Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

The Moncrieff Proust

Posted on July 11, 2021 by JMN

C. K. Scott Moncrieff (1889 – 1930) published the early-twentieth-century English version of Marcel Proust’s “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu.” Adam Gopnik reviews the first full-length biography of Moncrieff by Jean Findlay, “Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C. … Continue reading →

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UK Sculptor: Hard Row to Hoe

Posted on July 3, 2021 by JMN

It will be [a shrine], but not for art lovers. Or for anyone who is easily embarrassed. Perhaps not even for Diana’s sincerest believers, for the statue group’s emotive symbolism is undermined by its aesthetic awfulness. In style it breathes … Continue reading →

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Write Infrequently, If Possible?

Posted on July 2, 2021 by JMN

… Unlike many great twentieth-century writers, who saw truth in despair, Milosz’s experiences convinced him that poetry must not darken the world but illuminate it: “Poems should be written rarely and reluctantly, / under unbearable duress and only with the … Continue reading →

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How to Act

Posted on June 29, 2021 by JMN

“You talk and I listen; then I talk and you listen. That’s how it works.” (90-year-old actor Robert Duvall on the art of acting, interviewed by Stephen Colbert, June 2021) Duvall’s peer Clint Eastwood is credited with expressing his technique … Continue reading →

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Slant-Wise Talk

Posted on June 25, 2021 by JMN

Saying things that are graspably cockeyed is my kind of self-expression. Doing so skirts peekaboo obscurity and affectation constantly, but sometimes it feels like it’s working and those moments make me feel interesting. “Even your most serious problem,” [Stephen Dunn] … Continue reading →

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¡Salve, Profesor!

Posted on June 24, 2021 by JMN

I connected me and a dot out of the blue last night. A bouncy man I remember only as “Dr. Rubio” who taught the Latin class of my cohort at the University of Barcelona cropped up in a scholarly note: … Continue reading →

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On Edges and Errors

Posted on June 23, 2021 by JMN

Two descriptions in this article about Cézanne are helpful for me. One concerns Camille Pissarro’s treatment of edges: Pissarro was the subtlest of the leading Impressionists, devising ways of giving distinctive presence to each part of a painting, by, for … Continue reading →

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Robert Hollander: Scholar-Translator

Posted on June 19, 2021 by JMN

Robert Hollander, Princeton Dante scholar and translator, died in April, 2021. The translation of “The Divine Comedy” which he produced in close collaboration with wife Jean Hollander (d. 2019), herself a poet, is said to be among the “smoothest” and … Continue reading →

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Nazi disléxico

Posted on June 17, 2021 by JMN

Es que hay que ir al colegio, hasta para ser un nazi asqueroso. Nazi disléxico When graffiti misfires. A droll catch by Javier.

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Crear con arcilla – Las Creaciones Artísticas

Posted on June 14, 2021 by JMN

Partiendo de un dibujo sobre un plano de arcilla, se pueden crear formas plásticas: con el bajo y el altorrelieve las figuras emergen, se separan del… Crear con arcilla – Las Creaciones Artísticas Alba, me encanta el objeto y la … Continue reading →

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