mcglothlin

If you're up for questions not related to NMS, have you been contacted by the longform.org guys about doing their podcast and would you consider going on it?

I was just looking at your author page at TNY to find the Armenian genocide piece and realized you did some of my favorite pieces of the last couple years. For people here because of NMS who don't normally read the New Yorker these are all seriously worth checking out:

• RK investigating his family history and the Armenian genocide
• The construction of ITER, an attempt at a fusion reactor
• US Military experiments with LSD and other psychedelics
• A man who needed a full face transplant after an accident with a power line

Was someone actually arguing the opposite?

He says it at the start of his video about the game: http://video.newyorker.com/watch/commentary-the-universe-of-no-man-s-sky

Seems there's some disagreement. From Garner's Modern American Usage:

Traditionally, masterful has described a powerful, even bullying superior; masterly has described the skill of a master of a profession or trade. A master craftsman is masterly; a boorish tyrant is masterful.

Not sure if Norris is making a distinction on what is being described (subject vs object) or in the actual meaning of the description. But also:

Perhaps one reason the two words are so frequently confounded is that when an adverb for masterly is needed, masterfully seems more natural than masterlily. Indeed, "He writes masterfully" strikes one as much less stilted than "He writes masterlily." This problem with the adverbial form threatens to destroy a useful distinction between the two adjectival forms. So if an adverb is needed, try in a masterly way.

The adverb of masterly is masterlily. TIL.

Have you read David Foster Wallace's Authority and American Usage and if so would say that more or less describes your view?