n+1 Seven Years Later: A Narrative In Progress
It has been seven years since A.O. Scott published, “Among the Believers,” a profile of the literary magazines n+1 and The Believer. At the time, n+1—founded by Keith Gessen, Mark Greif, Benjamin Kunkel, Chad Harbach, and Roth—was in the process of putting out its third issue and was still operating out of the apartment that Gessen and Harbach shared. The attention that n+1 garnered from the article was, in a sense, a break from the storyline, but not something that threw the whole narrative out of whack. Looking back from the distance of seven years, it is actually remarkable how the magazine has maintained its integrity, even while growing both in size and reputation.
And maybe a quick word about that reputation? In his article, Scott characterized any negative perception of n+1 as being due to the fact that “[f]or n+1, the index of seriousness is thought for its own sake, which can sanction an especially highhanded form of intellectual arrogance.” And, also, that the magazine answered “a demand for seriousness that cuts against ingrained generational habits of flippancy and prankishness.”
In other words, more pictures of puppies, please, and less talk about Houellebecq.
Only, no. Any accusations that the editors and writers at n+1 are self-serious seem to only come from people who are afraid of being serious at all. It is almost as if something is wrong, or boastful, about having our identities be identical with who we really are.
I had run into founding editor Mark Greif and editor Carla Blumenkranz on the way to BookCourt because everyone seems to work in DUMBO and so we all rode the F train together to Bergen Street. It was cold on the train and crowded, the kind of crowded that ought to make you feel hot and oppressed, but because the subway’s air conditioner was blasting, we all just felt cold and oppressed. Greif commented that if it weren’t for all the people on the train, we’d probably all be covered in icicles. Greif is funny and charming and is the one posed like Socrates in the iconic group photo that accompanied the Times article. He and I stood outside BookCourt for a bit before the reading, before the rain really started, and talked about conscientious objectors and grandparents and the Bobby Womack song “Across 110th Street” settling into the kind of easy, wide-ranging conversation Greif seems expert at, serious, but not self-serious.