This is as bad as it gets — but the wince-inducing content doesn’t vanish immediately. Another “Vanitas” item sizes up the performance of Harvard men and women in the midterm elections, noting that Congressmen Barney Frank and Jane Harman will be taking over the Financial Services and Intelligence Committees, and concludes: “Harvard in charge of money and intelligence: That sounds about right.” Later, Anula Jayasuriya, a private-equity bigwig who’s part of one of this issue’s featured “power couples,” discusses separation from her relatives in India near the end of the piece on her and her husband, David Gilmour. “Of course I miss my family,” Jayasuriya tells writer Tara Leonard. “But David and Shanika [their daughter] are much more focused on hearth and home. I’m a nomad at heart. I have a sense of home in many places.” The piece could end there — but Leonard can’t help herself. “Including Harvard,” she adds. Awww.
Thankfully, this prose persona — call it the Smarmy Admissions Rep — is just one of 02138’s three editorial voices. A second, which I’ll creatively dub the Reporter, is primarily interested in the unusual pursuits of certain Harvard grads, as well as the bigger questions posed by their activities. In the debut issue, for example, the Reporter gave us a fascinating profile of Jerome Corsi, a Harvard PhD and right-wing activist. In the Winter 2007 issue, meanwhile, the Reporter can be found in John Sedgwick’s profile of string-theory debunker Peter Woit; in a visually stunning photo essay on modern China by Mark Leong that’s accompanied by an Orville Schell essay; and in a mini-profile of Richard Wayner, who helped launch the polyglot hip-hop network Trace TV. This is a hunch, but based on Kim and Loss’s remarks, this seems to be the persona they favor most. (“These are the people through whom you can personalize bigger stories, bigger issues,” Kim told the Phoenix.)
And then, finally, there’s the Wiseass, who knows Harvard types can be insufferable and delights in humbling them. In the new issue of 02138, for example, the Wiseass gives us a new feature in the “Vanitas” section — “Harvard Educated?” — which mocks Robert Rey, a breast-augmenting physician and Kennedy School graduate who stars on E!’s Doctor 90210. Also, there’s a hearteningly snide piece by David Javerbaum (Number 25 on 02138’s Harvard 100!), subtitled “I Am Influential. How Do I Know? This Magazine Said So.” Sadly, though, the Wiseass seems relegated to a marginal role.
Given the aforementioned market imperatives, this multiplicity of voices is understandable. And it bears repeating that 02138 is only two issues old. Still, repeated switches between disparate perspectives can be slightly unsettling for the reader. “There’s an article in the first issue that was very blown out, in my opinion — Lauren Greenfield’s photographs of American girls,” says Harvard magazine editor John S. Rosenberg, whose publication competes with 02138 for readers and advertising dollars. (Like 02138, Harvard magazine is independent.)“We covered Lauren Greenfield’s work a long time ago, but we didn’t have a photo spread; they chose to do that, for whatever reason. It’s sort of jarring to turn from that to Richard Bradley’s article on the Harvard Corporation.” Greenfield’s photos, it should be noted, feature underage girls in various states of undress. One of these photos — a just-pubescent girl unfastening her bikini — is currently the featured image on 02138’s home page, 02138mag.com.
