Books & the Arts

No Exit? Greece’s Ongoing Crisis

No Exit? Greece’s Ongoing Crisis No Exit? Greece’s Ongoing Crisis

How do Greece’s economists and writers explain its social predicament?

Mar 13, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Mark Mazower

What Did Clausen See What Did Clausen See

   What did Clausen see in the sky? Probably no one will ever know. He flew in all excited from the garden (where he had been weeding carrots) and pointing to the clouds exclaimed: There, there! I asked him: Would you like a drink? But he, with a wild look in his eyes, just kept repeating: There, there! He wouldn’t respond to anything. Later he was taken to an insane asylum. (His furniture ended up on the auction block.)    What did Clausen see in the sky? Probably no one will ever know. (translated from the Polish by Piotr Gwiazda)

Mar 13, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Grzegorz Wróblewski

Two Rights and A Wrong: On Taner Akçam Two Rights and A Wrong: On Taner Akçam

A historian’s view of why political demands, past and present, have weighed on Turkish debates about the Armenian genocide.

Mar 13, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Holly Case

This Week: Moving Feminism Forward This Week: Moving Feminism Forward

We’ve come a long way, but we’ve a long way to go in progress for women’s rights.

Mar 9, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Katrina vanden Heuvel

Darkness Lit From Within: On A.B. Yehoshua

Darkness Lit From Within: On A.B. Yehoshua Darkness Lit From Within: On A.B. Yehoshua

The soul-destroying weariness in A.B. Yehoshua’s stories seems as old as time itself—and unique to contemporary Israel.

Mar 6, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick

Endless Representation: On Giorgio Griffa and Thomas Nozkowski

Endless Representation: On Giorgio Griffa and Thomas Nozkowski Endless Representation: On Giorgio Griffa and Thomas Nozkowski

Even when painting is abstract, it never ceases to be concerned with decoration.

Mar 6, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

Jellyfish or Fossil? On Louis Agassiz

Jellyfish or Fossil? On Louis Agassiz Jellyfish or Fossil? On Louis Agassiz

Frustrated, stubborn, committed to bad science, was Louis Agassiz anything other than a laughingstock?

Mar 6, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Brenda Wineapple

Shelf Life

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Robert Burley’s The Disappearance of Darkness, Harvey Wang’s From Darkroom to Daylight.

Mar 6, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Lucy McKeon

Honoring Rosa Parks Requires More Than a Statue

Honoring Rosa Parks Requires More Than a Statue Honoring Rosa Parks Requires More Than a Statue

The memorial to Parks turned her into a meek and redemptive figure—instead of the radical freedom fighter she was until the end of her life.

Feb 28, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Marwa Amer and Jeanne Theoharis

Passing the Signal Along Passing the Signal Along

The task of a critic has to do with the nature of the knowledge we call art.

Feb 28, 2013 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz

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