Monthly Archives: January 2022

Rochelle Feinstein: ‘I Don’t Want to Make Work That’s Beautiful’

Posted on January 31, 2022 by JMN

By the time [Rochelle Feinstein] arrived at Pratt, she knew she wanted to make art — an awareness inspired in large part by reading Marguerite Yourcenar’s 1951 “Memoirs of Hadrian,” a fictionalized autobiography of the Roman emperor. “I realized that … Continue reading →

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What ‘Self’ Goes With Royal ‘We’ and Singular ‘They’?

Posted on January 29, 2022 by JMN

I take it on report that an English monarch is entitled to declare self-referentially, We are not amused. I amuse myself speculating whether the Queen would say We amuse ourself or We amuse ourselves at whist. In a different context, … Continue reading →

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Pronoun Rebellion (3)

Posted on January 27, 2022 by JMN

A man’s word is his bond. It’s an aphorism. States a pithy truth, along the lines of, “When someone makes a promise, he keeps it.” This one floats a model of behavior, an ideal. Not a command, exactly, but it … Continue reading →

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Pronoun Rebellion (2)

Posted on January 24, 2022 by JMN

(Continued from https://ethicaldative.com/2022/01/22/pronoun-rebellion-1/) Wallace Stevens said of his poem “On an Old Horn” that, if he had succeeded in saying what he had to say, the reader would get it. “He may not get it at once, but, if he … Continue reading →

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Pronoun Rebellion (1)

Posted on January 22, 2022 by JMN

It’s apparent that contributors to Poetry magazine compose their own biographical snapshots, which allows for a gamut of voicings and modes of self-assertion. A grammar nerd notices how these established and establishing technicians of the word mold language to their … Continue reading →

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Art Tickle: Mixing Your Blacks

Posted on January 20, 2022 by JMN

Is there a better definition of art than the effort, the ache, to explain one’s inner experience and be understood?… I was starting out as a painter, and [Chuck Close] supported and encouraged me. He bought me my first proper … Continue reading →

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A Confounding Clarity

Posted on January 16, 2022 by JMN

Proliferation of phrases: — A turn of speech makes my point vividly — I’ll use it. But this other phrase is pungent — I’ll use it too. Yet another is incisive; and one is innovative; and one wry; this one … Continue reading →

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Broken, Dejected Reader of Poems

Posted on January 15, 2022 by JMN

<p. 137> “World Breaking Apart” by Louise Glück (“Poems 1962-2012,” 2012) I don’t care if this post is preposterously long. It’s a barbaric yawp anyway. My original title for a comment about “World Breaking Apart” was “Inconclusive Antecedence.” It was … Continue reading →

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Wayne Thiebaud: ‘Deadpan Style of Figuration’

Posted on January 13, 2022 by JMN

Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) is said to have painted daily to the end. He described himself as driven by “this almost neurotic fixation of trying to learn to paint.” “It has never ceased to thrill and amaze me,” he said, “the … Continue reading →

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Minefield of Rabbit Holes

Posted on January 9, 2022 by JMN

In my Arabic grammar I encounter the preposition fiy- illustrated in a “relationship of comparison” (rapport de comparaison). Blachere’s jouissance is matA( from root m-t-( meaning “to carry away” and, in derived forms, “to enjoy.” Its usages meander through enjoyment, … Continue reading →

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