Prelude to a Murder Prelude to a Murder
The government's campaign to get Fred Hampton began long before it finally succeeded in killing him.
Nov 30, 2009 / Feature / L.F. Palmer, Jr.
Angels to Radios: On Rainer Maria Rilke Angels to Radios: On Rainer Maria Rilke
The poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke fuses lament and praise, and mingles amazement about sheer existence with mystery and terror.
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
Novelist From Another Planet: On Horacio Castellanos Moya Novelist From Another Planet: On Horacio Castellanos Moya
Horacio Castellanos Moya has turned anxiety into an art form and put El Salvador on the literary map.
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Wimmer
Wing Nut Ex Machina Wing Nut Ex Machina
The ace that the Democrats have in their deck.
Nov 24, 2009 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Full Harvest Full Harvest
And it seemed it was time for us to die somehow, right now, this afternoon, but the apples were abundant that year and ripened before autumn really showed what it was made of. Even the water shoots arced into branches. And now the sun is happily drinking water from the puddle at the gate and from the burdock -sized leaves of the lilac, but it's not warm enough for that, the day smacks of humidity. Again the magpie chatters in its own way, and old friends, one after another, will deny us, and we would be the last to want to hinder them, but neither to overlook this, because then how would the others cope, left high and dry, without a word from us. (Translated from the Polish by Christian Hawkey and W. Martin)
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Piotr Sommer
Founding Another Colony Founding Another Colony
And the news will have to be tailored to their needs with baffling opinion polls, announcements of the number of steps at the ballerina's dress rehearsal, rarefied shots of Antarctic snow, cascades in the Andes the backwash of shivering butterfly wings no breaks in transmission no voice-overs while regular slots play truant; no controllers in sight and no authorization. You'd think not dying was a la mode. With an almost creepy unconcern they'll form columns and perform exploits beyond every map and outside every schedule. (Translated from the Polish by Rod Mengham)
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Andrzej Sosnowski
Founding a Colony Founding a Colony
Pill boxes, patrols, protocols: this is what made the locals come running, so nothing should be disturbed. Softly, softly, we thought. That graveyard needs moving further south: chop it up among urban allotments, carve out wide boulevards and tunnels, erect viaducts, excavate canals, launch speedboats, ferries, hovercrafts and junk the heritable past; let the map heave with bulldozer silhouettes, he said (lighting a corner of the map) for this shall be our theater of war. And then what? Unlock the fog. At twilight only a boy's quick laugh in a blind back alley shall echo that time shift of desire all lost in space beyond their dreams. (Translated from the Polish by Rod Mengham)
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Andrzej Sosnowski
Those Gentle Danes Those Gentle Danes
When the Nazis began to impose their will on Denmark, the Danes showed one of of their own.
Nov 23, 2009 / Feature / Gunnar Leistikow
Gore to ‘Get Crazy’ on Climate Change Gore to ‘Get Crazy’ on Climate Change
Because no one is responding to his more rational pleas, Al Gore has some new, creative ideas that might finally elicit a response.
Nov 23, 2009 / Video / Saturday Night Live
Across the Great Divide: David Finkel’s Iraq Across the Great Divide: David Finkel’s Iraq
Against the background of the surge, David Finkel twists the concept of wartime good into a cosmic joke.
Nov 19, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Akiva Gottlieb