[contextly_auto_sidebar id="3jo4huPHGtmGS71JRG98EimGVUeNIngq"] HOW has Western literary culture dealt with the ending of life? How do we see it now? Today guest columnist Lawrence Christon looks at a bundle of complex and painful issues, as recent as the death of Robin Williams and as old as the work of Albert Camus and perhaps Shakespeare. This one is not for the faint of heart. "ENDGAME," … [Read more...]
Irony’s Dead End: Guest Columnist
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="8qHfyQW4oDysZVU6d4MJpCUZbSLYZHgf"] DOES irony leads us anywhere valuable? How does cultural postmodernism fit in? These are questions guest columnist Lawrence Christon gets into today, extending a much-discussed essay by David Foster Wallace (pictured). Despite being a child of Letterman, novelists like Pynchon, and the indie-rock'90s, I'm increasingly agreeing … [Read more...]
Irony, Minimalism, Ehrenreich and God
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="6L1vQwHGvhhhWxyn2fDj3qlLYwI011YD"] ATYPICALLY, I'll start the week by recapping the weekend a bit. First, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is partway through its second Minimalist Jukebox. The Phil is doing its best to take an expansive view of this oft-caricatured movement. On Saturday I caught a John Adams-conducted concert that included a world premiere, U.S. … [Read more...]
"Common as Air"
THE scholar and poet Lewis Hyde is a fascinating figure whose ideas about the unease of art in a market economy have developed him a cult following that includes figures like Zadie Smith, Michael Chabon and artist Bill Viola. (David Foster Wallace was also a big fan.)Hyde's most famous and influential book -- with the possible exception of Tricker Makes the World -- is The Gift: Creativity and the … [Read more...]