n+1 Seven Years Later: A Narrative In Progress
In their inaugural issue, the founding editors of n+1 declared “The idea of progress is not uncomfortable to us.” This is evident because, despite the fact that many of the founding editors have published books and some have moved on to other things, the original mission of engagement in political issues as well as literature and other things of cultural import is still flourishing. The n+1 Research Collective (which was singled out in The L Magazine’s Best of Brooklyn issue for “reminding us of the aggression and joy necessary for revolt”) is a prime example of how the magazine is diversifying into different places of influence. And the sign that I saw when I entered, the minimalist cool fraud bro on cardboard, had been taken down to 55 Wall Street the day before for the one year anniversary of the Occupy movement.
Tortorici had carried the sign down to the Financial District and when I asked her about how she’s seen n+1 develop, she told me, “There’s always been a dual concern for literature and things of literary value and also political issues and providing deeper political analysis and not just newsbeat stuff and i think that those things are still really integral to the magazine. You can still see those two elements bound by humor and thoughtfulness, but what constitutes the literary aspect and what the politics in question are, depend on the people who are writing and editing.”
Tortorici further pointed out that, “The reputation [of the magazine] is really outdated because of this big press moment…and people didn’t keep up with the brand. People forget that magazines are the products of the minds who work for it. So the integrity of the product is still there but it’s composed of different parts.”
When I had spoken on the phone to editor Nikil Saval, who lives in Philadelphia now but has been involved with the magazine since 2005, he told me that one of the most appealing things about n+1 was that it “felt like a separate intellectual space, like a university but not as institutional and doesn’t cost as much money. It feels more intense than school. It has an insurgence identity.”