The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 24, 2019, 02:20:31 pm ---I guess I will move on to the article about the filmmaker Florian von Donnersmarck because I think Florian is a wonderful name, like a name you would expect for a character in a novel by Oscar Wilde.
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--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 04, 2019, 10:17:41 pm ---Tonight on NPR the film Never Look Away was reviewed. Apparently it is much more than a biopic but also another look at the Holocaust. The soundtrack sounds wonderful; there are works by Handel. I'd like to see this even though it is 3 hours long. It is nominated for two Oscars.
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That was a very interesting article. I'd never heard of either Donnersmarck or Gerhard Richter, and I have no interest in the film, but the article was interesting.
This happens to me quite frequently. There will be a profile of someone I've never heard of, and he or she turns out to be a very interesting person, and I'm glad I read the profile.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on January 26, 2019, 12:01:31 pm ---I am eager to read those two things, especially since Lepore's piece is about journalism. ... what appears to be a personal essay by Robert Caro about working on his massive, multi-volume biography of LBJ.
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I read the Lepore article about journalism. Very well written. Sometimes her long paragraphs leave me a little breathless; how do others feel about that?
The Caro article will probably be too long for me. Caro is definitely LBJ's Boswell! I did a no-no, I read the ending where he admits that he will probably never complete the eighth book in the series. That's why he collected all these anecdotes for the New Yorker.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 05, 2019, 09:01:15 pm ---The Caro article will probably be too long for me. Caro is definitely LBJ's Boswell! I did a no-no, I read the ending where he admits that he will probably never complete the eighth book in the series. That's why he collected all these anecdotes for the New Yorker.
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I've always liked and respected Robert Caro but I'm less likely to read even one of his LBJ volumes than he is to finish the eighth one so, long as this is, it could be a shortcut. :laugh:
I feel slightly sorry for Caro. I think LBJ is one of the most interesting presidents -- a mix of good intentions, legislative skills and Shakespearean flaws -- but, like all presidents short of possibly Nixon, kind of bland compared to Trump. All the other presidents are infinitely smarter, wiser, more mature, more competent, etc. -- including even George W. Bush and certainly including Nixon. But they're so overshadowed by the current monster.
Hopefully Caro's lifelong project will be admired by historians for centuries to come, while the years 2016 through 2020 will be seen as a crazy dark time in American history but such a momentary aberration we can all just forget about it and focus on serious national leaders.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 06, 2019, 09:31:59 am ---I've always liked and respected Robert Caro but I'm less likely to read even one of his LBJ volumes than he is to finish the eighth one so, long as this is, it could be a shortcut. :laugh:
I feel slightly sorry for Caro. I think LBJ is one of the most interesting presidents -- a mix of good intentions, legislative skills and Shakespearean flaws -- but, like all presidents short of possibly Nixon, kind of bland compared to Trump. All the other presidents are infinitely smarter, wiser, more mature, more competent, etc. -- including even George W. Bush and certainly including Nixon. But they're so overshadowed by the current monster.
Hopefully Caro's lifelong project will be admired by historians for centuries to come, while the years 2016 through 2020 will be seen as a crazy dark time in American history but such a momentary aberration we can all just forget about it and focus on serious national leaders.
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I have only skimmed it so far but, from what I've seen, you may revise your view of Johnson once you read the article! There are some surprising things there!
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 06, 2019, 12:41:33 pm ---I have only skimmed it so far but, from what I've seen, you may revise your view of Johnson once you read the article! There are some surprising things there!
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What I thought was neat about Caro's piece was the part about solving the mystery of how and why LBJ became a powerhouse virtually overnight.
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