From a particular vantage, it's easy to assume that modern life is lonesome, aesthetically horrifying, and extremely uncool: energy drinks, vape pens, virtual reality, twenty-four-hour news, online banking, Bluetooth, airport sandwiches, omnipresent social anxiety. Believing otherwise-engaging in any sort of willful hedonism, or submitting to the notion that pleasure is a serious pursuit and joy is still abundant-has come to feel nearly irresponsible. (Fun? In this economy?) Much has already been made of the phenomenon of young people having less sex, and struggling more with depression; it's natural, some days, to worry that we have collectively lost touch with a fundamental sense of exuberance.
This story is from the October 23, 2023 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 23, 2023 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH TECHNOLOGY ABRIDGED TOO FAR
The world according to Blinkist.
ANNALS OF INQUIRY WAIT FOR IT
Suspense in literature and life.
A REPORTER AT LARGE YOU MAKE ME SICK
How corporate scientists discovered—and then helped to conceal—the dangers of forever chemicals.
AGE OF ANXIETY
The love songs of Billie Eilish.
THE CURRENT CINEMA APOCALYPSE WHEN
“Megalopolis.”
Thataway Thomas McGuane
The two sisters were growing old now, but they went on gazing toward Palm Springs from this windblown prairie town as though to Mecca.
THE THEATRE - PHOTO REALISM
Moisés Kaufman's Here There Are Blueberries.”
FAMILY PORTRAIT
In his latest novel, Garth Risk Hallberg shrinks his frame.
EYES UP HERE
The perils and pleasures of a nice rack.
A CRITIC AT LARGE SAY THE WORD
Why liberals struggle to defend liberalism.
