Category Archives: Anthology

My collected writings and those of family members.

1987: Afterlife of “A Fable”

Posted on November 6, 2018 by JMN

To HH & C(B)B Dear Both: Thank you. I’m dazzled… and a little chastened… that all or even some of this afflatus (re yours of today) should have been wrung from an Equity [computer]. As it happens, C’s afflatus looks … Continue reading →

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Limits of Art?

Posted on November 1, 2018 by JMN

What kind of change his or any political artist’s work can actually achieve remains an open question. In his book 9.5 Theses on Art and Class, the art critic Ben Davis argues that political art is not a force on … Continue reading →

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A little twirly birdie?

Posted on October 27, 2018 by JMN

I stream my music from Spotify and Pandora, resorting to radio only when I’m in the car. My local station is Jack Radio. Its jaunty slogan, We play what we want, belies the wretched predictability of its fare, a trait … Continue reading →

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Whitman on Abraham Lincoln

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

“None of the artists or pictures have caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man’s [Lincoln’s] face,” he wrote. “They have only caught the surface. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of … Continue reading →

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1987: Response to “A Fable”

Posted on October 24, 2018 by JMN

[From CB to HH & JMN:] I sat relishing the feel of the florescent light on the cheap fabric of my imitation Henry Grenthel shirt and listened as Teena’s phone conversation wafted up the ventilation system like the plaintive cry … Continue reading →

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Understanding Lyrics

Posted on October 23, 2018 by JMN

My sister told me I had to listen to “One Headlight” by Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers. A friend had introduced her to the song. “Before you hear it,” she said, “I just want to say, you’re going to find … Continue reading →

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1987: Andrew

Posted on October 17, 2018 by JMN

[Dear Mother,] E*** was with Andrew at Albertson’s the other day and told me that every time they announced some instore special over the intercom Andrew would holler, “OK!” She looked at him and said, “They’re not talking to you, … Continue reading →

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1987: High-Tech Verse and Allergies

Posted on October 17, 2018 by JMN

[Dear Mother,] Charles B*** asked me to co-edit an anthology of high-tech verse which he has been commissioned to do by his publisher…. I’ve thought fairly seriously about it, but am thinking of passing it up in favor of things … Continue reading →

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“Whereabouts”

Posted on October 17, 2018 by JMN

Quite a few readers wrote to us last week to take issue with this sentence at the end of a briefing: “His whereabouts is unknown.” Surely, they wrote, it should be “whereabouts are.” Well, yes and no. Times editors consult … Continue reading →

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1987: Coping with Technicalese

Posted on October 14, 2018 by JMN

[Dear Mother,] I’ve spent the afternoon coping with IBM technicalese in the form of new product announcements… Here’s the block of turgid prose for your enjoyment: Highlights Allows IBM Personal System/2, attached to a Local Area Network to communicate with … Continue reading →

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