The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on July 01, 2016, 02:01:12 pm ---Several articles in the June 27 issue are read-worthy. The article "The Shadow Doctors" by Ben Taub, brought a chill to my soul. A government bent on destroying its own people now turns to bombing hospitals and places where children are sheltered. How much more will we endure? Right after that is the article "Making a Killing" by Evan Osnos about the growth of the gun culture in the US. It explained a lot of things to me. . .such as why gun owners so stubbornly cling to their guns and why they seem to need so many. People have been manipulated by the gun manufacturers more than they think.
--- End quote ---
Ben Taub in the news again, after a child was pulled from a bombed building and videoed, sitting on a chair in shock and bleeding from the head. Some people close to me are still saying that Syrians should stay in their country and rebuild it, rather than flee. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/18/490461992/a-wounded-child-in-aleppo-silent-and-still-shocks-the-world
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on August 19, 2016, 11:23:38 am ---Ben Taub in the news again, after a child was pulled from a bombed building and videoed, sitting on a chair in shock and bleeding from the head. Some people close to me are still saying that Syrians should stay in their country and rebuild it, rather than flee. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/18/490461992/a-wounded-child-in-aleppo-silent-and-still-shocks-the-world
--- End quote ---
I think they should, too, except there's a war going on, and the Russians are supporting the incumbent regime, and it's difficult to keep straight who's fighting against whom, and you can't build up a country while several different groups keep destroying it. :( Somehow the fighting and destruction has to be stopped first.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on August 19, 2016, 11:23:38 am ---Ben Taub in the news again, after a child was pulled from a bombed building and videoed, sitting on a chair in shock and bleeding from the head. Some people close to me are still saying that Syrians should stay in their country and rebuild it, rather than flee. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/18/490461992/a-wounded-child-in-aleppo-silent-and-still-shocks-the-world
--- End quote ---
Now the boy's 10-year-old brother has died. My heart breaks for him!
Front-Ranger:
The August 8 & 15 issue was unsettling. (May God have mercy on us. . .how will we make it through the next 70+ days?)
The article I ended up liking the most was "Childhood's End", Dan Chiasson's review of The After Party by poet Jana Prikryl. I typically have not read poetry for many years but I was drawn back into it when I was musing through journals that I used to keep as a college student and beyond. I found a poem "Eulogy for a Crow" that I have thought of many times. I forgot who wrote it and the author wasn't listed in my journal. After much research, I found that it was written by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and that led me on a tour of his works and life.
The Prikryl review was well done; so much so that I feel satisfied and don't even want to read the book! But I might, when fall comes around. I also surprisingly liked "Dido's Lament" the short story mentioned by Jeff, authored by Tessa Hadley. Although I don't really know much about the story of Aeneas and Dido. Perhaps I'll look it up. I soldiered through Lauren Collins's "Love in Translation" but really feel like I wasted my time. Jeff, you were right, she's no David Sedaris!
Front-Ranger:
In the new issue, the article "The Country Restaurant" by Nick Paumgarten, is very interesting. The restaurant, in a rural area south of Albany, NY, is not really a restaurant but more of a food laboratory. Its proprietor claims that it is booked up until 2025 with patrons from 80 countries willing to pay $400 each to dine there. After reading the article I'm still not sure it's a real thing or rather, as one critic calls it, Brigadoon.
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