Author Topic: In the New Yorker...  (Read 1922517 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1450 on: August 19, 2016, 11:23:38 am »
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.

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
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1451 on: August 19, 2016, 11:47:07 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

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.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1452 on: August 21, 2016, 06:00:15 pm »
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

Now the boy's 10-year-old brother has died. My heart breaks for him!

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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1453 on: August 21, 2016, 06:10:54 pm »
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!
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1454 on: August 23, 2016, 10:02:20 pm »
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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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1455 on: August 25, 2016, 01:42:23 pm »
I enjoyed the Aug. 22 article on the super-recognizers. I think that would be a cool ability to have.

I also like the article on the Underground Railroad.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1456 on: August 25, 2016, 02:44:15 pm »
I also like the article on the Underground Railroad.

I liked that one, too, especially when she stopped to consider that the number of slaves who escaped -- through the UR or other means -- were just the tiniest fraction of a percent of the total number of people over hundreds of years who spent their lives in slavery with no hope of escape.

I thought about that a lot when watching "12 Years a Slave." That guy's experiences and the things he witnessed were unquestionably horrific, yet I couldn't help thinking that in a relative sense he was "lucky" to get out after 12 years. Millions of others never did.

I've always been interested in Colson Whitehead, the novelist whose "Underground Railroad" partly inspired this piece. I plan to read that book, and others of his have sounded intriguingly original. It's so mind-blowing to think that if he'd lived less than 200 years ago ... well, it's hard to even mentally grasp.

She also, only slightly more subtly, makes the point that white UR participants, or abolition activists, or even sympathizers were also just a tiny fraction of the white population as a whole.





Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1457 on: August 25, 2016, 02:50:55 pm »
I liked that one, too, especially when she stopped to consider that the number of slaves who escaped -- through the UR or other means -- were just the tiniest fraction of a percent of the total number of people over hundreds of years who spent their lives in slavery with no hope of escape.

She also, only slightly more subtly, makes the point that white UR participants, or abolition activists, or even sympathizers were also just a tiny fraction of the white population as a whole.

That's more or less why I liked the article, too. In other words, the importance of the UR has been exaggerated.

Interesting to read the UR article in juxtaposition to Jeffrey Toobin's profile of Bryan Stevenson.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1458 on: August 28, 2016, 02:00:23 pm »
I recommend Adam Gopnik's article about the Attica prison revolt (Aug. 29).

It's not a fun read, but it is worth reading, though very sobering. It's about a historical event that occurred when I was 13 years old, and all I really knew about it was "prison revolt, upstate New York, 1970s."
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #1459 on: August 31, 2016, 02:00:22 pm »
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.

I read that article, too, and something seems a little fishy about the restaurant and the chef to me.

I also noticed the cartoon with Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, and R2-D2, where C-3PO says that R2-D2 "feels empty inside." I heard not long ago that Kenny Baker, the actor who "inhabited" the little 'droid, had passed away, so I don't quite know how to take the cartoon.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.