Books & the Arts

Into the Woods

Into the Woods Into the Woods

The fight between terrorism and tourism in Algeria’s Atlas Mountains.

Mar 31, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Malika Rahal

What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 3/27/15?

What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 3/27/15? What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 3/27/15?

What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 3/27/15?

Mar 27, 2015 / Books & the Arts / StudentNation

Inequality and Broken Windows

Inequality and Broken Windows Inequality and Broken Windows

Eric responds to his critics and reviews the best shows of the week in today's Altercation.

Mar 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman

From Lenin to Lego

From Lenin to Lego From Lenin to Lego

Snowpiercer mocks what The Lego Movie cheers—a happy world of compulsory production.

Mar 24, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Clover

Walt Whitman Is An Insult To Art, Says 22-Year Old Henry James

Walt Whitman Is An Insult To Art, Says 22-Year Old Henry James Walt Whitman Is An Insult To Art, Says 22-Year Old Henry James

Drum-Taps is the effort of an essentially prosaic mind to lift itself, by a prolonged muscular strain, into poetry.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Henry James

What Can the White Man Say to the Black Woman?

What Can the White Man Say to the Black Woman? What Can the White Man Say to the Black Woman?

Only one thing that the black woman might hear.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Alice Walker

Varick Street Varick Street

March 15, 1947   At night the factories   struggle awake,   wretched uneasy buildings   veined with pipes   attempt their work.   Trying to breathe   the elongated nostrils   haired with spikes   give off such stenches, too. And I shall sell you sell you sell you of course, my dear, and you’ll sell me.   On certain floors   certain wonders.   Pale dirty light,   some captured iceberg   being prevented from melting.   See the mechanical moons,   sick, being made   to wax and wane   at somebody’s instigation. And I shall sell you sell you sell you of course, my dear, and you’ll sell me.   Lights music of love   work on. The presses   print calendars   I suppose, the moons   make medicine   or confectionary. Our bed   shrinks from the soot   and the hapless odors   hold us close. And I shall sell you sell you sell you of course, my dear, and you’ll sell me. 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. Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979), the poet laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, published two poems in The Nation between 1945 and 1947, when Randall Jarrell was interim literary editor. She was a longtime friend of the more frequent Nation contributor Marianne Moore, who in a 1946 review in these pages described Bishop as “spectacular in being unspectacular.” 

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Elizabeth Bishop

The Dream Life of Desire

The Dream Life of Desire The Dream Life of Desire

Drawing a line between poetry and the political has never been simple.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko

Frederick Law Olmsted Surveys a City Burned to the Ground

Frederick Law Olmsted Surveys a City Burned to the Ground Frederick Law Olmsted Surveys a City Burned to the Ground

Chicago's struggle to recover from the Great Fire is engaging the study of its best and most conservative minds.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Frederick Law Olmsted

Is the UK Labor Party Too Moderate to Be in Power?

Is the UK Labor Party Too Moderate to Be in Power? Is the UK Labor Party Too Moderate to Be in Power?

Its leaders speak the language of social concern, yet their strategy is marked by extreme caution, an avoidance of any appearance of radicalism.

Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Edward Miliband

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