Culture
Why the American Novel Refused to Grow Up
It is frustrating—and characteristic of his somewhat monomaniacal approach—that Fiedler does not consider, alongside the seduction plot,…
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Rostam Batmanglij Wanders to the Edges of American Sound
Other songs on “American Stories” are more personal. “Like a Spark” opens with a blues riff played on a nylon-string guitar, offset by the…
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Sharp Claws at “Becky Shaw” and “Cats: The Jellicle Ball”
Still, what distinguishes Gionfriddo is not her ear for cruelty but her ability to see beyond it, and to shift the prism of audience…
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How Bad Is Plagiarism, Really?
From ancient Rome to the era of A.I., people have prized originality, but the line where influence ends and cribbing begins is notoriously…
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What Walter Benjamin Knew
A new biography of the Berlin-born philosopher emphasizes his combination of stubborn unworldliness and startling prescience. Source link
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The Race to Give Every Child a Toy
Actually, they did want to be. There is a reason Morris Michtom moved his family from the Lower East Side to the row houses of Brooklyn as…
Business
“Industry” Is a Study in Wasted Youths
In the new season of the hit HBO series, its young protagonists have left the trading floor that made them. Their second acts are…
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How the Murdoch Family Built an Empire—and Remade the News
St. Bride’s, situated in an alley just off Fleet Street, is known as the journalists’ church. Having weathered not a few disasters—the…
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“Infinite Jest” Has Turned Thirty. Have We Forgotten How to Read It?
In 2023, the writer Patricia Lockwood chafed at Wallace’s supposed sainthood in a long piece for the London Review of Books. The essay, in…
News
How to Kill a Fish
A full week later, when I unwrapped the bonito fillets that Yamasaki had sent me home with, I was amazed to find the skin undiminished,…
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It Takes Only Five Paintings to See Helen Frankenthaler’s Genius
In a small show at MOMA, Frankenthaler seems to make paint its own living force, untouched by an artist. Source link
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Matthew Broderick Stars as the Titular Grifter in “Tartuffe”
Cross and Broderick here offer studies in otiose passivity. Each gets big laughs from portraying inertia: their performances abound in…
News
Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?
As Sacks aged, he felt as if he were gazing at people from the outside. But he also noticed a new kind of affection for humans—“homo sap.”…
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A New Afghan Bakery, in New York’s Golden Age of Bread
As the city’s bakeries have grown increasingly culturally specific, representing far-flung cuisines and styles—see Librae, in the East…
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The Ancient Roots of Doing Time
People knew about incarceration. Seneca, the Roman philosopher and dramatist (and court counsellor), argued that punishment should be…
Culture
Will Geese Redeem Noisy, Lawless Rock and Roll?
On a recent Friday night, the indie-rock band Geese—which formed in New York City in 2016, when its members were still a couple of years…
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Kristin Chenoweth’s Uneven Gilt Trip in “The Queen of Versailles”
There’s a clarity to the arc of Greenfield’s documentary: first the pride goeth, then a fall teacheth. It’s a shame that the musical gets…
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The Comic Genius Who Pushed Television Further Than It Could Go
At its peak, “Your Show of Shows” had twenty-five million viewers, and Caesar was hailed as a genius. Albert Einstein and Leonard…
Fashion
A Master of Fashion Photography Who Embraces Accidents
For Roversi, the studio is “like an empty stage, a space waiting to be filled, a time yet to be invented, where neither seasons, nor days,…
News
Jamar Roberts’s Second Act
Jamar Roberts is the choreographer of the moment. His dances are in demand, with commissions from ballet and modern-dance companies across…
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A Daring Show Remixes the Monuments of the Confederacy
The first thing you see is a horse’s ass, protruding, upside down, from the thorax of a monster. A man’s arm descends from the beast’s…
Lifestyle
Mark Bittman’s Experiment in Sliding-Scale Fine Dining
By dinnertime, the café had been convincingly transformed into a restaurant, with tea lights twinkling beside wildflower arrangements on…
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What Do We Want from Our Child Stars?
Still, Master Betty ruled the little province of Parnassus devoted to underage thespians until the advent of Shirley Temple—and it’s some…