Posts by David Benjamin
Hail, Oceania!
by David Benjamin “By word and deed, Trump treats Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping as his only real peers. Our allies, by contrast, are our subordinates. It’s as if Putin, Xi and Trump were feudal lords and each were entitled to his own feudal domain.” —David French, NY Times, 23 March MADISON, Wis.—Writing in 1948,…
Read MoreThe trouble with smalltown lit
by David Benjamin “The days of pioneering, of lassies in sunbonnets, and bears killed with axes in piney clearings, are deader now than Camelot; and a rebellious girl is the spirit of that bewildered empire called the American Middlewest.” ―Sinclair Lewis, Main Street MADISON, Wis.—A while ago, I was one of several writers reading passages……
Read MoreThe diversionary allure of desperate times
by David Benjamin “I learned how to read the distance of a flyball from the crack of the bat over the radio and the tone of Earl Gillespie’s response (he never, ever hyped a warning-track quail as a dinger).” —David Benjamin, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked MADISON, Wis.—It wasn’t an every…
Read More“Trump would … ”
by David Benjamin “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” —Vince Lombardi MADISON, Wis.—Right around the time he applies his Sharpie to an edict changing the name of Canada to Trumpanada and sending the North Dakota National Guard to invade Saskatchewan, Donald Trump is going to run out of weird-ass “executive orders” to dream up…
Read MoreWhy not sports?
by David Benjamin “We do this because it gives us, vicariously and from a great distance, a share in the glamour and the counterfeit heroism that accrues to sports champions. As we suffer through every day’s degrading race against our fellow rats, the Packers are an endless, regularly scheduled series of voyages into the unknown.……
Read MoreA Métro mystery
by David Benjamin “It’ll be quite quiet when you first get on/ But as that tram keeps moving along/ It’ll fill with people starting on their day/ They’ll be laughing and joking as they eat/ They’ll be passing plates along the seats/ Your night of heartache will soon seem far away/ And even though you’re…
Read MoreMove fast, break things, kill the pig
by David Benjamin “Aren’t there any grownups at all?” — Piggy PARIS—One of the blessings of a liberal arts education is the ability to discern timeless themes from the turmoil of the moment. The return of Donald Trump to his Second Reich at the Resolute Desk, attended by a menagerie of suckups and vandals, has…
Read MoreThe storyteller as travel guide
Specialty writers are a rich resource to a storyteller. The most important lesson they teach is attention to detail, especially when the story ranges far from home. by David Benjamin “When we championed trash culture we had no idea it would become the only culture.” ― Pauline Kael PARIS—During my sojourn in Japan, I was……
Read MoreOutmaneuvering the maestro
by David Benjamin “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way” —Juan Ramon Jimenez PARIS—The dilemma of the moment in America and beyond: Confrontation or subversion? Or both? I offer a case in point: Many moons ago, the renowned La Scala Opera Company of Milan mounted a lengthy excursion to Japan. It brought…
Read MoreJerome the Giant goes outdoors
by David Benjamin Jerome was a giant. Nobody told him he was a giant, but he figured it out. Jerome lived indoors and never went out. There were no windows in his house. If there were windows, the tinies might be able to squeeze inside. They might get hurt. Jerome had learned a lot from…
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