The Baffler No. 15

Baffling the consensus since 1988, this journal seeks to debunk the ideology of the free market and to drive public discourse in literate and humane directions. Issues contain thundering anti-business salvos from the sharpest minds, as well as poetry, literature, and satirical art.

This fifteenth issue, "Civilization with a Krag," published in 2002, ponders what happens when the mundane things of consumer life--dolls, sports, restaurants, pop music, museums--are given over to the "concept" people to make really big. The results are quintessentially American, and include visits to the Super Bowl, American Girl Place, an Objectivist-owned Chicago hautecuisine joint, and Frank Gehry's McGuggenheim.

Contents:

ESSAYS

Down and Out in the End Zone
Thomas Frank

In the Good Old Wallow Time
Ian Urbina & Chris Toensing

They Live!
Nelson Smith

Making Babies the American Girl® Way
Terri Kapsalis

What About Me?: Memoirs of an Academic Reading Academic Memoirs
Sharon O’Dair

Universal 571: Breaking a Studio's Code
J. D. Connor

Build It and They Will Pay: A Primer on Guggenomics
Andrew Friedman

Charles the Excellent
Martha Bayne

Heat Wave: Death Comes to the City of Extremes
Eric Klinenberg

A Percentage Game
Paul Maliszewski

COLUMNS

THE ROD OF CORRECTION
Cogito Oprah Sum
Chris Lehmann

THE LITERARY VAUDEVILLE
Cop Shoot Cop
Mike Newirth

My Love Is a Free Free Market
Jim Arndorfer

CORDON SANITAIRE
44,000,000 Ronald Reagan Fans Can’t Be Wrong!
Seth Sanders & Mike O’Flaherty

FICTION

Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982
Mahmoud Darwish

Springs
Eileen Myles

POETRY

Columbo in San Cristóbal
David Perry

Junk
Benjamin Friedlander

After Rejection
Chris Stroffolino

Idle Music Is the Devil’s Band
Daniel Bouchard