Category Culture

Tessa Hadley’s Longing to Put Life Into Words

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Tessa Hadley recently published her thirtieth short story in The New Yorker—the first, “Lost and Found,” came out in 2002—and also, earlier in the summer, put out her twelfth book of…

Lagos, Glimpsed from Seven Vantages

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Traffic can be a nuisance on the streets of any city. In Lagos, it organizes daily life—for schoolchildren, for office employees, and for the scores of informal workers who sell beverages…

Deciphering the Wagner Group’s Love for Wagner

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Contemporary discourse has little patience with maddening contradictions of the kind that Wagner embodies.Photograph from brandstaetter images / Getty “Wagner calls off threat to march on Russia capital” was the disorienting…

Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The first time I heard about Taylor Swift, I was in a Los Angeles County jail, waiting to be sent to prison for murder. Sheriffs would hand out precious copies of…

The Political, Metaphysical Melodrama of “Dragonwyck”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Hollywood novel, “The Last Tycoon,” is an admiring roman à clef about the visionary studio boss Irving Thalberg, who, in his early twenties, had more or less invented…

“Bottoms” Is a Major Film but Not a Good One

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Laughter and tears are like sneezes, physiological responses without aesthetic substance. That’s why I don’t think less of a comedy that doesn’t make me laugh. What matters is the style with…

The Shock of Japan’s Extreme Heat

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Japan as a nation has long possessed a keen awareness of climate. Kigo, the phrases that evoke the feel of the seasons, are the foundation of haiku poetry. Shun, the term…

The Surreal Nudes of Heji Shin

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Alex BaraschCulture editor You’re reading the Goings On newsletter, a guide to what we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. Late August…

Into the Invisible Elsewhere

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story                                                     Sourse: newyorker.com Rate this item:1.002.003.004.005.00Submit…