“Dr. Ramon Torres was a hero on the front lines against the epidemic for over a decade. It was when the war began to be won that he got lost.”
A truly heartbreaking story; also, a piece of writing that easily lives up to those lofty standards that we once associated with American magazine writing.
April 11th, 2008 / Tags: america, good writing / Trackback“That voice, softened by the erosion of age but still the sensate rasp that Joyce Carol Oates once compared to sandpaper singing.”
April 10th, 2008 / Tags: music, good writing / TrackbackResuscitating Art Music: ‘One student answered, “I like rock music because even if I’m doing something else, even if I’m in a different room, I can still get it. I can still tell where the beat is.”
Then he said something I’ve been thinking about ever since. “I like rock music because you don’t have to pay attention in order to get it.”
He really seemed to resent it that the fourteenth-century music required him to do something, to pay attention. Since that time, I have realized that, in our country, the ability to pay attention has become endangered. As a result, art forms that require the audience’s attention are endangered, too.’
Getting curmudgeonly cranky in my dotage, am I not — liking this essay quite a bit.
March 26th, 2008 / Tags: music, good writing / TrackbackTwilight of the Books: ‘“What will life be like if people stop reading?” by Caleb Crain’ — approaching the end of an era (btw: should it not be when and not if?)
January 17th, 2008 / Tags: good writing, books, culture / Trackback