Tag Archives: rhetoric

Farse Alarm

Posted on May 24, 2020 by JMN

View from a manhole; damage dam-break; dom of dommage; taurine feces fence; chicanery chiclet; rush-to-fudge; jeerleader; freedom-loafer; warlard; crested mask-mocker; pharmacological jiggery-poker; spatchcocked eaglet; church-grade yellowcake; count no-count… No matter how you pencil-whip it, Wharton-school it, or word-smith it, the … Continue reading →

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Art Is God-Light

Posted on May 23, 2020 by JMN

In my language, the one I recall now only by closing my eyes, the word for love is Yeu. And the word for weakness is Yếu.How you say what you mean changes what you say.Some call this prayer. I call … Continue reading →

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Is Art Complex?

Posted on May 22, 2020 by JMN

“Great art is, by definition, complex…” (David Zwirner, “Art Is How We Justify Our Existence,” 5-22-20) Says who?* A thing, by definition, doesn’t define itself; its definition is a human construct — like art itself. Religions are complex. Christianity, for … Continue reading →

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Nor Reason Not to Think

Posted on May 18, 2020 by JMN

This late-February news item, which is ancient now in pandemic time, struck me as emblematic of a longer-running rhetorical contagion infecting mass communication: the incitement by vested or corrupt interests to a leap of ignorance rather than to informed prudence. … Continue reading →

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Nothing Different

Posted on May 17, 2020 by JMN

I turn over and savor a treasured exchange: — “What do you need from me right now?”— “Nothing different.” How perfect is such an answer? What’s needed starts with nothing. I’ve aplenty of it! “Different” turns it just so much, … Continue reading →

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Peace, Love, Productivity

Posted on May 16, 2020 by JMN

Mr. Delsarte moved out West for a time in the 1970s, painting murals in and around Laguna Beach, Calif., living on a commune and settling in Arizona… Long after he went back East, leaving his hippie days behind him, Mr. … Continue reading →

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Cutting Slack

Posted on May 15, 2020 by JMN

Rather than fostering some new sense of civic unity, the virus is just as likely to worsen inequality further [my bolding]. (Farhad Manjoo, “San Francisco Beat the Virus. But It’s Still Breaking My Heart,” NYTimes, 5-13-20) Calling out infelicities of … Continue reading →

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The Secret Life of Fruit

Posted on May 14, 2020 by JMN

The ending of a poem I’ve read recently goes thus: On the plus, foods in hispanophone kitchens taste richer when spoken. zanahoria for carrot. melocotón names peach. many cubans say fruta bomba for papaya. mitt romney once claimed he loves … Continue reading →

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The Troubling Arousal

Posted on May 11, 2020 by JMN

While I resist drawing lines between pornography and art, if forced to offer a distinction I might say that pornography, like propaganda, wants us to feel a single thing. Art is made of contraries, of ambivalence and ambiguity; it never … Continue reading →

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“Play Like You Don’t Know How”

Posted on May 9, 2020 by JMN

“… Play like you don’t know how to play guitar.” That’s the instruction that John McLaughlin recalls Miles Davis giving him. It was on the occasion of his being pressed precipitately into service to collaborate in Davis’s milestone album “Bitches … Continue reading →

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