Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

The Forest and the Trees

Posted on September 29, 2020 by JMN

This gallery contains 1 photo.

I had a photograph of a forest. A Sherwood of a forest — florescent, bosky, a thing you can’t make up. And I made up a Mickey fantasia of a forest — florid, tumescent, burnt down with color and intricate … Continue reading →

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Rimbaud and Verlaine

Posted on September 28, 2020 by JMN

The seventy-five persons interred in the French Pantheon include Voltaire, Rousseau, Dumas, Hugo and Malraux. None is there for poetry. (Victor Hugo was honored for his political attainments.) There is now a movement afoot to transfer the remains of Arthur … Continue reading →

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Reframing Philip Guston

Posted on September 27, 2020 by JMN

This week, the directors of [the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tate Modern in London, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] released a joint statement saying that they were “postponing the exhibition until a … Continue reading →

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Late ‘Adamantine Crudeness’

Posted on September 26, 2020 by JMN

Roberta Smith faults Hauser & Wirth for “an exhibition of mostly bland self-portrait drawings showing the artist [Luchita Hurtado] as a simple outline or silhouette… redeemed by too few of her more intense acrylic paintings from the last two years…” … Continue reading →

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‘I Hate Men’ Two

Posted on September 10, 2020 by JMN

There’s more to Pauline Harmange, French author of I Hate Men, than met the eye of Ralph Zurmély, the gender equality ministry adviser who sought to prosecute her for incitement of gender-based violence. His ministry said “it appeared [he] had … Continue reading →

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Pen Pricks

Posted on September 9, 2020 by JMN

In certain Victorian novels, female authors paint a bleak picture of limited options available to women lacking means or family status; of a lonely and loveless existence, yet one lacking privacy and subject to uninvited comment; of a life peopled … Continue reading →

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‘Manlift’!

Posted on September 8, 2020 by JMN

The locale in which these paintings hang reminds me of the shed I inhabit on a smaller scale. The old grain tower retains “a wood, steel and rubber contraption ascending through a chute in the ceiling” with a sign reading: … Continue reading →

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Notes on Poetry from India (2)

Posted on September 7, 2020 by JMN

In part two of his 2007 essay about Indian poetry*, R. Parasarathy narrows his focus to contemporary poetry written in Tamil. He credits C. Subramania Bharati (1882-1921) with breaking free of received forms, notably in his Prose Poems, and inventing … Continue reading →

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The Case for Old Bulls

Posted on September 6, 2020 by JMN

“New research challenges the assumption that bulls become redundant in elephant society after breeding.” New evidence suggests that male elephants do have social lives, and that older males may act as leaders for younger ones.…For example, from 1992 to 1997, … Continue reading →

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Notes on Poetry from India (1)

Posted on September 6, 2020 by JMN

In the September 2007 edition of Poetry, R. Parthasarathy edited an “Indian Poetry Portfolio” accompanied by his essay titled “Indian Poetry Today.” I note salient points from that essay here. India’s National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) recognizes twenty-four languages, … Continue reading →

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