Tag Archives: writing

Rudolfo Anaya (1937 — 2020)

Posted on July 6, 2020 by JMN

“Bless Me, Ultima” repeatedly drew the ire of censors, who cited what they viewed as foul language and anti-Catholic messaging… The book was banned in California, Colorado and… New Mexico. In 1981, the school board in Bloomfield, N.M., burned copies … Continue reading →

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Manifestoid 1 of 2

Posted on June 25, 2020 by JMN

A correspondent writes: Watched the lunchtime news, it veers between positivity and warnings that leaves the head spinning and the heart pumping. In that last sentence, should it be ‘leave’ or ‘leaves’. I had ‘leaves’ because it is the veering … Continue reading →

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Bret Stephens Loses His Own Argument

Posted on June 12, 2020 by JMN

The NYTimes published, then repudiated, an Op-Ed piece by a Republican senator urging deployment of active-duty troops to quell looting and rioting that intruded upon mostly peaceful protests. Bret Stephens disagrees with the politician’s incitement, but says it was proper … Continue reading →

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Poesis in the Age of Wienie Grease

Posted on May 27, 2020 by JMN

I’ve discovered that what’s called poesis, said to be the making and shaping of poems — they must be shaped as well as made! — is not straightforward. For one, you have to follow your feelings rather than steer them. … 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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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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So Playfully Valorized Seriousness

Posted on May 6, 2020 by JMN

[Wayne Koestenbaum] valorizes the intellectual seriousness of Sontag, and of the poet and translator Richard Howard, but also confesses his attraction to idleness and lassitude. Books are fine and good, but have you tried sex, or doughnuts? So this review … Continue reading →

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Blurred Slur

Posted on April 23, 2020 by JMN

Language is awash in slurs: racist, ethnist, nationalist, sexist, ageist, classist, occupationist, sexual orientationist, “ism-ist,” and so on and so forth. The human race is a slurring race. I’m far from wishing to resurrect offensive words from their just entombment. … Continue reading →

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Neck-Broken

Posted on April 6, 2020 by JMN

A photo of Henry Adams helped draw me into a review by George F. Will of an anthology of conservative thinkers (“American Conservatism: Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition,” Edited by Andrew J. Bacevich). In “The Education of Henry Adams (1907),” Adams … Continue reading →

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Such Ado About Something

Posted on March 6, 2020 by JMN

Two bits in this opinion piece by Shmuel Rosner have an off ring, one solecistic, the other non-colloquial. But most Israeli voters would support such move. Most of them voted for parties that support such move. “Such” here is an … Continue reading →

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