January 6, 2014 Issue

The first 2014 issue of The New Yorker is here. I scan it for thisness, the quality I most crave when I read. As defined by James Wood, thisness is “any detail that draws abstraction toward itself and seems to kill that abstraction with a puff of palpability, any detail that centers our attention with its concretion” (How Fiction Works, 2008). Wood appreciates thisness in fiction; I appreciate it in factual writing. Perusing the current issue, I find only one instance of thisness, but it’s a beauty: Sophie Brickman’s “Armed with an ant’s perspective and a technology titan’s resources, Myhrvold captures the swirling magma of a blueberry’s interior and the translucent reptilian juice sacs of a grapefruit,” in her wonderful Talk story, “Say Cheese.” That “swirling magma of a blueberry’s interior” is marvelously fine, and the “translucent reptilian juice sacs of the grapefruit” is brilliant. The new year is in it’s infancy, but already a “Best of 2014” candidate has emerged – Sophie Brickman’s terrific “Say Cheese.”