Casual Opulence Casual Opulence
Denise Levertov’s Collected Poems.
Jan 15, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Adam Plunkett
Unreal Cities? Unreal Cities?
Do “smart” urban automation projects have more in common with Jane Jacobs or Le Corbusier?
Jan 15, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Catherine Tumber
Paris! Paris! Paris! Paris!
All reds come in the shape of lips. Even—s’il vous plaît—our shy little Mazovian cherries. So we shall write with a promiscuous tongue and instead of a period—make a lip print. At the railway station buffet in Radom we drink beer, and the world seen through a full mug is yellowed with the fright of Van Gogh, and a mug—mon Dieu!—also has no ear. Paris! Paris! Ai, dana, da dana! We climb atop our dresser stands and dream of the avant-garde’s New Trick: The Straight Line, which is a stem, and at its end hangs a lip-colored cherry. Oh, sweet drop of Marseillaise, little planet of our malignancy, flow down, drop into our thin borschts! We geometricians of form, puddle-jumpers into others’ imaginations, are waiting for you. And let the folk sing along: Paris! Paris! Ai dana, da dana! (translated from the Polish by Jennifer Grotz and Piotr Sommer)
Jan 14, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Jerzy Ficowski
Blown Away by ‘Grounded’: Drone Warfare Up Close and Personal Blown Away by ‘Grounded’: Drone Warfare Up Close and Personal
A new play by George Brant brings home the human costs of America’s remote killing machine.
Jan 14, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Bob Dreyfuss
This Week in ‘Nation’ History: The Passion of Amiri Baraka This Week in ‘Nation’ History: The Passion of Amiri Baraka
We published some of his earliest poems as well as his great 1964 essay on Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay.
Jan 11, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Katrina vanden Heuvel
Reading Melville in Post-9/11 America Reading Melville in Post-9/11 America
The author's half-forgotten masterpiece, Benito Cereno, provides fascinating insight into issues of slavery, freedom, individualism—and Islamophobia.
Jan 7, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Greg Grandin
Melville and the Language of Denial Melville and the Language of Denial
The events behind his story Benito Cereno are more than two centuries old, but the deceptions of racial inferiority that Melville exposes resonate today.
Jan 7, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Toni Morrison
What Bill de Blasio Can Learn From New York City’s Last Radical Mayor What Bill de Blasio Can Learn From New York City’s Last Radical Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia also took office in a time of crisis—and he was open to new ideas and bold reforms.
Jan 7, 2014 / Books & the Arts / D.D. Guttenplan
Why Does Obama Want to Extend a War He Doesn’t Believe In? Why Does Obama Want to Extend a War He Doesn’t Believe In?
Obama wants another decade of war in Afghanistan—but a new book says he’s already lost faith in the mission.
Jan 7, 2014 / Books & the Arts / George Zornick
An Artful Imbalance An Artful Imbalance
Treme is an understated and deeply melancholic patchwork of American stubbornness.
Jan 7, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Akiva Gottlieb