Sometimes Symmetry Is Overrated
Symmetry is “the quality of being made up of exactly similar parts”—and when is that realistic?
By Jeannette Cooperman
A Woman in a White Dress
All too often, a woman in white is a ghost. Or she is Ophelia, gone mad and trailing her dreams behind her. White is fragile in so many ways.
Our Doomed Pursuit of Happiness
It is enough, Montaigne insisted, to simply live. If someone is upset about wasting time, muttering, “I have done nothing today!” he scoffs, “What, have you not lived? That is not only your fundamental occupation, but your most illustrious one.”
They Snuck Into the Panthéon and Saved Paris
Once, in the middle of the night, six Parisian teenagers managed to get into the Panthéon in Paris. They went on to explore the catacombs, set up an underground movie theater and art exhibits, and repair Paris's neglected treasures.
Steinbeck Could Not Save to the Cloud
The Cloud has transformed our relationship to physical information. We no longer have occasion to be brave, to at least pretend nonchalance. We have no reason to make a fresh start.
Whacked Out Sports: A Cultural Clue?
This show is so White, so retro-male, so ripe for scathing dismissal by the snooty elite. There is even a class overlay.
The Vanishing, Civilizing Art of Marginalia
Notes jotted in a margin carry on a conversation with future readers. Not with the authors themselves, mind, and often it is lucky for them that they remain oblivious.
The Woman Who Taught Us Not to Trust Our Memories Has Some Doozies of Her Own
Many of us are vulnerable to suggestion, our memories blurry and uncertain. But intense emotion can also etch an experience in memory with every detail intact. Overly involved therapists can push a certain narrative until their client believes it verbatim. But the mind can also shelter us from pain and release it back to us little by little, as we can handle it.
What Bloodshed in Haiti Means for Us
(Photo by Patti Gabriel) When I learned that Jovenel Moïse, president of Haiti, had been assassinated—after riots and demands that he resign—something inside me crumpled. Again? I was in Haiti during its 2010 presidential elections, along with the professional photographer who shot the image above, Patti Gabriel. We…
Invitation to the Dance
Dancing in groups can strengthen social bonds, researchers have found; it brings a feeling of connection and unity. Why? Because when we are all moving in the same way at the same time, swept up by rhythm and melody, the boundaries of our lonely little separate selves blur.
Why Nobody Knows Moholy-Nagy’s Name
Moholy-Nagy had never gone to art school, and he had never taught. He had an almost childlike interest in anything new, especially the machines that were transforming industry.
The Attention Economy
We talk about paying attention, as though it is a debt—and these days, attention is definitely currency. We still use money and buy material stuff, but these transactions all begin by gaining our limited attention.