during the 1980s and 90s harper decay badly from a journal of literature and opinion into a collection of short piece and meaningless chart - sort of a journal for the literary pretentious with a short attention span . during the late 90 and the early part of this century , a effort be make to recreate the old Harpers .  go now be the annoying fragment and pointless table , but the quality of the writing be still variable . at its best , Harpers still trail far behind the Atlantic , and at its worst it be pitifully sophmoric . I 'll try it again in a few more year .