Frequencies: Volume 4

From Nathan Knapp's "Real Life in the Heady Days of Dial-Up": We judge our adolescent selves because experience has given us the privilege of knowing that the world doesn't have to end when our first girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with us. Experience gives us the knowledge that there are much worse fears ahead. But the privilege of experience is still privilege, and the coruscating light that it shines on the miseries of our adolescences is often as false as it is true. From Ruth Gila Berger's "Now. Here. Crazy. But Still.": Consider the slinky. Used for divination it's a pretty accurate predictor of how fucked up interpersonal expectations can play out end over end to the bottom. Consider the slinky a self-fulfilling prophecy. It doesn't do all that much as a toy. Bling, bling, bling. Down the stairs a couple times and you lose interest. Give it rainbow colors and maybe each moment it looks different. But the slinky falls end over end to its conclusion. Volume 4 of Frequencies picks up where previous issues have left off, with artful essays that challenge the current nonfiction prescription. Charles Hastings, Jr., reports on factory work-a-day life in Alabama, Nathan Knapp reflects on teenage romance in the days of dial-up, and Ruth Gila Berger writes about the evolution of life plans and the shaping a new American family. Plus: Nicholas Rombes tackles the wave of violent nineteenth-century fiction, new work from Erick Lyle, and more