Why We Need McSweeney’s

I had planned to write this piece on creative book texts a la Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, assuming I would have read the aforementioned book by this time. I’m actually halfway through Infinite Jest and still a few weeks from Leaves, but when I get tired of holding the giant book on my lap I’ve been reading issues of McSweeney’s Quarterly. So this will instead be focused on why I think McSweeney’s- as a quarterly and publishing house- is necessary as a model for the future of publishing.

Not that I assume one publishing house is going to carry the fate of hand-held paper reading devices in its very clever hands. But instead of making itself available on the iPad a day earlier than normal distribution (I’m looking at you, New Yorker) or dumbing down and talking about Twilight, McSweeney’s keeps expanding. And expanding in very esoteric channels: they just started a food journal called Lucky Peach. Some people might roll their eyes, say it’s too “cute”, or ask what a food journal is. But at least their expansion still includes creativity.

As a young adult from the suburbs who looked towards NYC and romanticized going to loft parties and eating ramen noodles out of bowls bought at corner thrift stores, I don’t claim to be very original in getting giddy over McSweeney’s. Founded in 1998 by Dave Eggers, McSweeney’s publishes the quarterly (officially named Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern), the humor site McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the monthly magazine the Believer, the quarterly DVD Wholphin, and books by writers new and established. The books are of fiction, art, comics, nonfiction, the Voice of Witness series, humor, journals, and poetry to come. The website proclaims that McSweeney’s is “committed to publishing exciting fiction regardless of pedigree.”

Despite promoting new writers and offering nonprofit tutoring and writing workshops at 826 National (flagship in San Francisco and organizations in 7 other cities), a lot of what McSweeney’s publishes is aimed at an audience with some level of “pedigree.” They are written for people who like to capitalize Literature, or read the New York Times Sunday Book Review, or who haven’t heard of 7 out of the 10 top-selling mass market paperbacks this week. It is these types of people who pay $50 to get 4 DVDs of odd films and clips. But unlike publications which market exclusively to those who raise eyebrows easily, McSweeney’s creates quirky covers, accepts off-beat pitches for book concepts, and has printed more than one reference book on animals by a “Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey.”

The jokiness becomes art while keeping art from getting too serious. Why do great short stories have to be read between two stock covers in solid colors, and not in tiny booklets kept in a box that looks like a large sweaty man’s head (McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern Issue 36)? I don’t think that everything published by Literary establishments is fantastic, or that everything with a flashy cover is terrible. There will always be, of course, some alienation of readers on preferences- I haven’t even brought up genre fiction- but I think that if literariness is going to survive, it can’t be so darn literary all the time.

Back from pontifications, I’m going to tell you why I like the Quarterly Concern, in particular. For one, I have a subscription and so receive them whether or not I like them. Before receiving said subscription, I would just buy issues that I found interesting (McSweeney’s Issue 31 includes stories in genres you’ve never heard of before, and is a personal favorite). This is a pretty normal way of purchasing things; however, with a McSweeney’s subscription, you don’t really know what you’ll get next. It’s generally short fiction and they put it up on the website a few weeks before it arrives, but exactly how this fiction will be packaged is never the same. McSweeney’s Issue 36 was the box, Issue 35 had that kind of ink that changes color when your sweaty palm heats it up.

I’ve been told that there are more short stories published today, that readership is declining, that people are reading more short stories, and that people are using Kindles and Nooks. You can read almost any short story online, or on an e-reader, but you can’t read a copy of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern on any electronic device. Long before such technology was possible, McSweeney’s was creating books that relied on the fact that they are objects. Issue 17 is a bundle pack of mail, Issue 24 has a Z-binding; many issues contain fold-outs, special artwork, odd included material. It’s engaging and clever without being too cute, because at the end of the day each issue includes really great stories. I’m hoping to get another subscription as an early birthday present, and have been buying old issues as they go on sale at the site, attempting to collect all of the ones still in print.

The Believer is a more traditional magazine in that it includes long essays on interesting topics, but the odd physicality of it (the pages are thicker than a regular book’s, there are colored lines and small pictures inside) makes it more enjoyable to read while on your couch than at your desk. I’ve read Read Hard, a collection of some of the best articles from the Believer, and one piece is on the importance of aquariums. That would probably never make it into the national weekly magazines, but it was important and well-written, and there needs to be a place for that in the publishing world.

I lend out McSweeney’s to people who never read short stories or who don’t know of McSweeney’s and get mixed reviews somewhere between “I don’t get it” and “I need to get many more of these.” I haven’t fallen in love with everything McSweeney’s has published (doubt I will be reading Lucky Peach) and I don’t own many of their books, but I want it to stick around. I want there to be an outlet for a book called Baby Do My Banking alongside a book with the description; “What would happen if Donald Rumsfeld, former defense secretary and architect of the war on terror, was abducted at night from his Maryland home, held without charges in his own prison system, denied a trial, and kept in a place where no one could find him, beyond the reach of the law? “ I don’t get excited about new books or new bands in quit the same way that I get excited about new McSweeney’s products, whether or not I want to/can buy them. Hopefully this will get somebody else excited about more McSweeney’s stuff, too.  You should borrow some, buy some, enjoy them, and then if it’s not too much trouble buy some for me, too.  Now if you’ll excuse me I need to laugh at some Internet Tendancies.