Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Literary Playboy

Okay, for Halloween I thought I'd go as Hugh Hefner. To emphasize my point, I thought I'd carry the latest issue of Playboy with me. (The first Playboy I'd ever bought and the first one I'd seen since childhood when a boy in school thought he would show his friends how cool he was by ripping off his older brother's secret stash of skin mags.)

I often wondered why writers would list Playboy as a credit. And I thought the phrase "I buy Playboy for the articles" was highly suspect by those of my gender. Any one who knows me could tell you that "girlie magazines" are not my thing.

Instead of Hugh Hefner, I went as Darth Vader. (I couldn't find a decent smoking pipe to complete my costume.) I had the November issue of Playboy in my apartment and began leafing through it. You know what? I found it truly fascinating. Of course I skipped the pages about the "Girls of the Hawaiian Tropic," but found the writing interesting. There was an interview with Arianna Huffington, a piece on Islam, and a short story by Sam Lipsyte. I also enjoyed the fashion spread, which had writers (Michael Eric Dyson, Andrew Ross, Tony D'Souza, Ishmael Beah, Walter Kirn, Victor Rivas Rivers) wearing the coolest coats, under the clever heading of "Book Jackets."

I guess I'll have some explaining to do when guests come over and see Playboys on the floor.

3 comments:

mr jp said...

It's actually hard to obtain Playboy here in malaysia. Imagine that ..

Perhaps I'll read the articles online ?? hmm

Liz Dwyer said...

Playboy does have great articles in there sometimes but you have to wade through the sea of implants bouncing off the pages to get to them. Love Michael Eric Dyson though. Loved watching him on tv one time putting Bill O'Reilly in check.

My husband was Darth Vader last year. He dressed up when we went trick-or-treating in Los Feliz with the kids. Just imagine how much a black man dressed in an all black outfit with a mask scared people. In some sick way, it was great!

I was a magic 8 ball this year.

fred said...

So now YOU can say you read it "for the articles"!