We're back and looking for submissions

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Now that summer is over and we're just starting to get into the fall, we are now accepting submissions for the 2014-2015 edition of West 10th. We accept poetry, prose, and visual art submissions (keep in mind your visual art must be translatable into print, so please don't send us your sculpture maybe just send us a picture of your sculpture instead).Send your work to west10th.submissions@gmail.com by the end of the day on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5th.Some things to remember:1. You may submit up to 3 poems, 5,000 words of prose, or 6 images.2. All poetry and prose submissions must be in .doc or .docx format. We are unable to accept PDF and .pages documents.3. Fill out a submission form (see below) and attach it with your submission as a word document NOT a jpeg.4. All art submissions must be at least 8 inches on the longest side at a resolution of 300dpi. Check this information using Photoshop > Image > Image Size. Feel free to include a title for each image. Please keep in mind that all the art featured in West 10th is printed in black and white.Download the submission form here:2014-2015West10thSubmissionForm

Join the 2014-15 Editorial Board!

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Applications are now open for the 2014-2015 Editorial Board!We are seeking to fill positions on the poetry, prose, and art boards. We are also seeking copy-editors.Please direct all questions and completed applications to west10th.submissions@gmail.com. Applications are due by the end of the day on Sunday, May 25th. Please download and complete the appropriate application. Feel free to apply to more than one position! Copy-editors, please complete the copy-editing test in addition to complete your application.Please do not apply to the board if you are graduating in December 2014. This is a full-year commitment.Poetry & Prose ApplicationArt ApplicationCopy-editor appCopy-edit test

2014 Release Party & Reading

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Please join us for a reading and reception on Friday, April 4th at 7:00 PM to celebrate the launch of the 2014 edition of West 10th! 

There will be a featured reading by Tao Lin, and readings from the undergraduate contributors to the journal.

There will also be free copies of this year's edition, free West 10th tote bags, and refreshments. We hope to see you there! 

Check out our Facebook event for more info, including a list of undergraduate contributors:

https://www.facebook.com/events/477922638975553/?context=create&source=49

 

Leonard's Longing

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I originally encountered Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing when I went to see a performance at Toronto’s Luminato festival in 2007 in which composer Philip Glass set 23 poems from Cohen’s work to music. It was the songs that peaked my interest but it was the book itself that fastened me in Cohen’s haunting and melodic world from start to finish.

 

Published in 2006, Book of Longing is Cohen’s most recent and, in my opinion, most polished collection. The hoards of women that populate his earlier work with gritty romance and an unflinching sexual consciousness are present. As is the sage wisdom of the Zen and Buddhist teachings that informed his later work (such as the meditation poetry in Book of Mercy).

 

The revelations are simple but it is the acute self-awareness coupled with his dry wit that make this book exceptional. They aren’t the stale and molding sentiments of an aging ladies’ man.  He writes from the top of a mountain both literally and figuratively. Literally, in the sense that many of the poems were written on Mt. Baldy in California where Cohen spent time studying Buddhism and meditation at the monastery there. Figuratively, in the sense that he stands upon a mountain of work and experience. Cohen shows us that the view from the top is peaceful, perceptive and uniquely free of condescension. At almost 80 years old Leonard Cohen has something else to say.

 

This is my favorite poem from the collection. Cohen later adapted it into a song but this is the original version from Book of Longing.

 

THOUSAND KISSES DEEP by Leonard Cohen

for Sandy 1945-1998

 

1.

You came to me this morning

And you handled me like meat

You'd have to be a man to know

How good that feels how sweet

My mirror twin my next of kin

I'd know you in my sleep

And who but you would take me in

A thousand kisses deep

 

I loved you when you opened

Like a lily to the heat

I'm just another snowman

Standing in the rain and sleet

Who loved you with his frozen love

His second-hand physique

With all he is and all he was

A thousand kisses deep

 

I know you had to lie to me

I know you had to cheat

To pose all hot and high behind

The veils of sheer deceit

Our perfect porn aristocrat

So elegant and cheap

I'm old but I'm still into that

A thousand kisses deep

 

And I'm still working with the wine

Still dancing cheek to cheek

The band is playing Auld Lang Syne

The heart will not retreat

I ran with Diz and Dante

I never had their sweep

But once or twice they let me play

A thousand kisses deep

 

The autumn slipped across your skin

Got something in your eye

A light that doesn't need to live

And doesn't need to die

A riddle in the book of love

Obscure and obsolete

Till witnessed here in time and blood

A thousand kisses deep

 

I'm good at love I'm good at hate

It's in between I freeze

Been working out but it's too late

It's been too late for years

But you look fine you really do

The pride of Boogie Street

Somebody must have died for you

A thousand kisses deep

 

I loved you when you opened

Like a lily to the heat

I'm just another snowman

Standing in the rain and sleet

But you don't need to hear me now

And every word I speak

It counts against me anyhow

A thousand kisses deep

 

2.

The ponies run the girls are young

The odds are there to beat

You win a while and then it's done

Your little winning streak

And summoned now to deal

With your invincible defeat

You live your life as if it's real

A thousand kisses deep

 

I'm turning tricks I'm getting fixed

I'm back on Boogie Street

You lose your grip and then you slip

Into the Masterpiece

And maybe I had miles to drive

And promises to keep

You ditch it all to stay alive

A thousand kisses deep

 

Confined to sex we pressed against

The limits of the sea

I saw there were no oceans left

For scavengers like me

I made it to the forward deck

I blessed our remnant fleet

And then consented to be wrecked

A thousand kisses deep

 

I'm turning tricks, I'm getting fixed

I'm back on Boogie Street

I guess they won't exchange the gifts

That you were meant to keep

And sometimes when the night is slow

The wretched and the meek

We gather up our hearts and go

A thousand kisses deep

 

And fragrant is the thought of you

The file on you complete

Except what we forgot to do

A thousand kisses deep

 

-Rebecca Pecaut, Poetry Editor

What Would I Say?

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If any of you have ever taken a creative writing class, I'm sure that you've encountered at least one writing prompt.  And if you've been writing for any amount of time longer than a week, I'm sure you've started to notice patterns in your work.  I, for instance, write a lot of stories that end up being about my dad, or poems that all have something to do with flowers or wings or the sky.  There's nothing wrong with that, but I've come to find that trying out a new prompt every so often can do something interesting to your work.

 

But reading your pieces to a room full of people who have all done the exact same prompt can be a little bit weird, and maybe some of the prompts simply aren't clicking with you.  Perhaps you're feeling competitive or self-conscious about your work.  Which is why I think it's nice to try using one on your own.  Of course, there's the done-to-pieces eavesdropping prompt or the erasure.  We've all tried to retell well-known stories or personify something we've found on the street.  But the crazy thing about creating your own prompts is that, in a sense, you have an unlimited amount of freedom in regards to the restrictions that you set for yourself (If you really want to see how far you can stretch some of these exercises, check out A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)tics by CAConrad, which is definitely worth a read). 

 

Regardless, today I figured I would come up with a prompt of my own and then write a poem using it.  For the past couple of weeks, I've seen a website called What Would I Say? (http://what-would-i-say.com/) blowing up my Facebook's newsfeed.  The website is a good bit of fun—it searches through your entire profile's history to randomly generate a phrase that you might say.  The results are often nonsensical or grammatically incorrect, but still, I figured that they would provide perfect fodder for a poem.  I decided that I would generate twenty random phrases and then write a poem using strong elements of at least five of the phrases.  The following list is the content that I drew, which is amusing to say the least:

 

1. Can anyone find the bathtub?

2. I know the women at the college of free food.

3. And E. 12th Street isn't every day.

4. She loves men again.

5. Has been my default answer to just about everything.

6. Call my name as the sky pulls me

7. The cash register was laughing at me.

8. Still not awake in humanity.

9. The crocodile is just trying to mess with us.

10. There's teachers lurking about.

11. Well, I caught a creeper somewhere.

12. Until, you know, I was a SNES.

13. I LOVE EATING PINK PLAY DOH.

14. Will you wake me up?

15. A conveyor belt of a lot of fellow voicemails.

16. It's a trick, a shadow on the foreign girl's argument.

17. Last day of all time.

18. I probably forgot that the giant peach does the wax for you.

19. Thank you, I got there by myself?

20. I ate all of the wild things last October.

 

 

So, here's what I came up with:

The Monster Doesn't Live under My Bed Anymore

 

 

 

The monster doesn't live under my bed anymore.

This morning, he, or she, (I'm still not sure) woke me up

by saying Can anyone find the bathtub?

 

I rolled over, and he or she just said, The crocodile

is probably just trying to mess with us again.  Honestly, I preferred

when he (I've decided it's a he) still scared the shit out of me,

all purple claws and questionable eyes.

 

I'm going to eat the whole conveyor belt full of little voicemails!

she said (I don't want to offend anyone by assuming that the monster

is a he).  I'm going to eat all of them!

 

There's teachers lurking about, I said, which wasn't true,

but the monster nodded in agreement.  I LOVE EATING PINK

PLAY-DOH, it said, while it spilled glitter all over the floor.

I ate every wild thing last October.

 

Don't you want to move back under the bed, I said,

and the monster, still not awake in his or her humanity,

didn't do anything but burp and lick the glitter off one of its still tiny nails,

and say,

 

Well, I know the women at the college of free food, I guess, and I opened my mouth

to try to tell it that I have more play-doh in the closet, but the monster just said I think

I can get there all by myself?

 

 

 

The poem that you just read isn't like anything that I would usually write on my own.  I don't usually talk about monsters, or play-doh, or crocodiles, but it all came up through the strange kind of auto-suggestion that writing exercises make up.  Will I ever use this poem for anything?  Will I keep working on it?  I honestly don't know.  But I came up with some lines that I think are at least interesting (I probably forgot that the giant peach could be the beginning of a whole new poem), and the prompt definitely got me writing—which is the great thing about these exercises.  You don't have to show them to anyone, you don't have to follow any rules but your own, and you get to be as creative as you want to be.

 

-Eric Stiefel, Poetry Editor

Poetic Stand-Up Comedy?

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After watching a series of Demetri Martin stand-up clips I am convinced he is a more successful poet than I am. I think I should probably just give it up. His jokes provide images that are simultaneously universal and personal, have flow, feel genuine and introduce concepts that articulate and allow us access to observations that we would otherwise keep to ourselves. Here is the special: (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c7fc2ed717/demetri-martin-visual-jokes-from-demetri-martin) and here are some jokes from which I removed some fillers and conjunctions:

a fruit basket enables you to mail someone fruit

without feeling insane

and my favorite fruit is grapes,

with grapes

you always get a second chance

I use the product I can’t Believe it’s Not Butter,

and sometimes when I’m eating toast

I like to be incredulous.

How was breakfast? Unbelievable.

See? Poetry. I observed the same poetic phenomenon in comedians like Maria Bamford. Her HBO comedy special (excerpts of which can be seen here: http://www.comedycentral.com/comedians/maria-bamford) struggles with issues as small and personal as buying raisin bread in bulk and as large as loneliness and depression. She aims to entertain people with well crafted and unique approaches to comedy, but she ends up making statements about things like mental illness and god. “I’ve never really thought of myself as depressed as much as paralyzed by hope.” Maria says, streaked shaggy blonde hair and all.  Now if that’s not poetic I really wish someone would tell me what is.

- Anna Beckerman, Assistant Poetry Editor 

An Interview with Poet and NYU Alumna Sophia Le Fraga

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West 10th Poetry Editor Michael Valinsky speaks with Sophia Le Fraga about her recent work, the strange vocabulary of the Internet, and what we can expect to see from her soon. 

 

MV: In light of your newest work, IRL YOU RL, what is your stance on the way language has evolved since the beginning of Internet? Is this development a good or bad thing?

SLF: When I was at NYU, I majored in Linguistics, which studies the science of language, and covers, to a certain extent, how language functions in society as well as how it evolves. So, I don't really think about language evolution in terms of good or bad, or at least not anymore. 

When I started studying though, I was really concerned with prescriptive grammar and with "conserving" language, which I put in quotes now because I'm kind of laughing at myself. I used to be all about purism in language and grammar, and was interested in institutions like L'Académie Française, for example, and the ways in which they're concerned with not letting too many Anglicisms into French… You know what I mean, things like that. I thought that this task was really important, and still understand the intentions behind language preservation, but I've come to love and embrace neologisms in American English and other things like that.

For example, the words "A/W," "buzzworthy," "derp," "emoji," "FOMO," "selfie," "TL;DR," and "twerk" were just added to the Oxford English Dictionary this year. I had to look up half of them, and type most of them 3+ times because autocorrect hasn't updated. I think this is totally awesome. The Internet is evolving, changing the world around us, making us evolve — and it logically follows that it's making our language evolve and adapt accordingly, too. 

MV: Your book plays with Internet language -- why do you think this 'type' of expression is worth exploring? 

SLF: I'm super interested in the way people express themselves with what they say and with what they don't say. I'm also interested in the way expression changes over time, and more currently, the way people express themselves in our time. Since texting and chatting and Facebooking and Tweeting make up such a big percentage of the ways in which we converse nowadays, I wanted to explore the language and structures we use to signify the things we mean in these new media. 

I mean, I'm not sure that this "type" of language is the most important thing in the world, what with the situation in Syria and Miley Cyrus at the VMAs— but from a linguistic and poetic standpoint, I suppose it's just about as important as everything else. 

MV: There's been a lot of controversy around the intentions and authenticity of conceptual writing recently, with articles both advocating for and denouncing it -- how do you feel about appropriated material, even if it is part of your process?  

SLF: Like you said, appropriating material is part of my process, and I RL, YOU RL is basically totally not mine (thinking about Creeley, "Was That A Real Poem Or Did You Just Make It Up Yourself"). So if you're asking whether I'm pro or anti appropriation, I'd have to say I'm pro. But I did write a non-response to said controversy in the form of a shuffle-able Tumblr you can visit here: http://poetryslastwords.tumblr.com.MV: Can you speak a bit about what was at the core of IRL YOU RL's genesis?

SLF: Unlike I DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE INTERNET, I RL, YOU RL was more of a compilation than the culmination of a project. I'd been hoarding a lot of pieces made from material I had gathered on social media, pretty much since April 2010, and it had just been like, sitting in folders on my desktop (not just one folder, because I'm poorly organized). And, I don't know, I guess I could have kept going until it all bulked up more or until I was happier with it or, you know, forever, but I had a sense that the project was done and that I wanted to move on to other things… so yeah. That's I RL, YOU RL for you. 

MV: As you said, a lot of the material in the book was appropriated or found; I’m very interested in the way one hierarchizes information. How did you choose your found language, was it arbitrary or were you ‘looking for something’ in particular?

SLF: I wasn’t really looking for much of anything, but I’m attracted to anything that makes me laugh or, you know, “feel”. Thinking of Diana Hamilton, another NYU alumna, “everything I felt was felt first by the Internet” —I like to cull social media and other platforms for language that help me better express the things I don’t have to say.

MV: Your writing has always been interested, entertaining, emotive and compelling, anything imminent in store for us?

SLF: I’m working on a pronoun project called Sophia Le Fraga’s Second Person, but trying hard to go back into exploring different media, and different realms of the written word. I just wrote a thing using only the semantic definitions of verb classes, and am working on a photo-collaboration with some Tisch alumnae that will potentially be called “Ecriture Féminine”. A mixed media group project called I HAVE OFFENDED EVERYONE is something else to look out for.

 

--

Brooklyn-based Sophia Le Fraga studied Linguistics and Poetry at New York University. She is the author of I DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE INTERNET (2012) and I RL, YOU RL (2013). Her work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, and throughout Berlin and Spain. Her writing has appeared in Lambda Literary Review's Poetry Spotlight, Coconut, and Lemon Hound, among other publications.

We're Back (and accepting submissions)

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As consolation for summer being more or less officially over, we are now accepting submissions for the 2013-2014 edition of West 10th. We accept poetry, prose, and visual art submissions (keep in mind your visual art must be translatable into print, i.e. we cannot accept your sculpture but can accept a photograph of your sculpture). 

Send your work to west10th.submissions@gmail.com by the end of the day on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14th. 

Some things to remember:

1. You may submit up to 3 poems, 5,000 words of prose, or 6 images.

2. All poetry and prose submissions must be in .doc or .docx format. We are unable to accept PDF and .pages documents. 

3. Fill out a submission form (see below) and attach it with your submission as a word document NOT a jpeg. 

4. All art submissions must be at least 8 inches on the longest side at a resolution of 300dpi. Check this information using Photoshop > Image > Image Size. Feel free to include a title for each image. Please keep in mind that all the art featured in West 10th is printed in black and white. 

Download the submission form here: 

2013-2014 West 10th Submission Form

Editorial Board application deadline extended!

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The deadline to apply for the 2013-2014 Editorial Board has been extended to Saturday, June 1st.Fill out the application for the position you are interested in and send it to west10th.submissions@gmail.com. You may apply to more than one position.If you are applying for a copy-editor position, please also complete and send to us the copy-editing test.Poetry & Prose ApplicationArt ApplicationCopy-editor appCopy-edit testAs always, feel free to contact us at west10th.submissions@gmail.com if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

Join the editorial board!

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Applications are now open for the 2013-2014 Editorial Board!We are seeking to fill positions on the poetry, prose, and art boards. We are also seeking a copyeditor.Please direct all questions and completed applications to west10th.submissions@gmail.com. Applications are due by the end of the day on Sunday, May 19th. Please download and complete the appropriate application. Feel free to apply to more than one position! Copy-editors, please complete the copy-editing test in addition to complete your application.Please do not apply to the board if you are graduating in December 2013. This is a full-year commitment.Poetry & Prose ApplicationArt ApplicationCopy-editor appCopy-edit test 

Several Short Sentences About Writing

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If you're a writer, chances are you're far too familiar with feeling stuck. Writer's block and the struggle to publish your work can be a real burden and make you feel like perhaps you're not a writer after all. But have no fear, if you've read this far, something deep inside you knows that you must write! 
 
Verlyn Klinkenborg's new book "Several Short Sentences about Writing" is a brief (cause ain't nobody got time...) yet profoundly helpful collection of suggestions about writing, and writing well. His prose are to-the-point, invigorating, and undeniably true.
 
Here is an excerpt from the beginning:
 
Here, in short, is what I want to tell you.
Know what each sentence says,
What it doesn't say,
And what it implies.
Of these, the hardest is knowing what each sentence actually says.
 
At first, it will help to make short sentences,
Short enough to feel the variations in length.
Leave space between them for the things that words can't really say.
 
Pay attention to the rhythm, first and last.
 
Imagine it this way:
One by one, each sentence takes the stage.
it says the very thing it comes into existence to say.
Then it leaves the stage.
It doesn't help the next one up or the previous one down.
It doesn't wave to its friends in the audience
Or pause to be acknowledged or applauded.
It doesn't talk about what it's saying.
It simply says its piece and leaves the stage.
 
This isn't the whole art of writing well.
It isn't even most of it.
But it's a place to begin, and to begin from again and again.

Release Party & Reading

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releaseJoin us on Friday, April 12th at 7pm for an evening of readings from the 2013 edition of West 10th! Our guest contributor, renowned poet Gerald Stern, will be in attendance, reading a selection of his poems. There will be refreshments all around and free copies of the new edition of our magazine. We hope to see you there!Join the facebook event!West 10th Release Party & ReadingFriday, April 12th at 7pmLillian Vernon Creative Writers House58 West 10th Street

A Review of John Ashbery's Quick Question

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The pacing in John Ashbery’s most recent collection Quick Question ebbs and flows, much like the line from its poem “Words to That Effect," “The days/ scudded past like tumbleweed, slow then fast,/ then slow again.”    Ashbery’s style is often prosaic—mundane but steeped in mystery and wonder.  As he continues in the poem, speaking of the sky, “You remember how still it was then,/ a season putting its arms into a coat and staying unwrapped/ for a long, a little time.”  His style can be described as muted and uneasy, yet he dwells in a world of majesty, coated in trappings of the everyday.

 

Ashbery is certainly wary of the world around him.  In “Like Any Leaves,” he writes, “They said the birds didn’t do any damage./ The life we row to the uneasy center,/ mosquito by mosquito, loses the forest.”  Quick Question is a relatively long collection, housing over sixty poems, and it is certainly easy to get lost in, for better or worse.  The work is at times engrossing, yet at other times, it falls into a monotone.  

 

But perhaps this is intentional.  Quick Question is certainly not quick at all, and these poems ask a lot of their readers, despite their appearances.  Consider “Homeless Heart,” where he states, “When I think of finishing the work, when I think of the finished work,/ a great sadness overtakes me, a sadness paradoxically like joy.”  And so Quick Question endeavors on, not unlike Ashbery’s prolific body of work—although its pages are finite, the readers will find themselves returning to these poems over and over, just as in the aforementioned lines from “Words to That Effect”, where Ashbery speaks of “a season putting its arms into a coat and staying unwrapped/ for a long, a little time.”

 

 

--Eric Stiefel, Assistant Poetry Editor

A Snowed-In Review of "A Little White Shadow" by Mary Ruefle

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By Amanda Montell Mary Ruefle's "A Little White Shadow" may not be breaking news amongst poetry readers; but, when the weather outside is frightful and you're in the mood to stay cozily inside, rediscovering your own bookshelf can be just as exciting as diving into a stack of new-releases.  Ruefle's 5-by-4-inch book of erasures, so small and sweet you could dunk it in your coffee, represents what I think is the genre of erasures done right.  Ruefle takes the base work, a mysteriously arbitrary book from the 19th Century, and with her WhiteOut pen in hand, breathes a haunting life into each tight page.  "A Little White Shadow" (also the title of the erased work) is enchanting visually, with its antiquey type face, tea-stained parchment, and textured streaks of WhiteOut, which appropriately cast their own shadows down each page, leaving only a few careful words.  The paper alone, with all its high production value, counts for a lot of the specialness and intimacy of the erasures.  I experience Ruefle's book like a piece of visual art almost as much as I do a collection of poems.  A pocket-sized feast for the senses.The reader can't make out the work's original text at all, which gives "A Little White Shadow" an unapologetic vibrancy and sense of emotional purpose. The pages, though pretty, are sparse, with no titles, and sometimes less than a dozen visible words. This petite, pared-down style gives the poems a haunting wistfulness.  In one poem, everything on the page is shadowed-out, save for a few small words scattered throughout the last three lines:

It

was my duty to keep

the piano filled with roses.

Simple, direct, and ghostly erasures like this pervade Ruefle's tiny tome.  By creating long shadows of white space on the page, she makes excellent use of the erasure format in order to create suspense.  Forcing the reader's gaze to fall down the entire height of a page to reach a poem's completion contributes to the eeriness and tension.  The book's reoccurring unnamed character of "she" has a similar enigmatic effect.  By the time you arrive at the final page of "A Little White Shadow," it sort of feels as if you've just read an old, quixotic book of a stranger's secrets.  Personally, I have respect for any poet who can make me feel such an emotion, regardless of whether her pen was filled with ink or WhiteOut.So, in the few weeks left until West 10th's next issue is released, if you're feeling bored and restless with nothing to read, you might rediscover Mary Ruefle's "A Little White Shadow."  This teeny book may not keep you busy until April, but it can at least get you out of the snow for a while.Image

The Future of The Printed Word?

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Though I like the magazine, I've never been to an n+1 reading. But I found myself there on a Friday at BookCourt in Brooklyn, listening to a soft-spoken Kristin Dombek read from her essay on "sex, drugs, and Ryan Gosling in Williamsburg." (At this point, I've heard about just enough run-ins with Ryan Gosling to believe that he is not a real person, but rather, a product of the sexual fantasies of New York women.)Standing under a speaker so I could follow Dombek's narrative, I observed the crowd. Most of the men sported glasses and stubble. The women, if "alternative," shared the straight, glossy hair that those without it envy. Even in its hush, the crowd was confident that this, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, was its territory."Hipster culture" has become so amorphous as to include anything that is just not mainstream. And though I believe that passionate print-lovers will keep the business alive, I don't want that group to become ineffective, albeit well-meaning. (Too often I am convinced that I have already turned into the crotchety 80-year-old I fear becoming.) I want to believe that e-readers will make books more available - to businessmen who travel often, to college students whose backpacks are already too heavy. I just want to know that they will do what they intended - give us books, not games or e-mail or texting - and nothing more.Since the Kindle was released over five years ago (!), I've tried to slow the meshing of technology and academia in my own life. I don't dislike technology; on the contrary, I'm often so addicted that it's a struggle to tear myself away from the screen.But when I do tear myself away, I'm grateful. I re-discover the slow drip of pleasure in reading and wish I didn't feel validated by Facebook notifications. When I start to miss my physical subscription to the New York Times, I compromise by printing out articles for the train.Despite how well e-readers mask themselves in "electronic ink," or progress markers, I find it hard to connect them with the stories I've loved since childhood. I want to feel how many pages I have turned - and how many I have left to go. I want to reach a halfway point and watch the pages cleave cleanly in two. I accept the frustration I feel when the thicker part of the book eclipses the few pages I have not read, and both snap shut. I want my bookmark to indicate that not only have I started Moby Dick for the third time since seventh grade, but that I am finally about to finish it.I used to worry that the only people who would remain devoted to print would be "literary types" who too often become snobbish in their taste. I don't want to seem elitist in mine, by shunning Kindles - for the first time ever, I borrowed one this fall from a friend, and it felt surprisingly natural. But I was unable to finish it (as "10% read" cruelly reminded) until the same friend saw me linger for months and gave me the physical book for Christmas.But ultimately, whether on a screen or a page, what matter most are the words. As long as e-books complete their original intent - by giving me books - I'll trust that Temple Run won't be appearing somewhere in the background.- Olivia Loving, Copy Editor