Monday, June 22, 2009 - Posts
-
sponsorship
Hanna, just so you know, I wasn’t calling your marriage “boring”; Cristina Nehring was. No, in all seriousness, I’m glad you posted in response to Loh and to my piece about The Vindication of Love.
Your point that for every crazy artist in a series of chaotic
relationships there’s one in a stable partnership is well-taken.
Virginia Woolf, no slouch in the achievement department, may have had
one of the most boring marriages of all time. But she liked it.
Meanwhile, many partnerships you mention—like Joan Didion and John
Gregory Dunne—were hardly boring. (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
-
sponsorship
Hey ladies—are you weirded out by the strange sexual power dynamics in Twilight? So is Buffy the vampire slayer, and she's got something to say about it. Like to hear it? Here it goes... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
-
sponsorship
Hanna, thank you for the necessary astringency of your last post about
the "Neda" video and the construction of a martyr mythology in the
blogosphere’s reporting on Iran. I haven’t been able to bring myself to
watch the entire unedited Neda video on YouTube; it feels too close to
a snuff movie. Assuming this graphic clip really does document a young
woman’s death at the hands of paramilitary snipers—something we lack
the reporting to confirm—what gives us the right to watch it and
forward to and fro as proof of our solidarity with the forces of
democracy and reform in Iran (something that, as you point out, Mousavi
is far from representing)? (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com.)
-
sponsorship
Looking for a dad-themed movie to rent this Father’s Day? Most movies
about dads portray them in one of two ways: as an incompetent boob (National Lampoon’s Vacation, Daddy Day Camp, Three Men and a Baby) or as a problem-of-a-father (The Great Santini, Life With Father, Father of the Bride).
Recently, however, I saw two movies (both out on DVD now) that I think
exemplify another kind of movie about fathers: the über-daddy movie... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
-
sponsorship
Andrew Sullivan posts this e-mail today under the headline “Confirming the Basij Murder of Neda.”
The video, for those who haven’t seen it, is graphic and disturbing.
The e-mail Sullivan points to, however, confirms nothing... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
-
sponsorship
The reliably wired Marc Ambinder flags National Journal's almost foolishly comprehensive, 366-person omnibus study
of the folks working in every nook and cranny of the Obama
administration (complete with phone numbers)! I've only carved my way
through a third of it, but Marc dishes the important stats... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
-
sponsorship
Hanna, you call out the false dichotomy between the miserable married and passionate single, and in this weekend's New York Times Magazine, Ginia Bellafante discusses Jodi Picoult's novels, and the false dichotomy between good parent and bad. Substitute marriage for parenting—"the difference between marriage that assumes the shape of performed concern and marriage that takes the form
of active tending"—and you've hit on what we've been discussing all week with Tsing Loh's piece... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
-
sponsorship
Anna Balkrishna’s article about her mother’s ill-fated love for a convict in Double X
last week was a fascinating story, compellingly told. I posted an
(unsolicited) suggestion that the author, whom I have not met,
communicate directly with her mom as genuinely as she did with her
readers. Anna and her mother both replied with more insight into their
relationship and their collaboration on the piece, prompting me to
reconsider my assumptions about them, and reflect anew on my own
efforts to write about my family—and my own mistakes with love... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
-
sponsorship
Dame Helen Mirren (my #1 girl crush) is currently starring as Phèdre at
the National Theatre in London (my #1 arts institution crush). Stuck
Stateside this summer? You're in luck: Starting on June 25, the
National will be beaming the production to cinemas around the world... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?