Commentary
If you’re reading this on an iMac, MacBook, iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad, you can thank the late Steve Jobs. But your gratitude should also be extended to another technology giant who passed away last Saturday.
Read MorePaul West’s goal is to expand consciousness through the uninhibited play of the imagination, to revel in the glory of words, not to preach lessons in civic do-gooding. And that anarchistic intensity has gotten him into trouble with those who mistakenly believe that exploring the mind of evil indicates approval.
Read MoreHow much do you really know about a critic if all you have on record is what he or she likes and why? At some point staying mum about the negative looks less like tenderhearted support or good manners and more like cowardice or a lack of seriousness. By Bill Marx The news that veteran,…
Read MoreAn exchange about what meaningful online conversation about the arts and humanities entails. What kind of cultural dialogue would best serve the purpose of the Mass Cultural Council? To focus on the creativity of artists? Or to encourage critical thinking?
Read MoreSensing the lonely importance of your review, you may lapse into muddleheaded kindness and a groping for a middle position that doesn’t exist. When this happens, no bribe has changed hands, no paper crown for Mr. Nice; you have sold out simply to your own weakness and the fundamental thinness of your vocation. — Wilfrid…
Read MoreThe important question the NYTBR Editors fail to ask is whether the traditional definition and values of literary criticism will survive in an age of ebooks and iPads. Is there a primal appetite for criticism? (Edith Wharton says there is, and I believe her.) How will the Internet shape our innate desire to compare, judge,…
Read MoreThe reviews of the Huntington Theatre Company (HTC) production were generally ecstatic. And what could be timelier than an oft-produced American drama that focuses on the tragic costs of war profiteering?
Read More“The best of the regular theater critics … the brightest America ever had.” – Eric Bentley “Intelligent play-goer number one.” – George Bernard Shaw “The truth is that Mr. Nathan is both a theatrical storehouse, full of the most voluminous and astonishing information, and a whole theatre in himself. He maintains an impetus and lustre…
Read MoreThose who think that accolades should go to the fresh or the marginal — work in Boston that could use the recognition rather than the usual suspects — will have a long wait.
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Book Review: Violence, a la the Freudian and Biblical canon
Short Fuse thinks Russell Jacoby’s “Bloodlust: On the Roots of Violence from Cain and Abel to the Present” is an unconvincing mix of refurbished Freudianism and Genesis.
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