The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing
December 18, 1943 is an enchanted thing like the glaze on a katydid-wing subdivided by sun till the nettings are legion. Like Gieseking playing Scarlatti; like the apteryx-awl as a beak, or the kiwi’s rain-shawl of haired feathers, the mind feeling its way as though blind, walks along with its eyes on the ground. It has memory’s ear that can hear without having to hear. Like the gyroscope’s fall, truly unequivocal because trued by regnant certainty, it is a power of strong enchantment. It is like the dove- neck animated by sun; it is memory’s eye; it’s conscientious inconsistency. It tears off the veil, tears the temptation, the mist the heart wears, from its eyes—if the heart has a face; it takes apart dejection. It’s fire in the dove-neck’s iridescence; in the inconsistencies of Scarlatti. Unconfusion submits its confusion to proof; it’s not a Herod’s oath that cannot change. This article is part of The Nation’s 150th Anniversary Special Issue. Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Toni Morrison, Howard Zinn and many more, here. Marianne Moore (1887–1972) wrote eleven essays and seven poems for The Nation between 1936 and 1952. Moore’s biographer, Linda Leavell, indicates that she stopped contributing out of solidarity with her friend, ousted literary editor Margaret Marshall, but also because she disliked The Nation’s criticism of Eisenhower’s “honest, auspicious, genuinely devoted speeches.”
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Marianne Moore
150 Years of Telling the Truth 150 Years of Telling the Truth
Independence—one of the keys to The Nation’s longevity—has become ever more important in an age that urgently needs dissident and rebellious voices.
Mar 23, 2015 / Katrina vanden Heuvel
March 21, 1980: Carter Announces US Boycott of the Moscow Olympics March 21, 1980: Carter Announces US Boycott of the Moscow Olympics
The Nation supported the boycott, but not for Carter’s reasons.
Mar 21, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac
Or to Put It Another Way: 100 Years Ago, We Were Already 50 Years Old Or to Put It Another Way: 100 Years Ago, We Were Already 50 Years Old
The Nation’s archives, Henry James wrote in our fiftieth anniversary issue, “compose the record of the general life of civilization.”
Mar 18, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and Back Issues
1975–1985: Standing in Solidarity Against Jackbooted Oppressors 1975–1985: Standing in Solidarity Against Jackbooted Oppressors
It is nonsensical that those who support free-market economic policy should pretend to reject the system of terror it requires to succeed.
Feb 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / The Nation
February 20, 2005: Hunter S. Thompson Dies February 20, 2005: Hunter S. Thompson Dies
The Nation gave Thompson his first big break in journalism in 1965.
Feb 20, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
Today is FDR’s Birthday: Before the 1932 Election, ‘The Nation’ Was Not Impressed Today is FDR’s Birthday: Before the 1932 Election, ‘The Nation’ Was Not Impressed
“A new deal is needed in the world,” The Nation said, but FDR was not the man to deliver it.
Jan 30, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and Back Issues
January 28, 1986: The Challenger Space Shuttle Explodes After Liftoff, Killing Seven Astronauts January 28, 1986: The Challenger Space Shuttle Explodes After Liftoff, Killing Seven Astronauts
What do you get when fall in love… with lucrative corporate boondoggles?
Jan 28, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac
January 15, 1929: Martin Luther King Jr. Is Born January 15, 1929: Martin Luther King Jr. Is Born
From 1961 until 1966, King published in The Nation an annual report on the progress of the civil-rights movement during the previous year. In this installment, "Hammer of Civil Rig...
Jan 15, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac
Come Explore the Treasure Chest That Is Our 1950 ‘Spring Books’ Issue Come Explore the Treasure Chest That Is Our 1950 ‘Spring Books’ Issue
Meditations on writers’ conferences, Schlesinger Jr. on America, an Auden poem.
May 15, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner