A Week of Americana. Part One: Moby Dick
Sean MurphyAs our nation prepares to celebrate another birthday this week, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit some posts that celebrate art, American style. The first one, fittingly, is…
The Greatness of the Gatsby
Kathryn Schulz has seized the occasion of the newest—and probably not the last—screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby to take the great American novel down several pegs. Indeed, she is…
They Lived This Way Because No One Else Could (Revisited)
Everyone has their favorite picture. I can't say this one is mine, but it will do. Even though I was always too young to fully (or even partially) feel the…
Coal Mines, Unions, Big Business and (of course) George Orwell (Revisited)
Watching coal-miners at work, you realize momentarily what different universes people inhabit. --George Orwell Quite by chance (no, really), I saw an old classic that had been languishing in my…
Art vs. Life and Death, Again (Revisited)
We were saying? Wow, look at the New York Times, today, on the complicated legacy of Roberto Bolano, here. Money quote(s): Few writers are more acclaimed right now than the…
Art vs. Life and Death, cont’d (Revisited)
Here's the thing: one wonders how many of these artistic types are producing anything worthwhile? How many worthwhile artists do you run into who are even comfortable talking about the…
Art vs. Life and Death (Revisited)
Subj: art Date: 11/28/98 12:55:40 PM Eastern Standard Time From: BULLMURPH To: BULLMURPH Question: If artists are inherently not normal, but the goal of analysis is more or less to…
George Saunders: This Is His Time
Earlier this month, the New York Times magazine featured the guy pictured above in a cover story entitled "George Saunders Has Written The Best Book You'll Read This Year". Check it out here. Who is…
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead: The Play’s The Thing (Revisited)
(So...I guess the world didn't end yesterday. Seems appropriate, then, to think about where we go before and after we're here. Or what about if we were never here in…
Sui generis on the rocks: Christopher Hitchens (One Year Later)
The best way to compliment a writer, as a reader, is to recommend their work to others. That I wholeheartedly do --and have done. The best way to compliment a…