An entertaining and eye-opening look at the history of crossword puzzles, who constructs them, and why crosswords matter as both a reflection of and influence on our culture “Warning: This book is highly contagious.” –Mary Norris, author of Between You & Me “A gridful of insight and pleasure.”—Stefan Fatsis, bestselling author of Word Freak and Unabridged From Wordle to Spelling Bee, we live in a time of word game mania. Crosswords in particular gained renewed popularity during the COVID-19 lockdown, when games became another kind of refuge. Today, 36 million Americans solve crosswords once a…mehr
An entertaining and eye-opening look at the history of crossword puzzles, who constructs them, and why crosswords matter as both a reflection of and influence on our culture “Warning: This book is highly contagious.” –Mary Norris, author of Between You & Me “A gridful of insight and pleasure.”—Stefan Fatsis, bestselling author of Word Freak and Unabridged From Wordle to Spelling Bee, we live in a time of word game mania. Crosswords in particular gained renewed popularity during the COVID-19 lockdown, when games became another kind of refuge. Today, 36 million Americans solve crosswords once a week or more, and nearly 23 million solve them daily. Yet, as longtime New Yorker crossword contributor Natan Last will tell you, the seemingly apolitical puzzle has never been more controversial—or more interesting. A surprisingly ubiquitous influence in the worlds of art, literature, and technology, as Last demonstrates, the puzzle and its most popular purveyors—including publications such as The New York Times, still the gold standard for word games—have in recent years been challenged for the way they prioritize certain cultures and perspectives as the norm, demoting others to obscurity. At the same time, the crossword has never been more democratic. A larger, younger, more tech-savvy, and solidaristic group of people have fallen in love with puzzle solving, ushering in a more inclusive community of constructors and challenging the very idea of what is "normal." With a critical eye toward the puzzle's history, Natan Last explores the debates about the future of the crossword and investigates those who are determining its next phase, ultimately asking if the crossword can help us reshape the world. Across the Universe interrogates all the ways words—and the games we make using those words—change our culture, while bringing us into the world of those pushing for the crossword's much-needed evolution.
NATAN LAST is a writer and immigration policy advocate. He writes bimonthly crosswords for The New Yorker. His essays, poetry, and academic research appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Drift, Los Angeles Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Narrative, and elsewhere. He has worked for the UN, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the International Rescue Committee, and as an advisor to the federal government on refugee resettlement. He lives in his native Brooklyn.
Inhaltsangabe
Author’s Note xi Introduction: It Turns into a Different Story xiii Part 1 The Crossword Should Be Data Chapter 1 Hello, World 3 Chapter 2 Crosswords for Fun and Profit 33 Chapter 3 The Science of Letters 63 Part 2 The Crossword Should Be a Soapbox Chapter 4 A Familiar Form of Madness 91 Chapter 5 Except for the Marabar Caves 118 Chapter 6 The Melting Pot of the Crossword 137 Part 3 The Crossword Should Be Art Chapter 7 Old Possum’s Book of Schrödinger’s Cats 155 Chapter 8 Time Frames 185 Chapter 9 Are You the Frivolity Theatre? 219 Conclusion: Zooming Out 243 Acknowledgments 253 Notes 257 Bibliography 279 Index 293
Author’s Note xi Introduction: It Turns into a Different Story xiii Part 1 The Crossword Should Be Data Chapter 1 Hello, World 3 Chapter 2 Crosswords for Fun and Profit 33 Chapter 3 The Science of Letters 63 Part 2 The Crossword Should Be a Soapbox Chapter 4 A Familiar Form of Madness 91 Chapter 5 Except for the Marabar Caves 118 Chapter 6 The Melting Pot of the Crossword 137 Part 3 The Crossword Should Be Art Chapter 7 Old Possum’s Book of Schrödinger’s Cats 155 Chapter 8 Time Frames 185 Chapter 9 Are You the Frivolity Theatre? 219 Conclusion: Zooming Out 243 Acknowledgments 253 Notes 257 Bibliography 279 Index 293
Es gelten unsere Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen: www.buecher.de/agb
Impressum
www.buecher.de ist ein Internetauftritt der buecher.de internetstores GmbH
Geschäftsführung: Monica Sawhney | Roland Kölbl | Günter Hilger
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Batheyer Straße 115 - 117, 58099 Hagen
Postanschrift: Bürgermeister-Wegele-Str. 12, 86167 Augsburg
Amtsgericht Hagen HRB 13257
Steuernummer: 321/5800/1497
USt-IdNr: DE450055826