A Website of the Radical Imagination
Meltzer sent this piece, written a couple years back, in response to First‘s Call for remembrances of Amiri Baraka. It ends with a reflection on Baraka’s music writing. You’ll find that excerpt in our Baraka tribute. But the rest of this piece is echt Meltzer as well so here’s the whole enchilada. Since the release … Read more
Liars and Lorine Niedecker By Aram Saroyan Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis. W. W. Norton. 2011. 213 pps. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. W. W. Norton. 2010. 270 pps. Liar’s Poker: Rising through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis. W. W. Norton. 1989. … Read more
Dead, you’re the critics’ darling. When I was a teen, you were mine. Each morning I lifted The Velvet Underground and Nico from its sleeve, watched it spin, waited for Sunday Morning’s opening notes to warm me like a junk rush. Bursting with things to say but needing someone else’s words, I wore your face … Read more
It is reliably said that during Isaiah Berlin’s youth his pampering mother used to rouse him from sleep with the question, “What are we going to do today?” To which the answer was: “Nothing.” Perhaps Marie Berlin became the nicest kind of Stalin in his subconscious.[1] In the depths of the Stalinist night, around midnight … Read more
Any one who wishes to become a good writer should endeavor, before he allows himself to be tempted by more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. H. W. Fowler, Dictionary of Modern English Usage In a New York Times Book Review earlier this year I read two pieces printed on following … Read more
You write. Your friends say, “I liked it.” They say, “You’re really a good writer,” like it still comes as a surprise. You don’t blame them. If everyone could say something memorable, everyone would be Oscar Wilde. When Black Eye (“The Journal of Humor and Despair”) published a chapter of my black comedy The Schiz, … Read more
The author gave this commencement address at the School of Visual Arts on 19 May 2013. I’m not here today to offer advice or even encouragement. I’m here to talk about art and audience, about art and the people it reaches—and what happens when it does. I’ve always believed that the divisions between high art … Read more