“[T]he avowed aim of the American protest novel is to bring greater freedom to the oppressed. They are forgiven, on the strength of these good intentions, whatever violence they do to language, whatever excessive demands they make of credibility. … The ‘protest’ novel, so far from being disturbing, is an accepted and comforting aspect of the American scene, ramifying that framework we believe to be so necessary.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Facing Death With Tolstoy
Mary Beard considers the ways that Tolstoy grappled with the end, in his own life and in The Death of Ivan Ilich and Confession – and offers an appreciation of how translator Peter Carson faced his own final illness as he worked on his new English versions of those two works.
Save The Houston Astrodome! (Says Architecture Critic!)
Christopher Hawthorne: “Forget Monticello or the Chrysler building: There may be no piece of architecture more quintessentially American than the Astrodome. Widely copied after it opened in 1965, it perfectly embodies postwar U.S. culture in its brash combination of Space Age glamour, broad-shouldered scale and total climate control.”
Kind Words For Norman Rockwell (From An Art Critic!)
Peter Schjeldahl: “Rockwell’s populous American mythos is ever more to be valued as the shared beliefs that used to gird it devolve into hellish divisions. His lodestar was Charles Dickens, naturalized to New England towns and to suburbs anywhere. And he drew and painted angelically, with subtle technical ingenuity, involving layered colors, that is still underappreciated.”
Actual Roast Turkeys And Cakes For L.A. Opera’s Falstaff
“Rupert Hemmings, the opera’s senior director of production, … said that if food is to be used in an opera, planning has to start months in advance. If we have to have food actually eaten on stage, then we have to start consulting with the singer way ahead of time. What will they eat? Are they allergic to something? Do they not like to eat? Will they pretend to eat? How much do they want to eat?'”
Why H Is The Most Contentious Letter Of The Alphabet
Michael Rosen, author of Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells A Story: “Debates about power and class surround every letter, and H is the most contentious of all. No other letter has had such power to divide people into opposing camps.” (Heck, we can’t even agree on how to pronounce the name of the letter itself.)
Uproar In Art World Over Munich Discovery Of Looted Artworks
“If confirmed, the discovery would be one of the biggest finds of vanished art in years. But word of it left almost equally big questions unanswered: Why did the German authorities let more than two years pass before such a sizable find was disclosed? What will become of the recovered works of art? Did Mr. Gurlitt continue to make sales even after the raid? And where is he today?”
Watching Sondheim Watch A New Musical
“It isn’t every day you spot the Almighty in the East Village, but on Tuesday I sat directly behind Stephen Sondheim, the reigning deity of musical theatre, at a performance of Fun Home … Engrossed as I was with the action onstage, it was impossible to watch without imagining it through Sondheim’s eyes. … But that’s because it’s often hard to watch any modern musical without considering his pervasive influence on the genre, as if Sondheim is perpetually perched in Row H of the artists’ minds.”
Philadelphia Orchestra To Tour Europe In Spring 2015
Unusually, the announcement came not from orchestra officials on Broad Street, but from Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in London, where he was on a trade mission.
The Real Problem With Blue Is The Warmest Color‘s Sex Scenes
Richard Brody: “The problem … is that they’re too good – too unusual, too challenging, too original – to be assimilated … to the familiar moviegoing experience. Their duration alone is exceptional, as is their emphasis on the physical struggle, the passionate and uninhibited athleticism of sex, the profound marking of the characters’ souls by their sexual relationship.”