In June 2017, writer and composer Dave Malloy shared a diagram of some notes for his “Moby-Dick” musical on Twitter, complete with a cartoon sketch of a smiling whale. Beneath the diagram, in quotes, were the words, “We’ll not lower for calves.” Lowering may be exactly what you imagine when you hear that a whaling…
You would not be blamed for weeping over the news that Bob Dylan, an already-controversial recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, may have plagiarized part of the Nobel Lecture he gave in acceptance of the prize from Sparknotes. Yes, really: Sparknotes. The news was broken by Slate’s Andrea Pitzer, who took on the…
“Call me Ishmael,” declares one of the most famous opening sentences in Western literature. But what if the narrator of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” was actually asking you to call him? That was the whimsical thought Logan Smalley offered in a spirited bar conversation about notable first sentences. He jotted the notion down on a…
Last week’s column was about the Hebrew word tanakh, spelled with the letters taf, nun and kaf. This week, we’re down to taf and nun, which spell — but I’d better begin at the beginning. It all started with an attack of bursitis in my leg. What do you do when you have to rest…
Novelist Jonathan Lethem, author of “Motherless Brooklyn,” leaves Brooklyn for Southern California. Kevin Spacey unveiled his new Middle East Theater Academy in Dubai. Forward contributing editor Ilan Stavans talks about putting together the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Ketubahs aren’t just for Jews anymore, says Samuel Freedman in the New York Times. Tablet Magazine profiles…
As I walked into Nancy Hwang’s art-slathered loft on another tropical day in New York City, I reminded myself that the visit was strictly “no business.” Through a serendipitous, mysterious phone call, I had somehow landed myself a promise of homemade cake and coffee at an intimate birthday celebration among the close friends of an…
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