Looking for Mr. Goodbomb Looking for Mr. Goodbomb
Every good hunter is uneasy in the depths of his conscience when faced with the death he is about to inflict on the enchanted animal. He does not have the final and firm convicti...
Sep 27, 2001 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
To the Oracle at Delphi To the Oracle at Delphi
Great Oracle,why are you staring at me, do I baffle you, do I make you despair? I, Americus, the American, wrought from the dark in my mother long ago, from the dark of ancien...
Sep 20, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Toward a Global New Deal Toward a Global New Deal
At the close of every great and violent social conflict comes due a bill of rights. Following the barbarism of World War II, the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Huma...
Sep 20, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Greg Grandin
Human Rights and Diplomatic Wrongs Human Rights and Diplomatic Wrongs
The composition of the UN's Commission on Human Rights changes annually, since a third of the seats are up for grabs each year. Elections, which take place in the spring, determin...
Sep 20, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Dick (Nixon) Heads Dick (Nixon) Heads
Arthur C. Danto writes about the career of Philip Guston.
Sep 13, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto
Murder of the Middle Class Murder of the Middle Class
Patricia Highsmith was a master writer of crime and suspense.
Sep 13, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Neil Gordon
Policing the Color Line Policing the Color Line
Two books on modern policing and the racial dynamics that go with it.
Sep 13, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Christian Parenti
Monarchs Landing and Flying Monarchs Landing and Flying
If they have come for the butterflies then bless their breaking hearts, but the young pair is looking nowhere except each other's eyes. He seems like he could carry them both over the street on great wings of grief tucked under his coat, while all around them float, like wisps of ash or the delicate prism sunlight flashing off the city glass, the orange-yellow-black-wing-flecked monarchs. Migrant, they're more than two dozen today, more long-lived than the species who keep to the localized gardens--they're barely a gram apiece, landing, holding still for the common milkweed that feeds their larvae, or balanced on bridges of plumegrass stalks and bottle-brush, wings fanning, closing, calmed by the long searchlight stems of hollyhock. If they have come for the butterflies then why is she weeping when he lifts her chin? He looks like he's holding his breath back-- or is he trying to shed tears, too? Are any left? He's got his other hand raised, waving, and almost before it stops the taxi's doors flare on both sides open. Nothing's stirring in the garden, not us, not the thinnest breeze among the flowers, yet by the time we look again they've flown.
Sep 6, 2001 / Books & the Arts / David Baker
On the Record: Toward a Union Label On the Record: Toward a Union Label
Courtney Love's plea to fellow recording artists to join her in the creation of a new musicians' guild, printed below, is the latest blow to the beleaguered "Big Five
Sep 6, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Courtney Love and Johnny Temple
Vagina Monologue Vagina Monologue
In his essay for the catalogue that accompanies "Picasso Érotique," beautifully installed in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until September 16, Jean-Jacques Lebel repro...
Aug 23, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto