Books & the Arts

Cartoon Wars Cartoon Wars

Once upon a time, a psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham went on a tear over Wonder Woman.

Feb 3, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Richard Goldstein

from Love in the Time of War from Love in the Time of War

Tonight, the old hard work of love has given up. I can't unbutton promises or sing secrets into your left ear tuned to quivering plucked strings.

Jan 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Yusef Komunyakaa

The Moviegoer The Moviegoer

If Herbert Marcuse and Senator Joseph McCarthy had gone to a movie together in the late 1950s--and that could only happen in a movie--they would have walked out, probably not tog...

Jan 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Lee Siegel

Intolerable Cruelty Intolerable Cruelty

On May 22, 1787, nine Quakers and three Anglicans gathered in a London print shop with the express purpose of doing something about the international slave trade.

Jan 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Lazare

1600 Pennsylvania Meets Madison Ave. 1600 Pennsylvania Meets Madison Ave.

As a political marketing device, Bush's address was brilliant.

Jan 25, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Robert Scheer

Blood Simple Blood Simple

Half a century has passed since Manny Farber wrote in these pages about underground films, by which he meant the urban crime movies watched by male loiterers near the Greyhound s...

Jan 20, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Men in Dark Times Men in Dark Times

"I am very happy to see so many flowers here and that is why I want to remind you that flowers, by themselves, have no power whatsoever, other than the power of men and women who...

Jan 20, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Russell Jacoby

In the Penal Colony In the Penal Colony

Alberto Gonzales's nomination to succeed John Ashcroft as Attorney General put the Abu Ghraib torture scandal back on the front pages, since he was directly implicated, as White ...

Jan 20, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Lisa Hajjar

The Rebirth of the Modern The Rebirth of the Modern

The letterhead of Columbia University, where I taught for four decades, reads in full "Columbia University in the City of New York," not because there is much likelihood that any...

Jan 13, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Beyond Good and Evil Beyond Good and Evil

Adorno said, as we all know, that writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. This is not to say, as many imagine, that writing poetry after Auschwitz is to be forbidden, or is i...

Jan 13, 2005 / Books & the Arts / John Banville

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