as the Human Condition by Geoff Dyer contains this quote from that author:

“As the ball hangs there, moon-white against the wall of cloud, everything in the world seems briefly up for grabs and I am seized by two contradictory feelings: There is so much beauty in the world it is incredible that we are ever miserable for a moment; there is so much shit in the world that it is incredible we are ever happy for a moment.”

I happen to be a “Life is a banquet and most poor bastards are starving to death” kind of guy, but still, I found the second half of that passage quite moving.

Later in the issue, Lynne Tillman is quoted in a review of her new short story collection Someday This Will Be Funny:

“I don’t want this backstory business,” Ms. Tillman said. The word “backstory” might as well have been “incest” coming from her mouth. “I just think that’s horrible. I mean, backstory? What are you talking about? So often in writing classes you hear students say to one another, ‘But I’d really like to know more about that character.’ And I have to restrain myself. That’s not the story. You don’t get to know everything about the character. You get to know what’s necessary.”

I couldn’t agree more. Not all questions need to be, or should be, answered. It’s said of performers, you should always leave them wanting more. It should be said of short stories, too.

Anyway, thanks for surprising me, Observer. I hope you can manage to do it again.