Changing the Metaphor Changing the Metaphor
For Jackson Lears, the United States remains in thrall to a bogus spiritual quest born of a refusal to face the tragedy of the Civil War.
Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Richard White
Honey and Salt Honey and Salt
Technology has made us capable of exterminating ourselves. In The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood wonders what might save us.
Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
A Gift From the Ramparts of Capital… A Gift From the Ramparts of Capital…
People shouldn't take Peace Prizes too seriously except under those rare circumstances when a prize committee somewhere gets it right.
Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Cockburn
Aubade Aubade
Cell tower beacon a red boutonniere-- Sanankoroba on the hook w/ Senanque-- & flourishing thru this gunite, perishing world: a freesia fitted w/ aerofoils that turn in the wind & turn the wind to kilowatt-hours to power the flower forth--
Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Zawacki
The Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue (Excerpt) The Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue (Excerpt)
If I sat next to you, spoke only to you, you would feel the warmth of my breath. As our shoulders touched you would shift, and I would know your movement as response. This is a world and we are in it. And still, as if this matters, I worry that you can't see me; I worry that you will go on without me in mind--even as our shoulders continue to touch, even as you carry my voice in your ear. At times I've wished for a structure to lean on, a landmark that's larger than the life around us, something that would govern us all. Maybe I want this because we almost had it. In truth, I was almost our Capital City. Did you know the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the 21st century was experienced most fully this summer in Shanghai, in a city. China's most populated city. For six minutes and thirty-nine seconds, as the moon passed directly between the earth and the sun, for all those bodies all was darkness. I know how that feels. But daylight is the great extravagance. In the end I know this is true--even if I fall again and again into my private realities--because despite everything I am built out of lives.
Oct 14, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Claudia Rankine
Three Possible Explanations From the Nobel Committee Three Possible Explanations From the Nobel Committee
They have some justifying to do.
Oct 14, 2009 / Column / Calvin Trillin
It Costs Money to Die It Costs Money to Die
Forty-five years before Jessica Mitford's exposè of the funeral industry, Paul Blanshard found out just how expensive dying can be.
Oct 12, 2009 / Paul Blanshard
Opting Out Opting Out
Jack Kevorkian is leading the movement to allow people to take death in their own hands.
Oct 12, 2009 / Frank A. Oski
Baffled Dignity Baffled Dignity
Alain Resnais's Wild Grass and Margot Benacerraf's Araya.
Oct 8, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
End-of-Self Help End-of-Self Help
Is the task of philosophy "to learn how to die," or to teach that there is no such thing as a good death?
Oct 8, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Provan