New York Magazine's Ben Williams: My Top Longreads of 2011

Ben Williams is the online editorial director at New York Magazine.

本·威廉姆斯是《纽约杂志》的在线编辑总监。

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Celebrity profiles are the hardest genre to make fresh.

名人简介是最难创造新鲜感的类型。

So props to GQ for doing it not once but three times, with Jessica Pressler on Channing Tatum, Edith Zimmerman on Chris Evans, and Will Leitch on Michael Vick.

因此，我们对《GQ》的支持不是一次而是三次，杰西卡·普莱斯勒 (Jessica Pressler) 饰演查宁·塔图姆 (Channing Tatum)，伊迪丝·齐默尔曼 (Edith Zimmerman) 饰演克里斯·埃文斯 (Chris Evans)，威尔·雷奇 (Will Leitch) 饰演迈克尔·维克 (Michael Vick)。

With Pressler and Zimmerman, what’s great is the willingness of both subject and writer to play, and the dynamic between them—these pieces exploit the “profile as date” subtext really well.

对于普莱斯勒和齐默尔曼来说，最棒的是主题和作者都愿意参与，以及他们之间的动态——这些作品很好地利用了“个人资料作为日期”的潜台词。

It’s fun to think about them as a sort of inverse to Jennifer Egan’s brilliant satire of the profile biz in A Visit From the Goon Squad.

将它们视为与詹妮弗·伊根（Jennifer Egan）在《恶棍小队来访》中对个人资料行业的精彩讽刺的反面是很有趣的。

In the Vick piece, what I like is the way that Leitch uses the PR apparatus around the process of profiling Michael Vick to reveal what’s at stake for him.

在维克的文章中，我喜欢的是雷奇在分析迈克尔·维克的过程中使用公关工具的方式，以揭示他面临的危险。

He didn’t get much time with Vick, just a photo shoot and a phone call, but he used it to both explain and complicate the Michael Vick Story that the quarterback’s handlers want to tell.

他和维克在一起的时间并不多，只是拍了一张照片和一个电话，但他用它来解释四分卫的经纪人想要讲述的迈克尔·维克的故事，并使之复杂化。

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There are a bunch of New Yorker stories I could pick—Ryan Lizza’s “leading from behind” piece on Obama’s foreign policy was so influential; Jane Mayer on Thomas Drake and state secrets was fascinating and moving; Kelefah Sanneh not only wrote a great analysis of Odd Future, he tracked down their missing member; David Grann is David Grann—but my favorite was Jeffrey Toobin’s take on Clarence Thomas.

我可以挑选很多《纽约客》的故事——瑞安·利扎（Ryan Lizza）关于奥巴马外交政策的“幕后领导”文章非常有影响力；简·梅尔 (Jane Mayer) 讲述托马斯·德雷克 (Thomas Drake) 和国家机密的故事引人入胜且感人至深。 Kelefah Sanneh 不仅对 Odd Future 进行了精彩的分析，还找到了他们失踪的成员；大卫·格兰就是大卫·格兰——但我最喜欢的是杰弗里·图宾对克拉伦斯·托马斯的演绎。

There are so many things going on here: It’s a revisionist view that frames Thomas as very smart and canny; it shows how one justice can move the entire Supreme Court over decades through the way opinions are written; it sets the stage for next year’s healthcare ruling as a culmination of Thomas’s entire mission; and it makes clear once again just what a strange, extremist man he is.

这里发生了很多事情：这是一种修正主义观点，认为托马斯非常聪明和精明；这是一种修正主义观点，认为托马斯非常聪明和精明；它展示了一位法官如何通过撰写意见的方式在几十年内感动整个最高法院；它为明年的医疗保健裁决奠定了基础，成为托马斯整个使命的顶峰；这再次表明他是一个多么奇怪、极端的人。

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Overall, my favorite thing in the new New York Times Magazine is probably the Riffs section—it identified a gap in the preview-and-review saturated culture journalism market, which is (relatively) long form argument/idea-driven pieces.

总的来说，我在新《纽约时报》杂志中最喜欢的东西可能是即兴发挥部分——它发现了预览和评论饱和的文化新闻市场中的一个缺口，这是（相对）长篇的论证/想法驱动的文章。

To pick a few highlights: Dan Kois’s piece on avant-garde movies kicked off a fierce, endless, at times kind of ridiculous debate that just about every movie critic had to weigh in on; Adam Sternbergh’s piece on jokeless comedies defined an era; Sam Anderson on Derek Jeter both mocked empty sports hagiography and read like a hilarious version of Donald Barthelme.

挑几个亮点：丹·科伊斯（Dan Kois）关于前卫电影的文章引发了一场激烈的、无休止的、有时甚至有点荒谬的辩论，几乎每个影评人都必须参与其中；亚当·斯滕伯格 (Adam Sternbergh) 的无趣喜剧作品定义了一个时代。萨姆·安德森（Sam Anderson）在德里克·杰特（Derek Jeter）身上都嘲笑了空洞的体育圣徒传记，读起来就像唐纳德·巴塞尔姆（Donald Barthelme）的搞笑版本。

Alternate winner in this category is the New York Review of Books, which published some of the best cultural essays this year—Daniel Mendelsohn on Mad Men and Spiderman, Lorrie Moore on Friday Night Lights, and Dan Chiasson on Keith Richards were all delightful and provocative.

这一类别的另一位获奖者是《纽约书评》，该书刊发表了今年一些最好的文化文章——丹尼尔·门德尔松（Daniel Mendelsohn）关于《广告狂人》和《蜘蛛侠》的文章、洛里·摩尔（Lorrie Moore）关于《星期五夜灯》的文章，以及丹·奇亚森（Dan Chiasson）关于基思·理查兹（Keith Richards）的文章，都令人愉悦且具有挑衅性。

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I just loved Paul Ford’s “The Web is a Customer Service Medium.” It’s the kind of piece that would be hard to get into a print magazine for various reasons, but it resonated instantly online.

我只是喜欢保罗·福特的“网络是一种客户服务媒介”。由于各种原因，这种文章很难进入印刷杂志，但它立即在网上引起了共鸣。

It’s a pretty abstract argument about a subject that’s not exactly under-analyzed—what is web content about, and how is it different from other forms of content?—but it opens by coining a phrase which instantly makes sense to anyone who works on the web: “Why wasn’t I consulted?” And then it goes on to make a very detailed, specific, convincing, and non-buzzword-filled argument that isn’t formulated expressly to piss off anyone who works in “old media,” which is refreshing.

这是一个相当抽象的争论，涉及的主题并没有被充分分析——网络内容是关于什么的，它与其他形式的内容有何不同？——但它的开头是创造了一个对任何在网络上工作的人来说都立即有意义的短语：“为什么没有咨询我？”然后，它继续提出一个非常详细、具体、令人信服且不含流行语的论点，其表述并不是为了激怒任何在“旧媒体”工作的人，这令人耳目一新。

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Finally, some favorites in the emerging multimedia genre of longform tweeting.

最后，是长篇推文这一新兴多媒体类型中最受欢迎的一些内容。

I probably read more words on Twitter than anywhere else this year, and I am grateful for the stamina of those who somehow manage to tweet and retweet extended thoughts all day, every day on specific themes.

今年我在推特上读到的文字可能比其他任何地方都多，我很感激那些每天都在特定主题上发推文和转推文的人们的耐力。

I learned as much about the Arab Spring by dipping into @acarvin’s feed as from any essays about it.

我通过查看@acarvin 的动态和任何有关阿拉伯之春的文章，了解了有关阿拉伯之春的知识。

@daveweigel is constantly insightful, and one of the few people capable of being funny about politics.

@daveweigel 总是富有洞察力，并且是少数能够对政治进行有趣的人之一。

Following @questlove’s stream is like listening to the world’s kindest, most passionate music geek.

关注 @questlove 的直播就像聆听世界上最善良、最热情的音乐极客的声音。

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Share your own Top 5 Longreads of 2011, all through December.

整个 12 月，分享您自己的 2011 年 5 首长读作品。

Just tag it #longreads on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook.

只需在 Twitter、Tumblr 或 Facebook 上标记#longreads 即可。