Category Archives: Arts & Literature

The New Yorker Magazine Dec. 30, 2024 & Jan. 6, 2025

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The New Yorker (December 23, 2024): Diana Ejaita’s “Midnight Moments” – The magical blur of New Year’s Eve.

How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking?

English continues to expand into diverse regions around the world. The question is whether humanity will be homogenized as a result. By Manvir Singh

Alice Munro’s Passive Voice

The celebrated writer’s partner sexually abused her daughter Andrea. The abuse transformed Munro’s fiction, but she left it to Andrea to confront the true story. By Rachel Aviv

Is There Any Escape from the Spotify Syndrome?

The history of recorded music is now at our fingertips. But the streamer’s algorithmic skill at giving us what we like may keep us from what we’ll love. By Hua Hsu

The New York Times Book Review – Dec. 22, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 22, 2024): The latest features…

When Stephen Sondheim Transformed Theater, and Theatergoers, Forever

An incisive new book, “How Sondheim Can Change Your Life,”

The Books Readers Loved in 2024

Memorable characters, delightful nonfiction and poignant novels stuck with people across the world.

Why One of the World’s Most Elusive Writers Still Haunts Readers

Newly translated letters reveal the inner life of Paul Celan, offering clues to his enigmatic poems.

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

THE ART NEWSPAPER (December 20, 2024): It is the final episode of 2024 and so, as always, we review the year, looking at the top stories, the big issues and the best art.

Host Ben Luke is joined by The Art Newspaper’s contemporary art correspondent, Louisa Buck, our art market editor, Kabir Jhala, and Ben Sutton, our editor in the Americas.

Under discussion, among much else: the growing faultlines between institutions and artists in relation to Gaza; the big museum stories, from Saudi Arabian funding to attacks on artworks and restitution; a market roundup; culture and the climate emergency; and the panel’s exhibitions and biennials of the year.

Times Literary Supplement December 20, 2024 Preview

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Times Literary Supplement (December 18, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Faithful unto Death’…

The Atlantic Magazine – January 2025 Preview

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The Atlantic Magazine (December 17, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Seamus Heaney, My Father, and Me’ by Catlin Flanagan…

Walk on Air Against Your Better Judgment

What Seamus Heaney gave me

The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military

The U.S. failed to produce weapons and ammunition fast enough to supply Ukraine. Could it equip its own armed forces in the event of war?

Maybe Democrats Didn’t Do So Badly After All

The party’s debate about reinventing itself after the election has gotten more complicated.

The New Yorker Magazine – December 23, 2024 Issue

A detective investigates a word search.

The New Yorker Magazine (December 16, 2024): Kate Beaton’s “A Murder Mystery” – Take a closer look at the cover of the annual Cartoons & Puzzles Issue.

Syria After Assad

The scramble is on to define the future of Syria, quickly, to avert a war even more divisive than the conflict that has riven the nation for thirteen years. By Robin Wright

The Secret History of Risotto

The dish is governed by a set of laws that are rooted in tradition, rich in common sense, and aching to be broken or bent. By Anthony Lane

Brady Corbet’s Outsider American Epic

“The Brutalist,” the director’s nearly four-hour study of immigration, identity, and marriage, flowed from his own struggle to create art without compromise. “You really have to dare to suck to transcend,” he said. By Alexandra Schwartz

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Dec. 13, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (December 11, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The tragic Queen of France’ – The legend of Marie Antoinette; William Dalrymple’s Indian empire; Mary Beard – A night at the museum; The coffee house scientist; What Kindle readers want…

Arts: The Brooklyn Rail – December/January 2025

The Brooklyn Rail (December 11, 2024): The latest issue features…

“When you invent the ship, you must also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane, you must also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution… Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.”
–Paul Virilio

“The human spirit must prevail over technology.”
–Albert Einstein

Art

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Sylvia Plimack Mangold: Tapes, Fields, and Trees, 1975–84 – By Rebecca Allan

David Smith: The Nature of Sculpture – By Phong Bui

Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350 – By David Carrier

Jaeheon Lee: Ghosts in the Garden – By William Corwin

Edges of Ailey – By Ekin Erkan

Patterns in Abstraction – By Leia Genis

Jordan Nassar: THERE – By Robert Alan Grand

Jay DeFeo: Trees – By Suzanne Hudson

Nour Mobarak: Dafne Phono – By Eana Kim

Yuli Yamagata: Ghosts Don’t Wear Watches – By Alfred Mac Adam

Soledad Sevilla: Ritmos, tramas, variables – By Valerie Mindlin

Mark Bradford: Keep Walking – By Charles Moore

André Griffo: Exploded View – By Rômulo Moraes

Jesse Krimes: Corrections – By Joanna Seifter

Lynne Drexler: Color Notes – By David Whelan

Rosemarie Beck: Earthly Paradise – By Leah Triplett Harrington

Francesco Clemente: Summer Love in the Fall – By Selena Parnon

Sean Scully: Duane Street, 1981–1983 – By Raphy Sarkissian

Henni Alftan: Stop Making Sense – By Ann C. Collins

Hap Tivey: Perception is the Medium – By Benjamin Clifford

William Gropper: Artist of the People – By Margot Yale