The PEN American Center has called for the current occupant of the White House “to abandon Patriot Act politics” and lead “an open, bipartisan evaluation of individual provisions of the Act that are scheduled to end by 2005, including Section 215, which opens records of individual reading activities to government scrutiny.” Good luck. Section 215, […]
Archives for May 2004
BAD TO WORSE
The author William S. Burroughs used to say that nothing happens in reality unless a writer writes it first. I take his meaning in a metaphorical sense, but he was speaking more or less literally. So was the poet Wallace Stevens in a signature poem, “The Idea of Order in Key West”: And when she […]
FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
Two very different kinds of reviews, and we love them both: Martin Bernheimer’s quick dissection of “Die Walküre” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Clive James’s probing analysis of “Cyrano de Bergerac” at the National’s Olivier Theatre in London. Bernheimer’s lede: The Ring fanatics are here and night after night they’re filling the house. These […]