Story Me This
February 26, 2010
I’d never waited in angst for a book to be published before now.
Archive for February 2010
Several Selves
February 26, 2010
The sense of multiple identities with which we live our lives is no accident.
Baseball Breaks Your Heart
February 22, 2010
As pitchers and catchers report in Arizona and Florida, a uniquely American season begins anew. The beauty of the sport of baseball has never been more poetically elegized than by former commissioner Bart Giamatti (you may know his son, Paul) in this essay, “The Green Fields of the Mind.” Play ball! It breaks your heart. [...]
This Pain Is Not For You
February 19, 2010
Can we use sad music any way we see fit? Or does the disclosure of pain oblige us to think carefully about the way we listen?
The Adults Aren’t Alright
February 18, 2010
From The New Republic: The Adults Aren’t Alright. I’m sorry, but from where I sit, it ain’t the young’uns having notable trouble setting barriers and using technology with any level of discretion, reserve, or common sense. Rather, every time you turn around, an ostensible grown-up has done something monumentally stupid like sexting his mistress, sending [...]
Artists and Their Day Jobs
February 17, 2010
From The Guardian: Don’t Give Up the Day Job (a UK perspective). How does the average artist make a living? If you’re Damien Hirst, of course, you need only flog a couple of sharks in formaldehyde; if you’re Tracey Emin, an unmade bed will do. If you’re an actor, a well-publicised turn as Hamlet and near-omnipresence [...]
Why Orwell Endures
February 16, 2010
From the New York Times: Why Orwell Endures. And yet for all his fame and stature, Orwell remains elusive. For one thing, he is impossible to categorize. He was a great something — but a great what? Scarcely a great novelist: the prewar novels are good but not very good, and even “Animal Farm” and [...]