Author Archives: JMN
“… This realm, this England.”
I find the paragraph cited here interesting and amusing for its self-aware description of how the author and his interviewee, both of them writers, preen themselves competitively on their humble class origins to establish their bona fides while preparing to … Continue reading
Body Language
I’ve had little opportunity to enjoy the spectacle of dance except vicariously through the writing of Joan Acocella in The New Yorker. I admire the discipline and athleticism that dance demands of its performers. The passage cited here charms me … Continue reading
Not Ready for Answers
Merce Cunningham comes across in these recollections of his dancers as a man who spoke volumes in few words. “Don’t make everything so pretty” and the terse statement that answers demand questions cover about ninety percent of art and life, … Continue reading
The Heart Is a Pump
I like what Terence McNally says about creating character through dialogue. His “heart” trope further in the interview, however, is hackneyed. I hope writers who survive this “age of calamity” find a new way to talk about courage, tolerance, empathy, … Continue reading
Warholiana Keeps On Keeping On
Sprayed with silver and decorated with tinfoil, Andy Warhol’s Factory was not only his studio, but a hangout for collaborators and muses like the Velvet Underground and Edie Sedgwick. Photojournalist Nat Finkelstein spent three years documenting it all (“All tomorrow’s … Continue reading
On Clarity
As a first-year law student I, along with my peers, had to read and sort out a seeming infinitude of cases written by appellate judges whose writing skills varied widely. Navigating the dense prose of the tomes we lugged around … Continue reading
Ruination
My first encounter with Texas writer Bruce Sterling was through a column he penned in the early nineties for one of the Houston newspapers. It proffered the notion that our very nature is to seek drugging; that if there existed … Continue reading →