Volume2 NQI

As Baj}1er 18 went to press they were setting out the Christmas book display at the Kansas City Costco, a retail bazaar v1·hose parking lot occupies the site of the city's last jazz club. We never enter this particular Costco without thoughts about mortality, about what had to disappear in order to make its amazing bargains possible, and this time its Christmas book display - with its shiny piles of mass market wisdom, vampires, and comely vice presidential candidates served to heighten the somber mood. Outside, the world of letters was dying from the bottom up, as newspapers, magazines, bookstores, and perhaps, not too long from now, even book publishing itself discover that there is no conceivable business model that will support the production of quality prose.

But in side, the Glenn Beck books were selling briskly . Shoppers were giving the gift of whole some paranoia this year. Here was Glenn dressed up like one of the commies who have supposedly in!iltrat ed our government. Glenn bearing mes sages from the heartland. Even a Glenn Beck Christmas book, a new tradition for your family. Here it was, the second holiday season of Lhe recession, and a ll across the decaying, dying Mid west. families would soon be gathering round the hearth and swapping theories about hO\\' those schem ing liberals ha ve done us in .

And maybe Glenn Beck is right about the impend ing end of the republic. Maybe it is just a matter of time until Beckiana and its all ied genres are the on ly sort of material that our system !inds it can publish pro!itably. Maybe all the work we have done to revive ll1e Baffler a ll the weeks of editing and copy ed iting and proofreading has been for naught. Maybe publishing is as practical a way of sharing ideas as dumping print outs from the cargo door of a DC 3. We headed home for a glass of Old Charter to mull it over.

Copyright 20 10 , The Baffler Literary Magazine, In c. [ISBN 0 -56698 56859 9] No part of this magazine may be republished in print or electronica lly without the express written permission of the publisher.

ll1is issue of 'llw Bo/.)1er was assembled in December 2009 in Chicago. Washington and New York after having been painstakingly ghostwritten by Bill Ayers. ll1e magazine was designed by 'll1e Map Office, New York City, and printed by Shapco Printing !ne, Minneapolis, Minnesota. ll1omas Geoghegan, \\'e are proud to report, is the first Baj]ler politburo member ever to run for t;.S. Congress. Sadly. the Democrats of Illinois' Fifth Congressional District chose to anoint someone else. ll1e nation's loss is our gain. however. as Tom will now ha1·e more time to toil in our ven· 011'11 editorial salt mine.

The list of pcopl<.: that we have to thank for helping us revive Tite Ba./}ler is so long this lime that we can't possi bly hope to remember everyone. But here goes: The Baj]1er \\'ishes to thank Debi Bergcrson and her cohort at Shapco: Phoebe Connelly; Ben Edwards; Charlotte Fairlie: Josh Glenn; "Uptown" Mark Grcif and Ali Heifetz; Hunter Kcnnedy; Brad Kotler and the team at Latham & Watkins; Le\\'iS Lapham: Shana Lutker: Rick MacArthur: Jeremy ~IcCarter: Ben ~Ietcalf: Robert Nedelkoff; lames 'jus; Jennifer 'orback; Eddie Opara and Salvador Orara at ·n1e Map Office: Dan Peterman and Connie Spreen; Me lanic Raucci at Disticor: Rich Schaefer: Joe Spieler; Rick Wojcik; Lastly, Brankica Kovrlija desen·es a special mention. 1l1e doughnuts are on us.

ll1c essay by llenry Fair li e was first published by l11e \Vashingronl'osr on July 27, 1980, under the title. "Menck en's Booboisic In Control of GOP." It is reprinted here by kind permission of the estate of Henry Fairlie.

A different version of the essa\· bv Waiter Benn Michaels \\'as published in Bookforum in 2009 under the title. "Going Boom."

Thanks to Peter Gi77i and Ke1·in Killian for permitting us to print "Exercise" and "untitled," by the late, great Jack Spicer.

?7w Baffler invites submissions oi essays, reviews. fiction, found documents and other interesting writin g. Sorry, no poetry submissions will be considered. Send subm is sions or proposals to: submissions@ thebaftler.com. and IITite your surname and "essay" or "fiction" or "review." as the case may be, in the subject line oft he e mail. Those who submit longish nonfiction pieces wou ld do well to include a precis of a paragraph or so in thee mail.