annotations: dangerous sport, drunken revelry, what could go wrong
Nick Paumgarten goes to the Alps; gig economy / freelancing blues; and other things I read
This is annotations, a newsletter in which I annotate a story every two weeks and also do other stuff.
annotations usually comes out on Fridays. Here is what I have to say to you: as of this send time, it’s still Friday on the West Coast!!
annotated: “The Wild Carnival at the Heart of Skiing’s Most Dangerous Race” by Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker
Photograph by Immo Klink for The New Yorker
Sorry to be boring by annotating another New Yorker feature, but what can I say, they know what they’re doing over there!!
This story by Nick Paumgarten is about a very dangerous race in skiing that I had never heard of and had no interest in—until I started reading.
The story is fairly linear, taking place over the few days of the event (although there is some jumping back and forth to set up back story and finish off arcs in displays of omniscience, which is pretty playful and effective here). At its core, this is of the “go to an unusual event and write about the experience” genre, although obviously extensively reported, with a lot of background, and some additional narrative interest thanks to the development of what I consider three main characters (Paumgarten, Maple, McBride).
Paumgarten is a funny narrator and an excellent writer, with descriptions and analogies that I have genuinely never even considered before. His necessary bouts of exposition, too, boast remarkable clarity. All in all, a fun read.
HERE ARE MY ANNOTATIONS. (As always, comments are open, so please comment and annotate and reply to each other, I love a Google doc party!!)
you annotated
A sharp reader annotation about visuals from the previous newsletter, c/o great human being David Yee:
(ty anyone who contributed; trying out this new section, so I guess keep annotating for a shout out lol)
read
“My Cousin Was My Hero. Until the Day He Tried to Kill Me.” [NYT Magazine]
One of the most interesting stories about a plant—knotweed, specifically—I’ve read. [Slate]
Chasing the aurora borealis. [The New Yorker]
I’m not sure I can think of another writer quite like Sarah Miller out there right now. Case in point: “What if you are a fucking bitch?” [Popula]
This is a very good (fictional) story. [The New Yorker]
Apple’s goddamn Lightning to headphone jack dongle keeps breaking (ctrl+f “hang up” to read an accurate description of my experience) and I keep having to replace it so I finally gave up and just ordered fucking AirPods and then I read this piece about why AirPods are an immortal tragedy and uuurgGHH. [Motherboard]
Fascinating: She was the “queen of the mommy bloggers.” Then her life fell apart. [Vox]
John DeVore on robocalls (and more). [Medium]
The Airbnb invasion of Barcelona: “Airbnb promises to let visitors ‘live like a local,’ but […] its users generally have in mind a specific kind of local: someone who lives just as the visitors do back home.” [The New Yorker]
From February: How Yelp Elite gave way to Instagram food influencers, who will eventually give way to … ??? I look forward to the food asshole’s next craven evolution. [Eater]
navel gazed
I think what is most interesting about that New Republic essay on the increasingly terrible plight of freelancers in journalism (there is a counterpoint here about a freelancer who chooses self-employment over staff positions) is seeing how many writers immediately reacted by organizing themselves into three different camps.
The first camp was largely positive.
The other two were negative, owing to a key difference of opinion. I’ll forgive one of these for what I’ll read generously as a fundamental misunderstanding of genre—or, ungenerously, as a critique that smacks of some measure of performative moral righteousness—by insisting that a personal essay (in which the author already acknowledges his own privilege and limited world view, while using that empirical experience to reflect upon larger themes, as personal essays often do) be rewritten as a … reported piece?
It was even funnier to observe the other negative camp, whose responses were fairly predictable, albeit still disappointing. This consisted primarily of successful (white) (female) journalists who read a contemplation of structural brokenness and proceeded to dole out variations on “suck it up and hustle harder like I did, talk to me again when your fingers have been worn down to the bone from spending every waking moment TYPING.” (Remember when it was revealed that Amy Klobuchar was a terrible boss who regularly humiliated her staff, and several ostensibly feminist women countered that she should get a pass because men get to be abusive all the time, rather than say everyone please can we all agree not to hurl objects at our staff? Same “bootstraps”-reminiscent reactionary impulse cloaked in #empowerment tripe.)
Anyway, here are some tweets:
wrote
The best videos on TikTok are of these guys in rural China who forage for ingredients and use actual ROCKS and STREAMS and OTHER NATURAL ELEMENTS to cook meals. (It is unfortunate that the tweets/videos I embedded no longer exist, as Kang has deleted his Twitter, but you can watch all of the original TikToks here.) [Eater]
I went to a Taco Bell “hiring party” and walked away with a lot of conflicting feelings?? [Eater]
Hmm may have lost my mind and written the most uncalled-for work of fiction to ever called. If you do not care for the words, fine, but please at least admire my Photoshop handiwork!!! [Eater]
Wow that was long! Thank you! See you in two weeks!