New Yorkers choose to gather under the banner which says “New York”—which is so elastic it really means nothing at all—and that is exactly what I love about this place. The capacity to gather without precise definition I experience as a form of freedom, here where we do not have to be the clerk to the heir of wherever, where we can be unattached to our old European pedigree, or lack of same, and loosened from the bonds of distant villages, with their strictures and demands, their ideas regarding our sexuality or gender, their plans for our future.
Books
How to Solve the Catalan Crisis
Catalonia does not have a right under international law to unilaterally declare independence from Spain. But if it becomes clear that a large part of the people, possibly a majority, favor independence, then the only sensible thing for Madrid to do is to hold a dialogue with the leaders of that region. Negotiations do not imply that the government is going to accept independence, any more than the British government accepted a united Ireland in the Good Friday negotiations. The conservative government in Madrid, however, has always refused any such dialogue.
Why the Kurds Are Paying for Trump’s Gift to Iran
Trump’s decision to decertify the nuclear deal followed an extensive policy review to come up with a new Iran strategy. By supporting Iraq, the administration intends to contain Iran’s influence in the region. An independent Iraq today could block Iran’s access to its ally in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad, and from there to the territory in Lebanon controlled by its proxy, Hezbollah. With this larger strategic picture in mind, sacrificing the Kurds may be an acceptable price to pay—especially as they had declined to follow US advice on the referendum. There is, however, an obvious flaw in this approach.
A Short History of Style
Joey Arias at Jackie 60, 1997 The disposition of her arms Is a case of Nothing ventured, nothing Gained. Her violet ear Makes sense if Something wicked is Being said. The angle Of her nose is a challenge, A crime against nature. Her Throat a fine line. Lover Where have you been? Mistakes come back […]
War of All Against All
In mid-October of this year, ISIS was defeated in Raqqa by a predominantly Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In September I had gone with a TV team to see what remained of the city the jihadists had declared the capital of their caliphate. Entering from the east, we passed through an avenue of trees casting shadows across the baking hot desert road, like the entrance to one of those small French towns where, according to legend, Napoleon insisted poplars should be planted so his troops could march in the shade.
Fake Tradition
To the Editors: Tim Flannery does an excellent job reviewing recent books about fishing and its long-term impacts on human development. However, he overstates the case considerably in tying Japanese traditions of fishing for dolphins to current industrial dolphin slaughters and whaling.
A Banquet of Words
To the Editors: I would like to comment briefly, in Hayden Pelliccia’s discussion of Iliad translations, mine included, on the much-debated “reading” by Zenodotus of daita (feast, banquet) rather than the otherwise unanimous pasi (all) at the very beginning of the Iliad, changing the fate of the Greek battlefield corpses at Troy from being “carrion for dogs and all birds [of prey]” to “carrion for dogs, for birds a feast.”
Correction
In Simon Winchester’s review of Michael Ignatieff’s The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World [NYR, November 9], the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, not the Carnegie Endowment, sponsored the research project that Ignatieff writes about in the book. He undertook the project when he served as the Council’s Centennial Chair.
The Problem With ‘Problematic’
It’s undeniable that the literary voices of marginalized communities have been underrepresented in the publishing world, but the lessons of history warn us about the dangers of censorship. Unless they are written about by members of a marginalized group, the harsh realities experienced by members of that group are dismissed as stereotypical, discouraging writers from every group from describing the world as it is, rather than the world we would like.
Why This Is Not Trump’s Watergate
Never mind the obvious factual differences in the stories—the allegations of Russian collusion are far more grave—American law, politics, and journalism is far too different now to think that matters will unfold the way they did in the 1970s. As complex a story as Watergate was, it reads like a children’s book compared to what Mueller and his team are dealing with. As vicious and as partisan as the events were back then, they seem quaint in comparison to the poisonous atmosphere in which the current scandal is unfolding. That is why the comparisons to Watergate are so facile.
Sig Nordal 