Possible Humans: On Juan José Saer Possible Humans: On Juan José Saer
The achievement of Juan José Saer’s fiction, next to its sensuousness, is its creation of an all-engulfing present.
Mar 23, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Lorna Scott Fox
Cats Can Cats Can
You’re feeling silly, but someone said that cats can see ghosts. So you go to the door with a saucer of milk, and just then the ghost wakes up from a deep sleep and bleeds a little into the sink. Or not the sink, but a bed, or rather a head now held up by a bed. Or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Choosing your words carefully makes no difference to a cat or a ghost. Look at your backyard. Does the grass care what the frost heave thinks? Contour is all, even when hidden. The loose overburden covering a buried cavity is delicately balanced. When runoff- storage ponds seep into the folds of the brain, the additional weight can trigger a collapse called a sinkhole, where ghosts bleed into the cracks. Cats can see it.
Mar 23, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Benjamin Friedlander
Shelf Life: On Poets and Painters Shelf Life: On Poets and Painters
Tibor de Nagy’s Painters & Poets; Bill Berkson’s For the Ordinary Artist; William Corbett’s Albert York.
Mar 23, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Three Faces of Steve: On Stephen Sondheim The Three Faces of Steve: On Stephen Sondheim
Finishing the Hat makes clear Stephen Sondheim’s belief that being an artist requires intellectual vigilance.
Mar 23, 2011 / Books & the Arts / David Schiff
A Parade of Arrogance: On John Dower A Parade of Arrogance: On John Dower
During war, John Dower explains, “the system filters out the thoughtful and replaces them with the faithful.”
Mar 23, 2011 / Books & the Arts / George Scialabba
Out of the Mouths of Birds Out of the Mouths of Birds
Is there a human language without birdsong in it?
Mar 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
Hiroshima to Fukushima Hiroshima to Fukushima
The problem with mankind wielding nuclear power isn’t about backup generators or safety rules—it’s our essential human fallibility.
Mar 17, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Schell
Brackets, Brackets, Everywhere Brackets, Brackets, Everywhere
Alter-reviews of Stoppard and music old and new, Reed on the Washington Post's decision to bracket their writers into right-leaning and left-leaning and reader mail.
Mar 17, 2011 / Blog / Eric Alterman
Remembering the Triangle Fire Remembering the Triangle Fire
After 100 years, the tragedy still inspires outrage and grief. Why does it have a hold on us?
Mar 16, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Freeman
My Monster, My Self: On Nicholas Carr and William Powers My Monster, My Self: On Nicholas Carr and William Powers
With our tiny screens and cellphones, we have become prosthetic gods, the whole world in our handhelds. Are we not also monsters?
Mar 16, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Gary Greenberg