For all the hand-wringing over whether the gut-wrenching massacre in Tucson was the result of America’s virulent political discourse, the hand-wringing itself quickly became another instance of the virulence, and then the inanity, of American political discourse.
First, liberal writers declared that Jared Lee Loughner was the product of right-wing incitement: Sarah Palin shamefully putting Read More
Not to start the new year off on a dour note, but do you want to know why so many people have become hopeless about changing the political and economic mechanisms that rule our lives? Watch the 1969 True Grit and then go see the Coen brothers’ recent remake, which has just about all the Read More
The Observer‘s slogan is “Money, Power and the City.” That is exactly as it should be. Because of the uniqueness of this city, money and power do not always add up to the same thing.
For example.
I was once invited by a woman friend to accompany her to a dinner party on Park Avenue, Read More
Julian Assange is the Man of Our Time. In the space of a single generation, our “icons” have gone from being simple, straightforward exemplars of a single quality to enigmas who exist in fragments, unknowable to us, perhaps even unknowable to themselves.
Is Mr. Assange a heroic fighter for political honesty and decency? Judging by Read More
I had something unpleasant happen to me in October. I met an old friend for lunch. Let’s call him Alan. I hadn’t seen Alan for years, not since we were the only male members of the Mahjong team in college. One day he popped up on my Facebook page, asking to friend me. I friended Read More
Who said Sarah Palin doesn’t read? In September 2008, I wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Mark Burnett–the creator of Survivor and the father of reality television–had become the Republicans’ intellectual god as the G.O.P. had grasped, with something like creative genius, the fact that in contemporary American democracy authority had to be humbled Read More
This is curious: a selection of Saul Bellow’s letters is published, and instead of making them the occasion to write about Bellow the man, reviewers use them to reflect on Bellow the exemplar of serious literary culture.
He is a great describer, a whiz with metaphor, a humanist, a life-affirmer, a practitioner of philosophical laughter. Read More
The surprise that greeted Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement of the exceptionally unqualified Cathie Black, the former chairman of Hearst Magazines, as the city’s new schools chancellor was par for the course. The very fact of Mr. Bloomberg as mayor is an ongoing surprise. His political ascension in New York is as unnatural an event as Read More
Reading George W. Bush’s new memoir, Decision Points, and Lydia Davis’ brilliant new translation of Madame Bovary at the same time, I had a sudden illumination. George Bush is Emma Bovary.
Don’t turn the page, s’il vous plaît.
The unhappy wife of a prosaic country doctor, Emma Bovary attempts to soar out of her stifling Read More
The liberal response to what seems like an impending reversal of liberal fortunes has been striking. The rise in G.O.P. prospects could not possibly have anything to do with the rational appeal of G.O.P. ideas. No, secret political donors are behind it, or pointless rage, or “structural” reasons like the Newtonian tendency of midterm elections Read More
