Emdashes—Modern Times Between the Lines
The Basics:
About Emdashes | Email us
Ask the Librarians
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
(3.28.05 issue) The strength of ten ordinary men
Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: Jack Gilbert, John Lahr, John Updike, poetry, theater
Thank goodness for Greg Allen and "This Week in the New Yorker"! He does it, quite quite often, so I don't have to. Yes, there's a new issue out soon. You're telling me you finished 3.28 already? Right, me neither.
Speaking of the current issue, everyone may be talking about John Updike's rousing non-verse-form Kierkegaard essay, but don't let that distract you from reading the Spamalot review by the dazzling John Lahr, who has the sublime taste to let Jack Gilbert have the last word. Lahr has so much class he sends Spamalot profile-writers Dave Eggers (also in The New Yorker) and New York magazine's Bill Zehme to the corner with dunce caps for letting fandom get in the way of reason. You know I'm all for enthusiasm, but there's no reason to sound like Us Weekly unless you're writing for Us Weekly. Heartbreaking work, indeed.
This Week in the New Yorker (3.28.05) [Greg.org]
Jack Gilbert, "A Brief for the Defense" [Poetry Daily]
