The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Jeff Wrangler:
Today I finished the piece on the memoir by Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon (May 18). Marsh reminds me of myself--we both tend to remember the bad things when we look back over our lives.
I also started the article on the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. I've never seen a James Bond movie, but he looks like what I imagine the villain in a James Bond movie looks like. The only thing missing is the cat.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on May 06, 2015, 10:59:27 pm ---I'm reading the article "Meaning Machines" about Charles Ray, the sculptor, in the latest issue. It's kind of a long article focusing on the problems getting Ray's work shown in museums. There's a piece he's been working on for a long time called "Huck and Jim". It's been placed at several museums but there have been problems. First, it was going to be at the Whitney Museum but it didn't work out. Then at another prominent museum, but the same problem because he wanted it shown in a public area where random people pass by. The problem is that, since male genitals are shown, it can't be in a public area. It has to be in the museum itself where only attendees of the museum would see it. But this was not acceptable to Ray, so the sculpture is not on view.
The problem that I have with it is that the photo of the sculpture shows two men. But the 9-ft-tall "Jim" is not a black man at all. The hair is all wrong and he just doesn't look like a black man. And then "Huck" is bent over so you don't see his face or torso. "Jim" has his hand hovering over Huck's back but not touching it. The sculpture is just very unsatisfying. I'd like to see more of Ray's work before judging it but this is not a promising beginning.
--- End quote ---
Apparently I gave that issue away and forgot to read this article. I noticed the photo of the sculpture and wondered whether he was trying to make some point by having Jim not be a black man while clearly referencing Jim and Huckleberry Finn.
Jeff Wrangler:
It is interesting the things you learn from The New Yorker. E.g., from Briefly Noted (May 18, p. 97), I knew the name Oliver Sacks, the neurologist. I did not know that Oliver Sacks is gay, originally British, a power lifter, and a biker. Also that he now has terminal cancer. :(
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on May 26, 2015, 01:41:37 pm ---It is interesting the things you learn from The New Yorker. E.g., from Briefly Noted (May 18, p. 97), I knew the name Oliver Sacks, the neurologist. I did not know that Oliver Sacks is gay, originally British, a power lifter, and a biker. Also that he now has terminal cancer. :(
--- End quote ---
Me neither! And I've read a lot of his work over the years. I did know he had terminal cancer, but not any of the other things -- gay, British, etc. -- that he discusses in his new memoir. The memoir he wrote before this one was about his intense experimentation with drugs, particularly hallucinogens, which I didn't know about until THAT book came out. Apparently he was really into them, though as I recall he was in school at the time.
What a multi-faceted guy.
Front-Ranger:
Yay! The summer fiction issue has arrived!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version