quote: lopate on the new yorker

I’ve always felt that there was a connection between The New Yorker and depression. Depression as an aesthetic. There’s the recessive quality of the first-person pronoun in much New Yorker writing. It’s genteel, not in your face. Reserved. Taking in the world and being reflective without getting too excited, too parvenu. It’s a depressive stance, and it’s a mark of a certain social status. You know, it’s not a working-class disease.

— Philipp Lopate on The New Yorker