Monthly Archives: April 2021

Native ‘Son’

Posted on April 16, 2021 by JMN

A chance juxtaposition of readings* has suggested to me the perennial nature of America’s brutish policing streak. In 1941, Richard Wright’s manuscript novel “The Man Who Lived Underground” is rejected by publishers who are made queasy over scenes of violence: … Continue reading →

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‘Cry of Pain’

Posted on April 15, 2021 by JMN

Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young” ruefully ironizes over a lad clever enough to “slip betimes away / From fields where glory does not stay.” Novelists, though, get more mileage out of superannuated jocks — Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom, Malamud’s Roy … Continue reading →

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‘Inter faeces et urinam nascimur’

Posted on April 13, 2021 by JMN

“Between feces and urine we are born,” said Augustine in the 4th century. The bishop of Hippo’s take on parturition was that our mothers effectively defecate us from their feculent crannies. Doctrine on sex and love handed down by dour … Continue reading →

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‘Endecha Sin Música’

Posted on April 12, 2021 by JMN

Dirge Without Musicby Edna St. Vincent MillayText at http://www.poetryfoundation.orgSpanish paraphrase by JMN Endecha Sin Música I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.No me resigno a que se recluyan corazones tiernos en el … Continue reading →

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Be Paint

Posted on April 11, 2021 by JMN

… [Clement] Greenberg’s organizing idea was surprisingly simple: modern painting, having ceased to be illustrative, ought to be decorative. Once all the old jobs of painting—portraying the bank president, showing off the manor house, imagining the big battle—had been turned … Continue reading →

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But Also Thank the Devil

Posted on April 6, 2021 by JMN

The worst way to defeat a social or cultural ill is to declare war on it. The U.S. declares war on problems it can’t or won’t solve. The worst way to foster a social or cultural good is to declare … Continue reading →

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And the Winner Is… Loss Vegas

Posted on April 5, 2021 by JMN

“The vast majority of MLMs [multi-level marketing companies like Amway and Ambit] are recruiting MLMs, in which participants must recruit aggressively to profit. Based on available data from the companies themselves, the loss rate for recruiting MLMs is approximately 99.9%; … Continue reading →

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Alice Neel: ‘Collector of Souls’

Posted on April 4, 2021 by JMN

“I would say she was looking at two ghetto children from uptown and bringing out the beauty in us.” [Jeff Neal, on left in the portrait with brother Toby.] (John Leland, “Two Brothers Posed for a Portrait. One Lived to … Continue reading →

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A Translation

Posted on April 3, 2021 by JMN

If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas DesertBy Natalie Diaz. Selected by Reginald Dwayne Betts, NYTimes, 4-1-21. [Translator’s note: The title’s ‘West Texas Desert’ is resonant and necessary. For my Spanish interpretation, however, the fact … Continue reading →

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Un pinar y un mar.

Posted on April 1, 2021 by JMN

Contrastes. Un pinar y un mar. Alba — camino, verde, azul, los pájaros que viven en el bosque… son palabras que ahora [now] tú reconoces [recognize].

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