re: the baffler:
>
>I suspect the hipness in the beginning was largely a marketing strategy,
>to attract the young indie/punk rock crowd towards larger political
>horizons.
I wouldn't be so quick to suggest the Baffler boys had it together enough to have any kind of strategy, other than pontificating on what they thought was important (i.e.: anything they thought about). When it started out, they were "hipper" than they are now--they were paying closer attention to what was going on around them culturally, which was a natural springboard for what they wanted to get at in a national discourse.
The Baffler's rarely struck me as being anywhere near as good as its press. Frank's recent writing elsewhere have me thinking he's becoming his generation's (which, uh, would also be _mine_) Lewis Lapham--endless orotund oratory about a few themes repeated endlessly, spiced with quasi-cutting asides, ultimately tedious. Tho I do admit I've liked some things both L. and Frank have written quite a bit.
jf