Tag Archives: rhetoric

Alternatives to Fact

Posted on December 28, 2020 by JMN

“I think that perception and comprehensible information based in truthful reality is what has been burned to the ground,” he says. “Answers are lit on fire like burning leaves in the wind. Nobody really has any facts.” Never at a … Continue reading →

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Missionary Phallacy

Posted on December 26, 2020 by JMN

Shere Hite (1942-2020) published “The Hite Report” in 1976. It gathered candid feedback from women suggesting canonical sexual congress was not the be-all and end-all prescribed by male-centric orthodoxy. Two more best-selling studies followed in 1981 and 1987. Hite’s work … Continue reading →

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Beyond Noise

Posted on December 19, 2020 by JMN

The painter William Bailey died in April, 2020, aged 89. He taught for many years at the Yale School of Art, and is said to have influenced generations of students. In 2010, Bailey decried the amount of “noise” present in … Continue reading →

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Beethovian

Posted on December 16, 2020 by JMN

If there’s something that can be called a Beethovian gravitas assumable by a sculptor who is female, artist Maggi Hambling is a contender. That’s by way of an admiring aside to the topic of this article. “Luxuriantly bushed,” “obligingly passive,” … Continue reading →

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‘Not Objectionably Reasonable’

Posted on December 12, 2020 by JMN

EthicalDative must have a focus to offset my wandering attention. I try with mixed results to blog about art and language, and respond elsewhere and otherwise to the rest. An October 6th article about an appalling event has stayed in … Continue reading →

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‘Burden of Representation’

Posted on December 11, 2020 by JMN

Roberta Smith writes of the Rothko painting that it “presents a glowing stack in brown, red and black on a red ground.” She describes the Church painting as “an expanse of shockingly deep red sky with a little sun peeping … Continue reading →

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“That Was Now, This Is Then”

Posted on December 6, 2020 by JMN

The very title of Vijay Sheshadri’s volume of poems, reviewed by David Orr, has the jewel-beam of poetic crystal to it. I keep rolling it on my tongue, as if it makes some kind of sense of the moment. Orr’s … Continue reading →

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Pithy Gristle

Posted on December 5, 2020 by JMN

David Orr reviews Vijay Sheshadri’s volume of poems “That Was Now, This Is Then” (Graywolf Press). Reviewers who are poets are especially equipped with spicy pronouncements. Poetry has a long, proud history of acting as if readers don’t exist. Often … Continue reading →

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‘High-End’ Jinks in ‘Opulent’ Joints

Posted on December 3, 2020 by JMN

Ninety-one people broke the state’s 50-person limit at an October wedding held at the North Fork Country Club in Cutchogue, NY. Afterwards, 30 tested positive for the virus and 156 wound up quarantined. In a second New York event in … Continue reading →

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Whiteout

Posted on November 18, 2020 by JMN

Lord Kilclooney, crossbench peer in the UK House of Lords, tweeted: “What happens if Biden moves on and the Indian becomes President. Who then becomes Vice President?” Later he tweeted: “I’m very fond of India myself, I’m a member of … Continue reading →

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