A Ph.D. in Hipster Studies?

The rise of the contemporary hipster - think of the typical American Apparel-bedecked, large eyeglasses-wearing, unknown electro band-listening man or woman who either lives in Williamsburg or pretends to - has officially entered the realm of the academic.

After a successful symposium held in collaboration with The New School in NYC, n+1 magazine is releasing an essay collection in which intellectuals write hipster cultural criticism; there's a transcript of the actual symposium itself, plus a great article about a recent clash between hipsters and Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Mark Greif, founder of n+1 magazine, also has a great essay in a recent New York magazine. Worth checking out if you're of the mind that hipsterdom goes deeper than ironic sweaters and Animal Collective albums.

Text Molly O'Brien

Ready, Set, Write

For those who have an inner Jonathan Franzen or Joyce Carol Oates, as well as a set of speedy typing fingers, National Novel Writing Month (more colloquially known as NaNoWriMo) begins on November 1st. It's a 30-day challenge: write a 175-page, 50,000-word novel in a month. Sounds nuts? It is. But out of 165,000 participants in last year's NaNoWriMo challenge, over 30,000 people managed to churn out enough pages. Impressive!

The goal, urges the NaNoWriMo about page, is not a fully fleshed-out masterpiece à la Gustave Flaubert, but simply the process of "valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft." Writers upload their pieces to the official site and, once the robotic word counters do their thing, get the satisfaction of knowing they've written a work as long as The Old Man and The Sea, if not necessarily as well-crafted. Want in? Register on the NaNoWriMo site.

Text Molly O'Brien

Notes on Nightlife

Are you obsessed with NYC nightlife? Do you like your gossip to be as witty as it is informative? Manhattan-based writer Molly Young has begun chronicling the goings-on at hotspots like Le Bain and the Thompson LES hotel, offering lingerie model sightings and quips about the musical choices of hipster DJs, all with a distinct literary feel. Young, who has previously written for everyone from Vice to n+1 to More Intelligent Life (and who maintains a wonderful blog of her own) manages to capture the high-voltage mood of the New York party scene while remaining detached enough to keep her observations accurate and objective. For example, at a fragrance release party: “Beyond the girlie scrim of activity—the Givenchy dress blowing in the wind, the models dancing to Justin Bieber's ‘Baby’—there are in fact men ordering manly drinks, quietly absorbing the view and ignoring trays of mini-desserts.” Young takes something fascinating and makes it even more so; if you like party reports done with a critical eye, make sure to check out her column on the Details website.

by Molly O'Brien