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
C. Everett Koop, 1916–2013 C. Everett Koop, 1916–2013
From ideologue to reality-based public servant, the evolution of a fascinating man.
Mar 12, 2013 / Rick Perlstein
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
A Personal Application of Sequestration A Personal Application of Sequestration
The bulge in your gut’s an embarrassment, but You just can’t decide on which diet to use— The one with all carbs or the no-fats-at-all. You set a date certain by which you must choose. The date has arrived and you’ve not made a start. The fat’s hanging over. Your trousers won’t fit. You do what you promised you’d do in this case: You take out a knife and you slice off a bit.
Mar 6, 2013 / Column / Calvin Trillin
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
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
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
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
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