The New Yorker 07 January 2019

Cover:  “Out in the Cold” by Harry Bliss

1. I love to investigate The New Yorker’s covers.
2. The magazine makes subtle statements
3. …about current events.
4. In other situations usually about Trump
5. …not so subtle statements!
6. This week ….here is what I found.

Puck Building, New York City:

The Austrian-born publisher of Puck, Joseph Keppler, commissioned the building in 1885. He’d launched an English-language version of his small German satirical magazine seven years ago, and Puck had become a milestone in the history of American humor.

The chubby sprite holds a hand mirror—the better to reflect society’s follies with—as well as a fountain pen. At his side hangs a book inscribed with his character’s jest in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “What fools these Mortals be!

The cherub dressed as up a Gilded Age dandy—complete with a top hat and frock coat. The coat is left wide open to expose his chubby nude figure, and in his hands he holds the keys to Puck’s reign of American humor: a fountain pen and a hand mirror.

Lauren Collins : Interview with Sally Rooney

1. I expected this article to tell me more about the author and her book Normal People.
2. Unfortunately the focus is on the previous book Conversations with Friends. (CWF)
3. Zadie Smith praised CWF and could not believe it was a debut novel!
4. Now, I value Smith’s opinion so perhaps I can start with this book.
5. The Times in London  called Sally Rooney the
6. “…first great millennial author.”
7. My impression is that Rooney remained true to her attitude towards interviews:
8. “One of which is a desire to be friendly and nice, because
9. …I know journalists don’t love you to give monosyllabic responses.
10. The second is: don’t tell them anything.”
11. Rooney was friendly  towards Lauren Collins
12. …and didn’t say  anything new!

Profile:     Elizabeth Anderson   (1959)  by Nathan Heller

1. Elizabeth is the chair of the University of Michigan’s department of philosophy.

1. This article by Nathan Heller starts out very anecdotal and I almost lost interest.
2. Then I stumbled upon a reference to her
3. ….award winning book The Imperative of Integration. (2010)
   
4. Elizabeth Anderson demonstrates that
5. …despite progress toward racial equality, African Americans
6. remain disadvantaged on virtually all measures of well-being.
7. This book is tough reading if you do not
8. …read many books about philosophy
9. …but I would at least give this one a try.
10. Anderson is the winner of 2011 Joseph B. Gittler Award.
11. No book buying until I reduce my TBR
12. …but I did order a ‘free sample’ of the book from Kindle!

Profile:     Ruth Prawer Jhabvala    by   Maya Janasoff

1. This article was a two-for-one deal!
2. I learned so much about Ms Jhabvala who died in 2013.
3. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, CBE was a Booker prize-winning novelist,
4. short story writer, and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter.
5. She is best known today as the third member of the Merchant Ivory team..
6. director James Ivory and the late producer Ismail Merchant.
7. Their films won six Academy Awards.
8. I have never read any of her books but plan to put
9. …..them on my TBR.
10. The author of this article is a discovery as well!
11. Maya Janasoff – Coolidge Professor of History
12. Harvard College Professor

1. I am an avid non-fiction reader and never heard of the Cundill History Prize
2. Maya Janasoff  (1974) has just won the Cundill History Prize
3. ….recognizes and rewards the best history writing in English.
   
4. Jasanoff won the 2018 Cundill History Prize valued at
5. …$75,000 for The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World.

1. In The Dawn Watch Maya Jasanoff
2. ….follows Conrad’s routes and the stories of his four greatest works:
3. The Secret Agent, Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo.
4. The Dawn Watch embarks on a spellbinding
5. …expedition into the dark heart of Conrad’s world
6. …and through it to our own.