“Leastness: The Essence of Samuel Beckett” – George STEINER

The New Yorker, September 8, 1996 Can biography elucidate Samuel Beckett’s austere art? The fire caught in 1945, after Samuel Beckett’s grim experiences, first in the French Resistance and in hiding, then as a medical orderly at Saint-Lô. Very much in the manner of Dante, his guardian spirit, Beckett was lit by a vision. “Krapp’s…

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“The murder scandalizing Brazil’s evangelical church” – Jon Lee ANDERSON

The New Yorker, June 7, 2021 Flordelis became famous as a gospel singer, a pastor, and a politician. Then her husband was killed. Late on the evening of June 15, 2019, Flordelis dos Santos de Souza and her husband, Anderson do Carmo, left for a night out in Rio de Janeiro. They had been looking…

“Can a robot join the faith?” – Avi STEINBERG

The New Yorker, November 13, 2017 As an apparent coup d’etat ripples through Saudi Arabia, the rising ruling faction is trying to keep things upbeat by sending bullish signals to the world’s mega-rich. Exhibit A is Neom, part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 initiative, a proposed utopian city whose modest slogan is “the world’s most ambitious project.”…

What does boredom do to us – and for us? – Margaret TALBOT

The New Yorker, August 20, 2020 Humans have been getting bored for centuries, if not millennia. Now there’s a whole field to study the sensation, at a time when it may be more rampant than ever. Quick inventory: Among the many things you might be feeling more of these days, is boredom one of them?…

Leonard Cohen on Preparing for Death | The New Yorker

Just before Cohen's death, in November, 2016, David Remnick had the opportunity to speak with the masterly songwriter as he looked back on his career. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2vh9jjrPFI

“Jacob’s struggle with the angel” – Alec WILKINSON

THE NEW YORKER, June 15, 2015 The passage that recurs in my life is that of Jacob wrestling the angel. For many artists, it is a metaphor for the struggle to subdue one’s talent so that it collaborates with one’s ambitions to create.  I cannot separate the Bible from my father. In the middle of…

“Curto prazo final (sobre E. M. Cioran)” – George STEINER

Quando lhe mostraram um epigrama de uma linha e meia, Nicolas de Chamfort (1741-94), mestre da brevidade mordaz, comentou que ele demonstraria mais espírito se fosse mais curto. O epigrama, o aforismo, a máxima são o haicai do pensamento. Procuram condensar a percepção mais aguçada no menor número possível de palavras. Quase por definição, e mesmo quando se prende estritamente…