Tag Archives: Literature

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine – Dec 3, 2023

December 2, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 2, 2023): The latest issue features Sunday Night Lights – How America’s most spectacular TV show gets made; The Chicken Tycoons vs. the Antitrust Hawks – As part of a broader campaign against anticompetitive practices, the Biden administration has taken on the chicken industry…

Behind the Scenes of the Most Spectacular Show On TV

Camera operators hovering above a crowd in sports jerseys.

Months of preparation, hundreds of staff, convoys of cutting-edge gear: inside the machine that crafts prime time’s most popular entertainment.

By Jody Rosen

Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, the N.F.L.’s defending champions, is a very loud place. Players say that when the noise reaches top volume, they can feel vibrations in their bones. During a 2014 game, a sound meter captured a decibel reading equivalent to a jet’s taking off, earning a Guinness World Record for “Loudest crowd roar at a sports stadium.” Chiefs fans know how to weaponize noise, quieting to a churchlike hush when the team’s great quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, calls signals but then, when opponents have the ball, unleashing a howl that can even drown out the sound of the play call crackling through the speaker inside the rival quarterback’s helmet.

The Chicken Tycoons vs. the Antitrust Hawks

A photo illustration of a chicken in a suit.

As part of a broader campaign against anticompetitive practices, the Biden administration has taken on the chicken industry. Why have the results been so paltry?

By H. Claire Brown

At Kentucky Fried Chicken, sales tend to peak at the same time every year: Mother’s Day. This has been the case since the 1960s, when the chain began to experiment with TV advertising. In a spot from that era, a man in an office answers a phone call from an anonymous male narrator who asks, “Sir, do you have any idea what your wife has to do to run your house?” Cut to a sped-up montage of an impeccably dressed 30-something as she dusts, irons, vacuums and balances the checkbook. Newly enlightened, the husband shows his appreciation by stopping at Kentucky Fried Chicken on his way home. Cut to a close-up of a happy wife biting into a drumstick. “Colonel Sanders fixes Sunday dinner seven days a week, and it’s finger-lickin’ good.”

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine – Nov 26, 2023

November 26, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 17, 2023): The latest issue features Was Peace Ever Possible in the Israel-Palestine Conflict?; Finding a Moral Center in This Era of War; The Beatles Are Still Charting the Future of Pop. It Looks Bleak – Their latest song points toward a future where no golden goose need ever stop laying, and more…

Was Peace Ever Possible?

Thirty years ago, a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seemed achievable. The story of how it fell apart reveals why the fight remains so intractable today.

MODERATED BY EMILY BAZELON

Finding a Moral Center in This Era of War

By David Marchese Photograph by Mamadi Doumbouya

Phil Klay, as both a participant and a writer, has been thinking deeply about war for a long time. In his two acclaimed works of fiction, the book of short stories “Redeployment,” which won a 2014 National Book Award, and the novel “Missionaries” (2020), and in the nonfiction collection “Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War” (2022), Klay has interrogated, to profound effect and with a deeply humane and moral sensibility, what war does to our hearts and minds, individually and collectively, here and abroad. “I’m interested in the kinds of stories that we tell ourselves about war,” says Klay, who is a 40-year-old veteran of the Iraq war.

Everybody Knows Flo From Progressive. Who Is Stephanie Courtney?

Stephanie Courtney gets makeup for her character Flo.

A polo shirt, a white apron and a retro hairdo changed an actor’s life forever.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine – Nov 19, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 17, 2023): The latest issue features How David Zaslav blew up Hollywood – The inside story of a novice movie mogul in an age of disruption, discontent and disaster ; Russell Brand’s Alternate Reality – The British entertainer built an army of fans with his conspiracy-minded podcast. Now, amid sex-assault claims against him, they’ve become his whole world; Sofia Coppola’s Subversive Search for Truth in ‘Priscilla’ – Hollywood is addicted to mythologizing biopics. ‘‘Priscilla’’ offers something different…

How David Zaslav Blew Up Hollywood

A merger put him in the driver’s seat at Warner Brothers, one of the industry’s biggest studios. It has been a wild ride.

By Jonathan Mahler, James B. Stewart and Benjamin Mullin

It was April 2022, and David Zaslav had just closed the deal of a lifetime. From the helm of his relatively small and unglamorous cable company, Discovery, he had taken control of a sprawling entertainment conglomerate that included perhaps the most storied movie studio on the planet, Warner Brothers. The longtime New Yorker had always loved movies, and against the advice of several media peers, he had moved to Hollywood and taken over Jack Warner’s historic office, hauling the old mogul’s desk out of storage and topping it off with an old-time handset telephone. So far things were going great. He had met all the stars and players, was widely feted as the next in line to save the eternally struggling industry and was well into the process of renovating a landmark house in Beverly Hills.

Sofia Coppola’s Subversive Search for Truth in ‘Priscilla’

Hollywood is addicted to mythologizing biopics. ‘‘Priscilla’’ offers something different.

By Rafaela Bassili

As with much of her other work, the opening of Sofia Coppola’s latest film, “Priscilla,” is all about textures. A pair of manicured feet sink into a shag carpet; a fingernail is carefully polished in red; we see the back of a prodigious black bouffant, then the dexterous painting of a dramatic cat eye with black liner. Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny) paces around Graceland relentlessly. There’s nothing for her to do, and too much for her to process.

Arts & Literature, Books, Literature, Reviews

Reviews: The Best Literary Non-Fiction Books Of 2023

November 16, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Financial Times (November 16, 2023): Best books of 2023 — Literary non-fiction. Carl Wilkinson selects his must-read titles.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man

by Nicholas Shakespeare (Harvill Secker)

Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Fleming’s childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books.

The Secret Life of John le Carre

by Adam Sisman (Profile/Harper)

A follow-up to his 2015 biography of le Carré, who died in 2020, Sisman’s latest book exposes the great spy writer’s duplicitous and deceitful relationships with the women in his life, providing new insights into the secret life of the man behind George Smiley. A fascinating, revelatory appendix to Sisman’s fuller life.

Osip Mandelstam: A Biography

by Ralph Dutli, translated by Ben Fowkes (Verso)

This life of “legendary literary saint”, Osip Mandelstam, provides a timely reminder of both the long history of repression in Russia and the powerful role that literature can play when in the right hands. Dutli’s rounded portrait of the Russian poet unafraid to speak truth to power brings to life the man and his time.

Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life

by Anna Funder (Viking/Knopf)

Funder, author of Stasiland, her prizewinning account of the East German secret police, takes six letters written by Eileen O’Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s first wife, as the imaginative springboard for a deep dive into their relationship and her impact on his writing and legacy. A haunting, tragic and revealing book.

The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes who Created the Oxford English Dictionary

by Sarah Ogilvie (Chatto & Windus)

A former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary herself, Ogilvie has written a “people’s history” of the great literary endeavour. Begun in 1879, the OED is an epic, crowdsourced attempt to pin down slippery, evolving language and this book tells the fascinating story of the eclectic and unsung contributors to this living monument to language.

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

by Nathan Thrall (Allen Lane/Metropolitan Books)

This quietly heartbreaking work of non-fiction reads like a novel. At its centre is a tragic road accident outside Jerusalem in the West Bank from which Thrall, a Jewish American journalist, carefully traces the labyrinthine lives of those involved and the tangled web of politics, history and culture that ensnare them all.

The New York Times Magazine – Nov 12, 2023

November 10, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 10, 2023): The latest issue features A Beginner’s Guide to Looking at the Universe; What Does the U.S. Space Force Actually Do? – Inside the highly secretive military branch responsible for protecting American interests in a vulnerable new domain; Their Final Wish? A Burial in Space. – Why some people decide to send their remains into orbit.

A Beginner’s Guide to Looking at the Universe

A stunning advancement in a long history of stargazing, the James Webb telescope reveals light where once we saw only darkness. Our view of the universe will never be the same.

By KATE LARUE

Arts & Literature, Essays, Journals, Previews

The Arts: Brick Literary Journal – Autumn 2023

November 10, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

BRICK LITERARY JOURNAL (AUTUMN 2023)

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson goes to the breathing lands
Paul Holdengräber and Merve Emre visit Mrs. Dalloway
Douglas Kearney rescues the earth from the world
Jessica Moore on the smarginatura of motherhood
Jan Zwicky approaches Wittgenstein’s silence
Tina Campt defines Black gravity

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine – Nov 5, 2023

November 3, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 3, 2023): The latest issue features Bariatric Surgery at 16 – If childhood obesity is an ‘epidemic,’ how far should doctors go to treat it?; Some Ukrainians Helped the Russians. Their Neighbors Sought Revenge; The Eternal Life of the ’90s Supermodel -How did a small group of models manage to stay on top for so long?, and more…

Bariatric Surgery at 16

If childhood obesity is an ‘epidemic,’ how far should doctors go to treat it?

By Helen Ouyang

Last fall, Alexandra Duarte, who is now 16, went to see her endocrinologist at Texas Children’s Hospital, outside Houston. From age 10, she had been living with polycystic ovary syndrome and, more recently, prediabetes. After Alexandra described her recent quinceañera, the doctor brought up an operation that might benefit her, one that might help her lose weight and, as a result, improve these obesity-related problems.

Some Ukrainians Helped the Russians. Their Neighbors Sought Revenge.

For people in Bilozerka, the invasion began a cat-and-mouse game of collaboration and resistance.

By James Verini

Andriy Koshelev steered his car into the driveway of his home on Pushkin Street in Bilozerka, a lakeside town in Ukraine’s Kherson region. Leaving the car on, Koshelev got out and walked to the entrance gate. He reached down to loosen the latch. When he pulled it, the gate exploded. Koshelev’s parents, who lived on the same property, rushed outside as acrid smoke filled their driveway and the street. The explosion resounded across town.

Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Current Affairs: Prospect Magazine – December 2023

November 1, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Prospect Magazine (December 2023) – The latest issue features Oh, the humanities! – History, literature, film studies; I still dream of peace – How Israel might emerge from the Gaza horror, and more…

I still dream of peace

My country will emerge from this horror—and when it does the peacemakers, not the zealots, will reign, writes a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset

By Avraham Burg

The following words were written amid the storm of battle. Planes constantly circling in the sky, the bedroom turned into a shelter, the radio telling of new atrocities, the heart torn with fear as to the fate of missing persons. The days are now devoted to funerals and condolences, and the evenings to guarding our small community. I have participated in many demonstrations against the terrible folly of Benjamin Netanyahu, which found its outcome in the revenge and rage in Gaza on 7th October. Today, I try to be available for acts of support and solidarity with the victims on all sides. This beautiful land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea weeps bitterly, its two communities refusing to be comforted.

Oh, the humanities!

History, literature, film studies—these subjects expand our understanding and enrich our democracy. They are also under assault

Priyamvada Gopal

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Culture & Politics: The Drift Magazine – Fall 2023

October 30, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Drift Magazine – Fall 2023 Issue – Essays on dissidents, ecoterrorists, and mermaids; an interview with Veronica Gago, Dispatches on the future of the Supreme Court; also fiction, poetry, reviews and more…

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine – Oct 29, 2023

October 27, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 29, 2023): The latest issue features The Scientists Watching Their Life’s Work Disappear; Can We Save the #Redwoods by Helping Them Move?; ‘It’s Like Our Country Exploded’: #Canada’s Year of #Fire and #ClimateChange Is Keeping Therapists Up at Night….

The Scientists Watching Their Life’s Work Disappear

All the photographs in this article are black-and-white. David Obura holds finger coral.

Some are stubborn optimists. Others struggle with despair. Their faces show the weight they carry as they witness the impact of climate change.

Interviews by Catrin Einhorn

Amid the chaos of climate change, humans tend to focus on humans. But Earth is home to countless other species, including animals, plants and fungi. For centuries, we have been making it harder for them to exist by cutting down forests, plowing grasslands, building roads, damming rivers, draining wetlands and polluting. Now that wildlife is depleted and hemmed in, climate change has come crashing down. In 2016, scientists in Australia announced the loss of a rodent called the Bramble Cay melomys, one of the first known species driven to global extinction by climate change. Others are all but certain to follow. How many depends on how much we let the planet heat.

Can We Save the Redwoods by Helping Them Move?

Redwoods with foliage in a violet specturm. All of the photographs in this article have special color treatment to highlight the foliage.

The largest trees on the planet can’t easily ‘migrate’ — but in a warming world, some humans are helping them try to find new homes.

By Moises Velasquez-Manoff

When Philip Stielstra retired from Boeing in 2012, he needed something purposeful to do. He and his wife, Gay, were casual golfers, but Stielstra, an antiwar activist in college who refused to fight in Vietnam — he worked in a post office instead — wanted a pastime with bigger stakes. Before leaving his job, he received an email from the city of Seattle: The Parks and Recreation Department needed “tree ambassadors.” Tree canopy cover had receded in the city, and the department was responding by promoting an appreciation for its remaining trees. The volunteer ambassadors would learn about these trees and lead residents on walking tours to marvel at them. Stielstra, despite being a self-described introvert, signed up.