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Looked Into
Peter J. Boyer Has an Extraordinarily Soothing Voice
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: fiction, John Graves, Matt Dellinger, newyorker.com, Paul Muldoon, Peter J. Boyer, podcasts, poetry, politics
I'm listening to the New Yorker Out Loud podcast in which Matt Dellinger (who has a calming, pleasant voice himself) interviews Boyer about the latter's recent story about newsman Keith Olbermann, and am struck by how resonant the latter's speaking voice is. It is a mellow, searchingly thoughtful voice, with a note of the South (Texas, I'm guessing), and the sound of the two of them together makes for a sort of duet for cello and bassoon. It's a good interview, too.
Matt, bring back Mr. Boyer for another discussion soon, won't you? In the meantime, he could read a short story for the fiction podcast, perhaps something by John Graves. This makes me think: Paul Muldoon's similarly unboastful, shapely voice. A poetry podcast to complement the rest, complete with songs (Muldoon would choose them well), and it would be as lively as can be--something like the Favorite Poem Project, but with a New Yorker-specific tilt. Let's hope that this is in the works.
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A few clips
- Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.
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Comments
Re Obama's public utterances re abortion, particularly his remarks at Saddleback, I am rather miffed. Why doesn't he follow up his inability to state when human life begins by expressing his absolute conviction that a woman made pregnant through rape should have the right to choose and emphasizing how absurd it would be to argue that under such circumstances abortion is tantamount to murder. But if human life begins at conception, abortion is murder. The religious right can't have it both ways.
Re Obama's public utterances re abortion, particularly his remarks at Saddleback, I am rather miffed. Why doesn't he follow up his inability to state when human life begins by expressing his absolute conviction that a woman made pregnant through rape should have the right to choose and emphasizing how absurd it would be to argue that under such circumstances abortion is tantamount to murder. But if human life begins at conception, abortion is murder. The religious right can't have it both ways.