McSweeney's
I am that two-year-old with an impossible grin
Last night I purchased a subscription to McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. For reasons that I do not yet fully understand I have since become very much excited; excited in the way that a very small child is excited when he is told that there is a shiny present wrapped and waiting for him in the very next room. I am that two-year-old with an impossible grin and pleasantly simple thoughts wringing his hands together and squinting his eyes to the point of total facial distortion, fixated on the moment when the present is placed before his greedy little hands.
There are fuzzy feelings of anticipation and joy at the prospect of holding a well-bound (oh I do so hope it is well-bound), thick bundle of paper with high resolution serif fonts adorning each and every page and the smell of freshly pressed ink wafting off the crisply cut leaves. I am looking forward to what will undoubtedly be inspiration in the art of the short story (issue 10, the first issue I will receive, is "edited by Michael Chabon, includes works by Stephen King, Nick Hornby, Michael Crichton, Neil Gaiman, Elmore Leonard, Glen David Gold, Harlan Ellison, Dan Chaon, Dave Eggers, Sherman Alexie, Aimee Bender, Rick Moody, Jim Shepard, and others").
I see myself anxiously checking the mailbox for the next three weeks, desperately exploring the empty corners for issue 10.