THE BELIEVER OCTOBER 2004
After a half decade away The Believer has returned home to McSweeney’s. To celebrate the momentous occasion, we’ve dug through our archives and found an extremely limited number of classic and timeless issues for your purchasing pleasure. Once these are gone, they’re gone forever.
The Insurgency in Iraq—A Tutorial in Four Ordnance-Filled Lessons
by Charles Duhigg
A journalist’s brushes with the Iraqi insurgency inspire a primer in the science of guerrilla warfare.
FULL TEXT
Let There Be Darkness
by William Giraldi
In which the phrase “read it and weep” is transformed from blithe sarcasm to earnest advice.
H. P. Lovecraft: Against Nature, Against Life
by Michel Houellebecq
The first appearance in English of Houellebecq’s appreciation of Lovecraft, “the supreme antidote against all forms of reason.”
FULL TEXT
A Soldier Upon a Hard Campaign
by Chris Bachelder
On satire, Upton Sinclair’s astonishing deployment of exclamation points, and the possibilities of politically engaged writing.
The Gloriously Irresponsible Career of Scott Bradfield
by Benjamin Strong
Scott Bradfield’s psychotic child prodigies and malaise-
The Insurgency in Iraq—A Tutorial in Four Ordnance-Filled Lessons
by Charles Duhigg
A journalist’s brushes with the Iraqi insurgency inspire a primer in the science of guerrilla warfare.
FULL TEXTLet There Be Darkness
by William Giraldi
In which the phrase “read it and weep” is transformed from blithe sarcasm to earnest advice.
H. P. Lovecraft: Against Nature, Against Life
by Michel Houellebecq
The first appearance in English of Houellebecq’s appreciation of Lovecraft, “the supreme antidote against all forms of reason.”
FULL TEXTA Soldier Upon a Hard Campaign
by Chris Bachelder
On satire, Upton Sinclair’s astonishing deployment of exclamation points, and the possibilities of politically engaged writing.
The Gloriously Irresponsible Career of Scott Bradfield
by Benjamin Strong
Scott Bradfield’s psychotic child prodigies and malaise-
ridden dogs have something to tell us about the narcotizing ordinariness of modern life.
John Kerry
interviewed by ZZ Packer
The candidate on improving health care, education, the tax code, the unemployment rate, the prison system, and the rest of the world, too.
FULL TEXT
Michael Bell
interviewed by Matthew Derby
Goths at the mall and Dracula aren’t vampires. Vampires are just rotting corpses who kill their kin while still lying inside their coffins.
Janet Malcolm
interviewed by Daphne Beal
The author of The Journalist and the Murderer on the rhetoric of email and the betrayal of the interview subject.
John Kerry
interviewed by ZZ Packer
The candidate on improving health care, education, the tax code, the unemployment rate, the prison system, and the rest of the world, too.
FULL TEXTMichael Bell
interviewed by Matthew Derby
Goths at the mall and Dracula aren’t vampires. Vampires are just rotting corpses who kill their kin while still lying inside their coffins.
Janet Malcolm
interviewed by Daphne Beal
The author of The Journalist and the Murderer on the rhetoric of email and the betrayal of the interview subject.
David Lodge’s Author, Author and Colm Tóibín’s The Master
reviewed by Jeff Alexander
Lindsay Ahl’s Desire
reviewed by Amanda Stern
Stephen Amidon’s Human Capital
reviewed by Heidi Julavits
China Miéville’s Iron Council
reviewed by Christopher Byrd
Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty
reviewed by Dan Johnson
Teen: Daniel (and Marcus, in absentia)
by T Cooper
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
by Nick Hornby
Seksopolis
by Milana Vukovi? Runji?
Factory: Fábrica de Muñecas Yoruba
by Monica Ferrell
Underway
by Various
Nashville Rascail Sprots R’prot: a new poem
by David Berman
Schema: Election Day Flowchart
by Neil Freeman
Four-Color Comics: “Gangway for Murder, Pt. V”
by Michael Kupperman
reviewed by Jeff Alexander
Lindsay Ahl’s Desire
reviewed by Amanda Stern
Stephen Amidon’s Human Capital
reviewed by Heidi Julavits
China Miéville’s Iron Council
reviewed by Christopher Byrd
Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty
reviewed by Dan Johnson
Teen: Daniel (and Marcus, in absentia)
by T Cooper
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
by Nick Hornby
Seksopolis
by Milana Vukovi? Runji?
Factory: Fábrica de Muñecas Yoruba
by Monica Ferrell
Underway
by Various
Nashville Rascail Sprots R’prot: a new poem
by David Berman
Schema: Election Day Flowchart
by Neil Freeman
Four-Color Comics: “Gangway for Murder, Pt. V”
by Michael Kupperman