Comment by Jonathan Schell. In the 18th & 19th centuries, one of the standard questions of philosophy was whether the phenomena of the world consist solely of appearances or whether, behind these appearances & somehow causing them, there are "things-in-themselves". Some philosophers, known as "idealists", argued that appearance is all. Others argued...

Fiction Cleo by Frederick Barthelme. The day before Gretchen is going to visit her family in Albuquerque, she and the writer pick up an old friend, Cleo, who had just spent 2 years in California. They all go to a mall. Gretchen and writer have been together 3 years. She moved in 6 weeks after...

Personal History I-SOUND SHADOWS by Ved Mehta. PERSONAL HISTORY about writer's experiences as a student at the Arkansas School for the Blind in Little Rock when he was in the 10th grade, age 16. A few days before school began his cousin Yog came to see him. He had studied in the U.S. & was now on...

The Theatre PRESS MESS by Brendan Gill.

The Talk of the Town Goldfinch by Alex Shoumatoff. Talk story about the wildlife in New Rochelle. For the many wild animals that live here, is is not a planned residential park that was laid out in generous grids 100 years ago but a mature 60-acre woodland-a congenial pocket of wilderness. The morning the writer describes, a...

Books by John Updike.

The Talk of the Town Lunch by William McKibben. Talk story about David Backer, 23, who is in charge of Lunch Impressions, Inc., a etworking organization. People often say, "Nothing ever happens to me." That's because they're sitting on their wallets instead of giving $75 to Becker so they can become members of Lunch Impressions, Inc.; the first lunch...

Jazz by Whitney Balliett. Long column about Dave Tough, the jazz drummer. He was an alcoholic, and died at 41 in 1948. Tells about his life and career. As well as drumming he had an advice-to-drummers column for the music magazine "Metronome" in the 30s. He played in Europe and with several...

Comment Comment (Part 2) by William McKibben. A young friend writes about idealists: While I was at Harvard, the few demonstrations we had drew less than half the crowd that had been at the 1978 anti-apartheid rally that had made me decide to go there. After each one I wrote editorials in the Crimson about apathy...

Fiction Berlin Snowfall by Irene Dische. Snow falls on West Berlin, and the residents of No. 86 Dusseldorfer Str. feel a sense of emergency. "Life in Berlin," proclaimed concierge Frau Knobel, "is dreadful." The weather flushed the street full of astonished onlookers, so that it looked like a Bruegel village. Berlin city regulations required that the...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Current Cinema STRAITJACKETS by Pauline Kael.

Poetry A Stuffed Tortoise by Brad Leithauser. Inwardly re-outfitted over a century ago according to the handwritten yellow three-by-five...

Poetry The Romantic Entanglement by John Ashbery. In dreams when you ask me...

Poetry My Grandmother's Bed by Edward Hirsch. How she pulled it out of the wall...