Since posting the quote from the Roiphe review of David Reiff’s memoir of his mother Susan Sontag, Swimming in a Sea of Death, I have been more conscious of the ambient energy that continues to emanate from Sontag’s thoughts and writings. Here’s a sampling: Even in modern times, when most artists and critics have discarded […]
Elizabeth Gilbert, Explained
No question, Elizabeth Gilbert’s follow up to Eat, Pray, Love (which I hated but yes I have to confess, I did stay with it, my nose held tight, til the end), Committed, is the book of the season—the featured review in the New York Times Book Review last Sunday, media tour appearances hither and yon. […]
Forever Susan
Susan Sontag has been a life long beacon for me. Brilliant, articulate, quixotic, complicated, relentless, tenacious, long-suffering, wise—her work and her life have informed so many of my views. In a New York Times review of Sontag’s son David Rieff’s book, Swimming in a Sea of Death, Katie Roiphe captured a quicksilver and bittersweet vision […]
Fashion as Metaphor
“The world of fashion. I’m interested in the world, not in fashion! But, maybe I was too quick to put down fashion. Why not look at it without prejudice? Why not examine it like any other industry, like the movies for example?” I resonate with these words from Wim Wenders’ unforgettable film, Notebooks on Cities […]
- Architecture
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Wisdom from Another Time
MIT Chapel, Cambridge MA. Eero Saarinen, 1955 There is something profoundly moving about this show; an inescapable nostalgia pervades it for that elusive American Century. The faith in the future, the belief that science and technology would bring us a better world, is part of a more innocent era. Seeing how one architect expressed its […]
Fanny Howe
Blue river, icy sunk where something but nobody fell Now theology is necessary for the way there are these holes & questions Père Noël, whose presents like questions come from the mind: Let me be helpless & hopeless this coming year let me know God and not feel fear Winter tones are rose & glass […]
- Aesthetics
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Creativity 2.0
Margaret Kilgallen at work A provocative article on Slate reviews Jaron Lanier’s latest book, You are Not a Gadget. Written by Slate senior editor Michael Agger, the essay digs into many of Lanier’s ideas and just says No. Lanier, one of the leaders in the early days of virtual reality and an respected Wired alum, […]
Condimenting
Malcolm Gladwell is a phenom to be sure. His books always end up on the best seller list (there are two of them on now, Outliers and What the Dog Saw) and he is a popular inspirational keynote speaker. I admit, I imbibe. I read his New Yorker pieces religiously. I’ve read all his books. […]
Mary Daly: Radical Feminist Pirate
Mary Daly Mary Daly has been a longstanding and highly controversial icon in the Boston area. For some she was a fearless crusader. For others she was overbearing and out of line. She died on Sunday at the age of 81. Her extraordinary story is well known in these parts but here’s a brief backgrounder […]
One More From Rachel’s Hand
Dak Thok Monastery, Ladakh At the Zen Mountain Monastery A double line of meditators sits on mats, each one a human triangle. Evacuate your mind of clutter now. I do my best, squeezing the static and the agony into a straight flat line, but soon it soars and dips until my mind’s activity looks (you […]