A Vain Affair?

Vanity Fair is up there on my list of favorite magazines. It's certainly not the one I pick up in the nail salon, or take to the beach, or read while in front of the TV. I usually grab it in an airport, though it inevitably takes longer than the plane ride to finish. The attention level required to read and process one of its 5+ page articles is higher than it is for the average tabloid or women's mag. But, on the rare occasion I do pluck it off the newsstand, I always end up wishing I had a subscription. 

Attracted by gorgeous, smiling Heath Ledger on the cover, I bought the August issue in Dulles Airport on my trip back to Chicago. One of the first articles I read encapsulates, I think, the appeal of the magazine, while at the same time highlights the limits of its clientele. In it, James Wolcott laments the blandness of electronic libraries like the Kindle (for books) and the Ipod (for music). A self-proclaimed "culture snob," the writer unashamedly admits to the pretentious element of collecting and displaying what we read and listen to, and wonders how that vanity will be satisfied as we move towards pure white gadgets of plastic and metal as the homes of our "cultural" collections. I don't think it's a stretch to assume that the inclusion of such an article suggests a certain level of agreement by the magazine's readership. That makes me wonder then, how many Vanity Fair subscription holders do with it precisely what Wolcott claims is a dying practice: display it proudly on their coffee tables or nightstands to show just how "cultured" they are.