“You think the Kardashians lack genius?” (Image by Martin Schneider.)

Robert Birnbaum of the Morning News has a fun, freewheeling interview with New Yorker editor David Remnick. The Q&A is pegged to Remnick’s new book about Obama, but the two cover a number of topics, both serious and silly, in an off-the-cuff manner. A few excerpts follow.

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Robert Birnbaum:

What is going to happen with newspapers and such?

David Remnick:

I’m not a fortune teller. I know it would be interesting if I sat here and told you without a trace of uncertainty that in 10 years all magazines are going to be projected on screens on the side of the Empire State Building and the Prudential Building. Or alternately, they would be projected on the inside of your sunglasses in the summertime. I don’t know. Here’s what my job is, and I share that with other editors, too: We are in this moment of technological uncertainty and transition. The goal for me is to make sure we find a way, willy-nilly, to be healthy so that we can do the thing itself. The thing itself is what I care about most. Given a choice between the survival of the long-form narrative journalism, criticism, cartooning—all the things that we do—and print itself, there is no contest. No contest. I, at the age of 51, may still think, for me, the best technology for reading the New Yorker at this moment is the print version. But that’s just me. If your son, decides otherwise, that he wants to read it on an iPad, kenahorah [so be it].

Remnick’s “The Devil Problem and Other True Stories” is one of my favorite non-fiction collections.

Robert Birnbaum:

I have to say I am befuddled by what flits across my TV screen—who are these Kondrashian [sic] people?

David Remnick: 

You think they lack genius?

Robert Birnbaum: 

Uh.

David Remnick: 

(laughs)

Robert Birnbaum: 

Someone must have genius associated with them.

David Remnick: 

Something I have never found interesting at all—two unbelievably popular things on television. One is reality television—it never interested me at all. And the other is this neo-talent-show stuff, like American Idol. The reason I don’t like American Idol is that a lot of the talent seems to be a replication of the singing style of Mariah Carey and Whitney Huston. I don’t need it.

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David Remnick: 

David Owen is a fantastic golf writer.

Robert Birnbaum: 

I find golf to be the least interesting of pastimes.

David Remnick: 

To me it looks like a nervous breakdown with a stick.