Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

Paint What You Fear

Posted on December 30, 2022 by JMN

When my dad died in 2013, his shed (now mine) was full of guns. I inherited his art supplies, so I took up painting again after a long hiatus. My subjects came to be things I was afraid of. The … Continue reading →

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‘We Have to Make Forms That Celebrate the Possibilities’: Torkwase Dyson

Posted on December 29, 2022 by JMN

“The paintings introduced a range of blue colors — oceanic, but resisting a direct reading.” This review bristles with strange energy, coercive structures, geographies of enclosure, and the verb catalyze. But of all the advanced art talk on display, my … Continue reading →

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A Dawning in December

Posted on December 25, 2022 by JMN

While washing up dishes on Christmas morning I happened to hear the King’s Christmas Message on British radio. It was Charles the Third’s first go at what his mother had done 69 times before him, a ritual address to the … Continue reading →

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A Flat-Out Wish for the Season

Posted on December 25, 2022 by JMN

Christmas Eve, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota. Two groups of young men argue in Nordstrom’s, shots are fired, 19–year-old lies dead, suspects being sought. The site of 500 retail stores and 19 full-service restaurants is closed for the evening. “We … Continue reading →

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‘Res Ipsa Loquitur’: The Thing Speaks for Itself

Posted on December 23, 2022 by JMN

“Zelensky is basically an ungrateful, international welfare queen.” (Donald Trump Jr., quoted at https://www.washingtonpost.com/doonesbury/, 12-22-22) Billingsgate of this sort pervades the lowest rungs of public discourse in America. What’s notable for the student of rhetoric is how, even though the … Continue reading →

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Field of Blood

Posted on December 22, 2022 by JMN

I’ve read and listened to Edith Sitwell’s darkly musical poem “Still Falls the Rain,” guided there by poet Charles Behlen. It spurred a flurry of reference tracing; soars over broad reaches of scripture and fable in a short space; has … Continue reading →

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Fleet Street Drool: Victoria Newton and Jeremy Clarkson

Posted on December 19, 2022 by JMN

A review of Belarusian poet Julia Cimafiejeva’s book Motherfield ends with this observation: “She wields her flexed, forceful verses like that mightiest of muscles — the tongue.” That comment pairs with the ancient cliché that “the pen is mightier than … Continue reading →

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Super-Diatribalistic Mega-Magadocious

Posted on December 18, 2022 by JMN

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Saint Brevity, Patron of Blagueurs

Posted on December 16, 2022 by JMN

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” (Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon, 1971) Like a bird on a pole,Like a soul on the dole,I have tried all my waysTo be brief.(JMN, after Leonard Cohen) (Harold Simon is quoted by … Continue reading →

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Uh, You, Hey, I’m Talking Here!

Posted on December 15, 2022 by JMN

ḥarfu-n-nidā’ — “the particle of calling out,” (exclaiming, direct address). It establishes a “vocative dependency” with the noun that follows. That noun, according to certain rules, will have either a nominative or an accusative case ending. I like to think … Continue reading →

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