We've got Harpers... Maybe we should try for the Atlantic
This essay really sums up how I feel about a tremendous plurality of writing these days, and why I feel like I've retreated from fiction generally.
I know it might be reactionary in how conservative it is, and I'd hate to think that it's because I'm getting older that I might appreciate more things, but there are two traits that I really don't tend to enjoy in fiction— those pieces that try to force through a boorish vision of "this is the way things are, and I've written this to prove it," and those pieces that prize ambiguity and ornamentation as goals in and of themselves. I know that things often end up written or drawn or printed because they looked cool and tickled the fancy of whoever created them, but that doesn't necessarily do anything for me. I think for too long, I've dismissed a lot of analysis of literature because of a high school teacher who insisted that every moment of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde was planned and positioned perfectly. I remember thinking that just because there's a house with a slanted roof doesn't mean that it's an allegory for the ego-id-super ego (she'd make a triangle with her fingers, just like when Stevenson has some scene that involved a steeple).
On the other hand, I know that there really are things worth looking for in fiction, and that the things that affect me tend to be images that reflect how a character is percieving his or her surroundings, not the author. Authors are people and I give far less of a shit about them than I do a good character in service of a book. When an author sets out to tell me what they think, it's almost always far less interesting than seeing what a character would think in the same situation, especially if it's backed up by something.