July 23rd, 2018 - Now More Than Ever

Dear TNY,

Just wasted my time with “Now More Than Ever”.  Thanks for that.

Summary:  A Barthelme knockoff which didn’t have the decency to actually honor him by breaking our hearts.  Instead it’s a shitstain of a piece that has a wealthy, elitist mouthfeel that upholds your standard, TNY, of segregating and alienating readers instead of uniting us.

I honestly don’t even know what to say about this kind of thing anymore.  I am certain that you include fiction in your magazine now as a joke.  It’s an internal gaff  to see what you can get away with publishing.  This reminds me of that little girl who was painting modern art and the market that was created around it by buzz.  It wasn’t talent or product, but a bunch of rich white people chittering about talent and product.  And if this isn’t a gaff, then the current state of your fiction is that of an isolated, self-congratulatory circle-jerk. 

Your magazine talks a lot about politics.  Some stories this year had a lot to do with politics.  The U.S’s current political climate is such that the administration is so happy with it’s reflection that it cannot register criticism.  I gather that’s a large part of your frustration with the administraion is that when you levy valid criticism, it’s largely brushed off and you have no voice.  You have no power.  And the administration pats itself on the back and moves the country forward in a direction you disagree with down to your core.  I mean, I think most people who believe in human rights disagree with this direction.  Don’t take me wrong, here.  I disagree with it.  You and I are likely aligned in our frustration with the administration.

What I’m trying to say is that your fiction, and how you are running the show over there, you are the Trump administration of literature.  You’re too busy listening to yourselves to notice that you are fucking up art for everyone else.  But at that, you are doing a good job.  A very good job.  A terrific job.  Everyone is saying it.  The best job.

Lowering the quality of art just lowers the quality of humanity.  You will only be remembered as an organization that brought shame to an era of literature.

You don’t have to do this.  You could, instead, change history and respect the art more than yourself or the populous.

I don’t have a lot of hope, though.  You've been deaf for a very long time.

Until next time when you break my heart by flushing a thing that I love down the fucking toilet,

Nick