Hidden Bird Hidden Bird
Song birds enter the morning the pre-dawn before the fires, you know, when the night floats away like vapor on a lake, or like kisses in the woods. Songs that even creation might not remember. Continuous, threaded, as if a cherry pit were stuck in the throat to produce the trumpet of the branches. So varies, yet never, changing through all the days, since reptiles fell to earth. I give up the reason for the sound I give up the creature of sound and the creator of the creatures and of us and of dawn and air and of vacuum and human inhumanity. I give up the song. I give up the place
Nov 20, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Joseph Ceravolo
I’m Nobody, Who Are You? On Zadie Smith’s ‘NW’ I’m Nobody, Who Are You? On Zadie Smith’s ‘NW’
If you get to the top, only to find that the voice hounding you with charges of inauthenticity is your own, what then?
Nov 20, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz
Republican Soul Searching Republican Soul Searching
We’re searching our souls and we’re wondering why We got beat so badly our rivals are gloating. It’s obvious now where our campaign went wrong: We should have prevented more people from voting.
Nov 14, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Oliver Stone’s ‘Untold History’ Oliver Stone’s ‘Untold History’
Missed opportunities, roads not taken—these are the central themes of Stone's new documentary.
Nov 14, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Jon Wiener
The Noble and the Base: Poland and the Holocaust The Noble and the Base: Poland and the Holocaust
Can the two central images of Poland during World War II—a country of heroes and a country of collaborators—ever be combined?
Nov 14, 2012 / Books & the Arts / John Connelly
Children of the Storm: Education and Social Mobility Children of the Storm: Education and Social Mobility
Paul Tough and Jonathan Kozol examine how decades of family-unfriendly policies have heightened the stress experienced by many children at home and school.
Nov 14, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Helen C. Epstein
Generation X: On Wade Guyton and Gerhard Richter Generation X: On Wade Guyton and Gerhard Richter
Why two artists use a printer to make paintings without using paint.
Nov 14, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Democracy Democracy
(A Patriotic Hymn for Republicans) Despite the fact that incidents of in-person voter fraud in the United States are exceedingly rare, the GOP has used the issue to tighten election laws around the country. —News reports American children are all taught in school That voting’s democracy’s most vital tool. But in the wrong hands all that voting can bring A little too much of a very good thing. Yes, too many voters of darker complexion Can cause the wrong person to win an election. And college kids mostly are just in a phase That makes them left wing and supportive of gays. To us, each of them is a dangerous blighter Whose voting should wait till he’s older and whiter. So we put in laws we have reason to think Will mean that the strength of these voters will shrink. We shorten the hours, and ask for a lot Of picture IDs—more than anyone’s got. Their votes aren’t the votes that the framers intended. We only regret that the poll tax has ended. The voting we need in this land of the free Is voting by people with whom we agree.
Nov 8, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Eve Ensler Rising Eve Ensler Rising
With a new play, Emotional Creature, and big plans for V-Day 2013, the activist playwright reaches for new heights.
Nov 8, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Laura Flanders
Can the Federal Reserve Help Prevent a Second Recession? Can the Federal Reserve Help Prevent a Second Recession?
Chairman Ben Bernanke, who’s been sounding the alarm, is attacked constantly by the right. He and his allies need support from a mostly silent left.
Nov 8, 2012 / Books & the Arts / William Greider