George Saunders Kicks Deborah Solomon’s Ass

New York Times:

Q: Your new collection of short stories, “In Persuasion Nation,” presents America as a commerce-saturated but happy place where children go to live with market-research firms and giant Twinkies run through fields of flowers. Is it fair to call you an ecstatic appreciator of trash culture?

Excuse me. Can we require readers to read my books before they continue with this interview?

A Nation of Forensic Vagina Inspectors

New York Times: “There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus — the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor’s office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal.”