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Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Donald Antrim, Frank O'Hara, Lorrie Moore, Steve Martin
Welcome to the human heart! Isn't it knottier and more slippery than you expected, with so many more than four chambers that you've had to stop counting? There are enough Snoopy valentines for the whole class, but the ones I cut and glued myself are for
Donald Antrim, whose essays about his fabric-wild mother and bed-mad self have made life both easier and harder to bear, and who is welcome to visit the kissing booth when I am working it; and for
Lorrie Moore, whose stories in the magazine and elsewhere have made all of us stop breathing as Billie Holiday did for the 5 SPOT listeners in Frank O'Hara's poem, and who is always surprising us again with her bravery ("The Juniper Tree" being only the most recent example). Her stories are news, and not because they remind us of who's richest and most popular in the fiction game, but because they affect things—the way art is said to, but sometimes doesn't. I like this anecdote:
“You’re Ugly, Too” was the first of many of her stories to be published in The New Yorker (and then to be reprinted, with regularity, in annuals such as The O. Henry Awards and The Best American Short Stories), but, in 1989, it was a controversial piece for the magazine. “All through the editing process, they said, ‘Oooh, we’re breaking so many rules with this.’ ” Robert Gottlieb had taken over as the editor, but the turgidity of his predecessor, William Shawn, still gripped the institution. “I could not say ‘yellow light,’ I had to say ‘amber light,’ ” Moore remembers. “And that was the least of the vulgarities I’d committed.”
A candy heart of lust and admiration to Steve Martin—with whom I fell in love at a birthday party in 1984 on first sighting of his silver hair and wistful-seducer eyes in All of Me—for giving a million bucks to the Huntington Library in Pasadena, one of the prettiest places I've ever been and beloved by scholars. Martin (who, fittingly, designated the money for the American art collection) says, "The Huntington is clearly interested in ... bringing significant works of American art to light, contextualizing them, and helping visitors become better acquainted with the artists, the techniques and the significance of the pieces." It's not enough that this man made all those movies that make us happy—he writes fiction, Shouts & Murmurs, and plays, and throws money to art into the bargain. Steve, you're great. And even more handsome than you were, somehow.
Two more hearts wrapped in wrist tape for Edwin Pope and William Nack, who just won A.J. Liebling Awards (to be presented on May 6) for excellence in boxing journalism. Maybe they could do double duty as film critics during this trying time, when Clint Eastwood has duped an entire nation into believing, among other unlikely things, that a gorgeous young waitress who boxes in all her free time would never have the slightest temptation to try out some of her fellow trainees. I'm just sayin'. Movie man Gene Seymour agrees with me, and he's no mollycoddle in the critical ring.
And to you, reader, who ask so charmingly for more and make me want to give it to you. You know who you are. Thank you.
About Lorrie Moore: A Profile [Ploughshares]
Moore's Better Blues [Dwight Garner interview, Salon]
Steve Martin donates $1M to support U.S. art [CBC]
A.J. Liebling Awards [East Side Boxing]
The Edwin Pope Collection [Amazon]
My Turf: Horses, Boxers, Blood Money, and the Sporting Life [William Nack, Powell's]
Categories: Antrim, Moore, Martin, Movies
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
Lorrie Moore and Donald Antrim yay, but Steve Martin? OK, he’s better at hosting the Oscars than Billy Crystal, but so whatski? The only thing I’ve liked of his in 20 years was The Spanish Prisoner, and let’s face it, that wasn’t really him. He should be banned from all retail outlets on the basis of SHOPGIRL alone.
Man, Lorrie Moore. Can’t beat her for pure heart-stopping sadness, can you? For an antidote from another Laurie, I’m a huge Laurie Colwin fan. I gave “Happy All the Time” to a friend recently, who hated it, and I’m seriously considering breaking up. If that ain’t a litmus test, what is?
Steve Martin, ho hum. Except for A Man With Two Brains, in which he’s so manic he’s hilarious. Speaking of the Oscars, I’m excited and a little nervous for Chris Rock’s debut. Has he EVER been funny? Can he start now please?
What about The Jerk??
Amazingly, I’ve never seen it, though my high school band teacher used to quote it constantly.
SM and LM should merge and have frog children with silver hair. I love your blog on the literary figures in our society, em. Thanks. And happy VD day-post to you, too