In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

While I ate my lunch today, I read the article about the graphic artist Nick Drnaso because I had run out of other things to read. I found it quite a downer, except that I was charmed by the name of a company where Drnaso had worked to earn money: The Busy Beaver Button Company. 

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.

[Jeff Wrangler]

The Jan. 28 issue was waiting in my mailbox when I got home today, and I'm looking forward to reading it. It appears to have a lot of interesting articles, including one each by two of my favorite writers, Jill Lepore and Adam Gopnik. I keep telling myself I really should write Jill Lepore a fan letter.

[serious crayons]

I am eager to read those two things, especially since Lepore's piece is about journalism. Other potentially good pieces, based on the table-of-contents bylines: a profile of Marlon James, a prizewinning author who lives in MInneapolis or Saint Paul, by Jia Tolentino, a young newish writer I like, and what appears to be a personal essay by Robert Caro about working on his massive, multi-volume biography of LBJ.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I highly recommend Jill Lepore's article on the future and fate of journalism in the Jan. 28 issue.

Of course, I highly recommend anything Jill Lepore writes.

Adam Gopnik's article on translating sacred texts is very interesting, too. I do, however, question one of Gopnik's statements concerning the King James Version of the Bible. Gopnik writes, "The K.J.V. rose to meet a moment when growing literacy and Protestant feeling made the individual connection with the text matter: it was for men reading on their own or preachers seeking a passage to elucidate." I find the part of his statement that I boldfaced a bit problematic because it doesn't quite fit the history of the K.J.V.

When the K.J.V. was first published, in 1611, it was only in folio size, that is, a size for a Bible to be used in church. A folio was way too big and way too expensive for ordinary people to own for their own reading. When the K.J.V. was published, the Bible of choice for literate Protestant Englishmen was the English translation known as the "Geneva" Bible from the mid-sixteenth century. (It was produced by English exiles living in Geneva during the reign of Mary Tudor, hence "Geneva.") The Geneva Bible was the first to use verse numbers (easy to cross-reference). It was printed in Roman type (easier to read than Blackletter), and it also was issued in quarto and octavo editions (sizes convenient for individual reading). The K.J.V. didn't really take off and begin to displace the Geneva Bible for another 50 years after its first publication, when the clergy responsible for compiling the 1662 issue of the Book of Common Prayer used the K.J.V. for the epistles and gospels included in the Prayer Book, so that people started to hear the K.J.V. read in church every Sunday. (Previous editions of the Prayer Book had used the so-called Bishop's Bible, from the sixteenth century, which was inferior to the Geneva Bible.) So I find Gopnik's statement a little shaky in its history.

[Front-Ranger]

In the Jan. 21 issue, there was an article on the filmmaker Donnersmark's biopic of the artist Gerhard Richter.

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.

[Jeff Wrangler]

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.

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.

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]

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.

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]

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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]

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!

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.