Author: Matthew Westphal

Why Elena Ferrante Doesn’t Like Exclamation Points

“Mainly, this is because I’m afraid of excesses – mine and others’. Sometimes people make fun of me. They say: ‘You want a world without outbursts of joy, suffering, anger, hatred?’ Yes, I want precisely that, I answer. … But as the world isn’t going in that direction, I make an effort, at least in the artificial universe that is delineated by writing, never to exaggerate with an exclamation mark.”

How A Young Violin Prodigy Survived A Nervous Breakdown And Remade His Life

“In the 1960s, [Saul] Chandler was one of the most promising classical violin prodigies in New York. … But when Mr. Chandler turned 16, the pressures of producing excellence consumed him, and he had a nervous breakdown that derailed his career. He estranged himself from classical music and in an act of reinvention legally changed his name. He would lead a circuitous life that has since involved running a seedy hotel in Times Square, a successful career in mathematics and dramatic voyages at sea. Thirty years ago he started building boats on City Island, where he found peace on its waters.”

He Gave Up A Strad For A 27-Year-Old Violin, And He’s Very Happy About It

“There are violinists who talk about Strads, which are old, and Zygs, which are less old. The violinist Chad Hoopes, who used to play a Strad, now plays the other. The word ‘newer’ would have been tidier in that first sentence. But ‘less old’ seemed appropriate after Mr. Hoopes, who went from playing a Strad made in 1713 to playing a Zyg made in 1991, said that the Zyg is ‘not a new violin.’
‘It’s older than I am,’ he added, quickly.”

What It’s Like to Watch ‘Isle of Dogs’ As a Japanese Speaker

Emily Yoshida: “I reached out on Twitter to a handful of native and/or fluent speakers of Japanese who saw Isle of Dogs on opening weekend … [and] what I found, even in this small sample size, was a similar dynamic I’ve seen before in debates about Asian culture as reflected by Western culture – perspectives can vary wildly between Asian-Americans and immigrated Asians, and what feels like tribute to some feels like opportunism to others.”

Nonprofit Orgs Suffer Collateral Damage In The #MeToo Conflict

“The Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation” – co-founded by rap mogul Russell Simmons – “has helped pay for art and dance classes for thousands of children and opened galleries giving young artists of color, such as Kehinde Wiley, who would later paint the official portrait of Barack Obama, a place to showcase their work. … [And] the Kevin Spacey Foundation mentored and trained young performers.” The latter has closed up shop, and the former may have to pull out of New York. In the past year, “organizations have rapidly distanced and denounced their now-unsavory benefactors, in an effort to keep the rest of their donors from fleeing.”

Smithsonian Chief Supports Women’s History Programming, But Not A New Women’s History Museum

“We are half of America. Don’t we deserve a museum?”, said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who has written legislation to establish a women’s history museum at the Smithsonian. (She claims to have 250 co-sponsors.) But Smithsonian Secretary David J. Skorton, who has just announced the launch of an institution-wide Women’s History Initiative, says, “We’re not in a position to initiate any new museums in the near future.”

America’s Favorite Dictionary Began As A Nationalist Project

“Merriam-Webster‘s … original goal [was] to create and preserve a monolithic American culture. Noah Webster Jr., the dictionary’s founding author, was one of the first American nationalists, and he wrote his reference books with the express purpose of creating a single definition of American English – one that often existed at the expense of regional and cultural variation of any kind.”