Word: reader
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...First, all the fellowship advisors except the student's own House advisor read the application. Each reader either votes for or against the candidate...
...chapter on the pervasive effects of irony and its corrosion of popular culture is original, very sophisticated, and compelling. But if you can cut through the occasional tediousness, what is left is the author as powerful exemplar of embodied faith and conviction, his emotion rousing correlative emotion in the reader. There is remarkable moral force behind Jedediah Purdy's introspection; a generation could do worse than to be moved by the example and the lucid expression of his passion...
This treatment of history, of course, requires a careful reader willing to recognize the author's point of view and take his judgments with a grain of salt. But this approach is still more useful than statements of fact, and less boring. Through personal stories, Lemann is able to address the problems arising from American values without mounting direct and unfounded attacks on the beliefs themselves. He is, therefore, able to present a subtle and complex argument, recognizing both the merits and the problems with different social constructions without sounding indecisive...
...believes: "Apparently because we're all too ironic or falsely spiritual to believe in anything as simple and real as the value of living on a hillside farm in West Virginia, we lack a politics that functions as a repository of our hopes and dreams." Even to a reader less self-consciously worldly and less corrosively bitter than Hodge, Purdy's tone and substance--the fact that this book is about Jedediah Purdy, and that any power in the book springs from his unshakeable convictions--may seem narcissistic; and his tendency towards moralistic aphorisms, towards a Thoreauvian epigrammatic style, seems...
...while the first issue was a blockbuster, the second is pretty much a standard sequel. The October cover story is about Liz Taylor. Not quite as thrilling as the September Hillary story. And George Pataki doesn't grab the reader's attention as much as George W. (What is this, the Governor of the Month feature?) And so the content will never be the same as the initial issue. Whatever buzz is left will die down very soon...