Contraception (of All Things) Contraception (of All Things)
Republicans are bashing birth control, As candidates far-rightward scurry. The voters haven’t heard such talk in years. We’re going backward in a hurry.
Mar 7, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Till the Knowing Ends: On William Gass Till the Knowing Ends: On William Gass
In Life Sentences, William Gass shows that consciousness needs to be stressed to be strengthened.
Mar 7, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Joanna Scott
Faces out of the Crowd: On the Renaissance Portrait Faces out of the Crowd: On the Renaissance Portrait
How Renaissance painters brought human presence to the fore.
Mar 7, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
The Uprooted The Uprooted
A new history of Europe’s postwar world and its displaced persons.
Mar 7, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Holly Case
I Thought That I Would Never See a Pol Who Loved the Height of Trees I Thought That I Would Never See a Pol Who Loved the Height of Trees
“I love this state. It seems right here. The trees are the right height.” —Mitt Romney, in his home state of Michigan Away from here, I find no trees that please— No trees at such a perfect height as these. For me, I cannot ever be at ease With trees that grow no higher than one’s knees Or too tall trees that splinter in a freeze. Wisconsin, sure, has bragging rights on cheese. And California’s rich in Cantonese. And Colorado’s where to take your skis. Connecticut, of course, has Lyme disease. At none of these am I prepared to sneeze. But here we have the perfect height of trees.
Feb 29, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Duvalier and Haiti’s Triple Threat Duvalier and Haiti’s Triple Threat
Why was Baby Doc able to return after decades of exile and evade justice, despite his crimes?
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Amy Wilentz
Life After Merce Life After Merce
Can the work of Merce Cunningham survive his death and the closing of his dance company?
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Marina Harss
Of Deserts and Promised Lands: The Dream of Global Justice Of Deserts and Promised Lands: The Dream of Global Justice
Jenny Martinez and Kathryn Sikkink offer conflicting histories of the ascendency of international courts.
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn
How to Watch a Police Beating How to Watch a Police Beating
First off, there should be two sets of laws— act like an ox and try not to be nonwhite or named Becky. A hippie, with its gauche idealism still intact, is annoying and self-destroying so administrations can contain it better. It's also an enormous help that your skin is recorded like data on the surface of your body, it broadcasts a signal—that you're tripping your face off at the prom for instance. My eyes feel more Episcopalian than ever, those furry little hellions that forcefully broke up a peaceful assembly of women's rights activists. Parking violations can carry bigger fines than beating up women and you act like these people can tape you but you can't tape yourself. Perhaps if the police bombed a foreign country with lattes my friends would begin to act like themselves again. It seems to me that this is not an assemblage of rights activists at all, said the lion, but a love of replacing state violence with video game violence, great movie gore and plans to repopulate the entire province with horny people again, to participate without these detached coagulations of disoriented rage branching off Falstaff just for the heck of it. To act as banker, you have to live on interest or uncover laughter at a huge obese religious electoral reform corsage. I guess you're supposed to go through and deny each of the five senses individually.
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Drew Gardner
A Man Escaped A Man Escaped
Jafar Panahi’s This Is Not a Film; Kimi Takesue’s Where Are You Taking Me?; Manfred Kirchheimer’s Art Is…The Permanent Revolution
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans