Therapeutic Opera, Coming To A House Near You

“The gist is this: contact the Opera Helps phoneline with a personal problem, and they will endeavour to send a singer to your house. Said singer will briefly discuss the issue with you, select a suitable aria that addresses it, then perform it for you while you relax in familiar surroundings: on a comfortable chair, for instance, or even in bed.”

Making Art About A Community In Crisis

“They wanted me to tell the public how they showed love. How they sacrificed for each other. How they took care of a disabled homie, gave his family money after he was crippled by a gunshot blast. Or how they would pay for his funeral if he was killed. How they would discourage younger siblings from joining the gang. How they stuck by each other. They had their own code of love. I promised to write about it.”

Which Books Have Been Unfairly Maligned?

Benjamin Moser: “In [Susan Sontag’s] essayistic writing, strength expressed through categorical statements often became a besetting weakness. … In her often unloved fiction, however, she turned insecurity into a virtue.”
Charles McGrath: “What we tend to forget about Kipling, in our haste to pigeonhole him as a Victorian crank and reactionary, is that for all his failings he was also prodigiously gifted.”

How ‘Bookchat’ Came To Devour Literary Discourse

“There are listicles of books or about books: there was even one recently about ‘The Top Ten Squirrels in Literature.’ There are interviews and aspirational how-tos. There are publicity statements, which are circulated and regurgitated into light critical opinion – as much as any book review. There is the relatively new phenomenon of the author self-testimonial: upon publication of his novel, the author will write a piece about writing the novel.”