The Leavetaking The Leavetaking
What legacy did Harold Pinter leave behind?
Feb 17, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Richard Byrne
Slide Show: The Nation’s Oscars Slide Show: The Nation’s Oscars
Images from the Oscar-winners of the past and reviews from Nation critics who loved/hated them.
Feb 17, 2009 / Photo Essay / The Nation
Secret GOP Strategy Session Revealed Secret GOP Strategy Session Revealed
The Republicans on Capitol Hill celebrate their 'victory' in the stimulus fight and plot their next scheme: taking down the Obama girls.
Feb 16, 2009 / Saturday Night Live
The Nation Critic’s Picks: Gommorah and The Class The Nation Critic’s Picks: Gommorah and The Class
The Nation's film critic Stuart Klawans weighs in on two of the most acclaimed foreign films of 2008.
Feb 12, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Brett Story
Three Poems Three Poems
These three poems from Blackbird and Wolf are published with permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Homosexuality First I saw the round bill, like a bud; then the sooty crested head, with avernal eyes flickering, distressed, then the peculiar long neck wrapping and unwrapping itself, like pity or love, when I removed the stovepipe cover of the bedroom chimney to free what was there and a duck crashed into the room (I am here in this fallen state), hitting her face, bending her throat back (my love, my inborn turbid wanting, at large all night), backing away, gnawing at her own wing linings (the poison of my life, the beast, the wolf), leaping out the window, which I held open (now clear, sane, serene), before climbing back naked into bed with you. Poppies Waking from comalike sleep, I saw the poppies, with their limp necks and unregimented beauty. Pause, I thought, say something true: It was night, I wanted to kiss your lips, which remained supple, but all the water in them had been replaced with embalming compound. So I was angry. I loved the poppies, with their wide-open faces, how they carried themselves, beckoning to me instead of pushing away. The way in and the way out are the same, essentially: emotions disrupting thought, proximity to God, the pain of separation. I loved the poppies, with their effortless existence, like grief and fate, but tempered and formalized. Your hair was black and curly; I combed it. Beach Walk I found a baby shark on the beach. Seagulls had eaten his eyes. His throat was bleeding. Lying on shell and sand, he looked smaller than he was. The ocean had scraped his insides clean. When I poked his stomach, darkness rose up in him, like black water. Later, I saw a boy, aroused and elated, beckoning from a dune. Like me, he was alone. Something tumbled between us-- not quite emotion. I could see the pink interior flesh of his eyes. "I got lost. Where am I?" he asked, like a debt owed to death. I was pressing my face to its spear-hafts. We fall, we fell, we are falling. Nothing mitigates it. The dark embryo bares its teeth and we move on.
Feb 12, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Henri Cole
Henri Cole: The Art of Violent Concision Henri Cole: The Art of Violent Concision
Henri Cole's Blackbird and Wolf contains some of the most truthful poems in modern American poetry. He is this year's winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.
Feb 12, 2009 / Books & the Arts / John Koethe
The Human Metaphor: Marlene Dumas and Barkley Hendricks The Human Metaphor: Marlene Dumas and Barkley Hendricks
The paintings of Marlene Dumas, at the Museum of Modern Art, and Barkley Hendricks, at the Studio Museum of Harlem.
Feb 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
States of Mind: The Idea of Iran States of Mind: The Idea of Iran
Thirty years after the Islamic revolution, Iran teeters on the brink of a different kind of revolt. Four books shed light on an ancient nation's many incarnations.
Feb 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Negar Azimi
Back Talk: Adam Frank Back Talk: Adam Frank
A conversation with astrophysicist Adam Frank about science, religion and manifestations of the sacred in the physical world.
Feb 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Christine Smallwood
An Alienation Artist: Kafka and His Critics An Alienation Artist: Kafka and His Critics
Unraveling the Kafkaesque mystique of Franz Kafka.
Feb 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Provan