The New Criterion
(Mobile Version)

April 2012 Volume 30, Number 8  

Notes & Comments

Notes on the digital tsunami
On the end of Encyclopædia Britannica.

The New Criterion on poetry
About this issue.


Features

Future tense, VIII: Enter totalitarian democracy
by Andrew C. McCarthy
On the difficulties of making law in the modern world.

Philip Larkin complete
by Michael Dirda
On Larkin's poetry and two new collections of his work.

A confusion of harmonies
by Eric Ormsby
On Petrach and Luis de Góngora y Argote.

The unbearable rightness of criticism
by William Logan
On negative reviews of great poets.

"Power of some sort or other": on poems and prayers
by David Yezzi
On the shared history of poems and prayers.


Poems

Wompoo Fruit Dove
by Cally Conan-Davies

Morgue
by Len Krisak

Owed
by Amy Glynn Greacen


Reflections

James Q. Wilson, 1931-2012
by James Piereson
A look at the life of the conservative scholar.


Theater

Inexplicable redemptions
by Kevin D. Williamson
On Wit, The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, and Carrie.


Art

Renoir at the Frick
by Karen Wilkin
On “Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting” at The Frick Collection, New York.

The murals of Diego Rivera
by Anthony Daniels
On “Diego Rivera: Mural for The Museum of Modern Art” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Exhibition notice
by Alexander Nazaryan
On "The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811–2011” at the Museum of the City of New York.

Exhibition notice
by Christie Davies
On "Migrations: Journeys into British Art” at Tate Britain, London, and "Mondrian || Nicholson: In Parallel” at The Courtauld Gallery, London.


Music

New York chronicle
by Jay Nordlinger
On recent performances by Simon Trpceski, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic.


The Media

What nice girls aren't
by James Bowman
On recent discussions of women in the media.


Books

Ben Jonson's violent laughter
by Paul Dean

The echo chamber
by James Bowman

Sedating Wells
by Carl Rollyson

Stravinsky's ice
by Molly McQuade


Notebook

Teaching modern poetry
by Denis Donoghue
On the pedagogical trials and tribulations of poetry.


Letters

Teamwork at the Met
by Morrison H. Heckscher