Fading of Ana's Neo Red and BJP's Saffron in 5 Years

Ms. Ana Ivanovic beat Dinara Safina to win the 2008 French Open, surely first of many to come.

BJP won Karnataka at the same time. It was hailed 'Dakshin-Vijay' (दक्षिण विजय), surely first of many to come.





Saffron and Neo Red were victorious colours.

This is the post I wrote on June 9 2008: "BJP Saffron and Ivanovic Neo Red are going to be Huge this Summer."

As of May 6, 2013, Ms. Ivanovic is ranked no. 16 in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings and never looks to me a champion player she looked that summer, 5 years ago, let alone winning another Grand Slam tournament again.

BJP will be number two or even three party in new Karnataka assembly.

I Want Durga Bhagwat to be in Literary Feuds!

Today May 7 2013 is 11th Death Anniversary of Durga Bhagwat  (दुर्गा भागवत)

DWIGHT GARNER:

"The sad truth about the book world is that it doesn’t need more yes-saying novelists and certainly no more yes-saying critics. We are drowning in them. What we need more of, now that newspaper book sections are shrinking and vanishing like glaciers, are excellent and authoritative and punishing critics — perceptive enough to single out the voices that matter for legitimate praise, abusive enough to remind us that not everyone gets, or deserves, a gold star."

(The New York Times, August 15 2012)

RACHEL DONADIO:

‘To some, the paucity of feuds is connected to the larger state of literary culture. “It’s not because we no longer have feuds,” said Fran Lebowitz, the writer. “It’s because we no longer have literature.” ’

(“Art of the Feud”, The New York Times, November 19 2006)

On her 10th death anniversary,  I said: I have nothing new to write about her. I still haven't.

But I miss her.

Among other things, I miss her participation in Marathi literary feuds! What a passionate critic-cum-fighter she was- "excellent, authoritative and punishing".

I still remember the way she took on the late P L Deshpande ( पु ल देशपांडे) and Mr. Govind Talwalkar (गोविंद  तळवलकर)- both then Sumo wrestlers on Maharashtra's middle class cultural mat-  on the editorial pages of "Maharashtra Times" (महाराष्ट्र टाइम्स) in 1970's.

First my father read those articles aloud and laughed. Then I read them myself. I wish they never stopped feuding! [There is one puzzle still unsolved from those days. Ms. Bhagwat had accused Mr. Talwalkar on making a pun on the name of Amte (आमटे) in personal chats. I have never figured what it could be.]

Alas, now there are no big literary feuds in Marathi.

Literary feuds can end up in a real fight. Head butting for instance.

In India this year,  we almost had one when Mr. Girish Karnad attacked Mr. V S Naipaul but sadly there was no retaliation from Mr. Naipaul and hence no fight and fun.

The sixth episode of the The Simpsons' eighteenth season "Moe'n'a Lisa" has Jonathan Franzen fighting with Michael Chabon.

"Franzen and Chabon are hysterical. They get in heated fight, Franzen breaks a table over Chabon's head, Chabon accuses him of fighting like Anne Rice"

Look at the following picture of Mr. Kaplan. Little girl is telling her mom: I don't just want to write. I want to be in literary feuds.

What an ambition! "I want to be in literary feuds" Like Durga Bhagwat, I may add!

Artist : Bruce Eric Kaplan, The New Yorker, 27 June 1994

Which IPL Team Soliyas Mendis Plays For? He Can't Play in Chennai! He Can't Draw in Ajanta!

Mark Twain:

‎"So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: 'Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbor's religion is.' Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many religions; but no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code."

Oren Harman:

"Aristotle was a cynic. Sure, the Bible exhorts to “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” but he knew better. “The friendly feelings that we bear for another,” instructed his Ethics, “have arisen from the friendly feelings that we bear for ourselves.”"

Manoj Joshi, The Hindu, April 27 2013:

"In March 1954, the Union Cabinet met and decided to unilaterally define the border of India with China. The colour wash was replaced by a hard line, and the Survey of India issued a new map, which depicts the borders as we know them today. All the old maps were withdrawn and the depiction of Indian boundaries in the old way became illegal. Indeed, if you seek out the White Paper on Indian States of 1948 and 1950 in the Parliament library, you will find that the maps have been removed because they too showed the border as being “undefined” in the Central and Western sectors.

What was the government up to? Did it seriously think it could get away with such a sleight of hand? Or was there a design that will become apparent when the papers of the period are declassified? Not surprisingly, the other party, the People’s Republic of China, was not amused and, in any case, there are enough copies of the old documents and maps across the world today to bring out the uncomfortable truth that the boundaries of India in these regions were unilaterally defined by the Government of India, rather than through negotiation and discussions with China."

Year 2013 has been characterized by a lot of negative news flow on Sri Lanka in Indian media. And on China and on Pakistan...Marathi media, particularly on China-Pakistan, have become even more bellicose than their Hindi/English counterparts..."India has been always been peaceful but should not be taken for granted etc"...


John Keay:

"...The classic expansion of Chola power began anew with the accession of Rajaraja I in 985. Campaigns in the south brought renewed success against the Pandyas and their ‘haughty’ Chera allies in Kerala, both of which kingdoms were now claimed as Chola feudatories. These triumphs were followed, or accompanied, by a successful invasion of Buddhist Sri Lanka in which Anuradhapura, the ancient capital, was sacked and its stupas plundered with a rapacity worthy of the great Mahmud...When, therefore, Rajendra I succeeded Rajaraja and assumed the reins of power in 1014, his priority was obvious. Sri Lanka was promptly reinvaded and more treasures and priceless regalia seized; prising open even relic chambers, says a Sri Lankan chronicle, ‘like blood-sucking yakkhas they took all the treasures of Lanka for themselves’..."

('INDIA A HISTORY: From the Earliest Civilisations to the Boom of the Twenty-First Century', 2000/ 2010)


I was stunned seeing pictures of Buddhist art of Sri Lanka in Frontline dated April 19 2013. I think some of the art gives Ajanta run for its money.

Apsaras, Mural, Sigiriya, c. 5th century.

Artist: Unknown

Photo Artist: Benoy K. Behl

And I didn't even know that such art existed...I have often wondered: Why do I know so little about my neighbourhood while I seem to know 'so much' about a country thousands of miles away? Have I really achieved freedom?

Sanghamitra brings the holy Bodhi Tree to Sri Lanka

Artist: Soliyas Mendis, Mural, Kelaniya Vihara, early 20th century. 

Photo artist: Benoy K. Behl
 
"The painter Soliyas Mendis travelled to India in the end of the 19th century to study the paintings of Ajanta. When he returned to Sri Lanka, he created a new style of art, which has its roots in the gentle expressions and exquisite grace of the Ajanta paintings. His work represents a valuable link and continuation of the ancient style of Buddhist paintings. The paintings also display a close affinity to the style of the Sigiriya paintings and are distinctly Sri Lankan."

Karl Marx...8th Chiranjivi? अश्वत्थामा बलिर्व्यासो हनुमांश्च विभीषणः...

Today May 1 is  International Workers' Day and May 5 2013 is 195th Birth Anniversary of Karl Marx

अश्वत्थामा बलिर्व्यासो हनुमांश्च विभीषणः। कृपः परशुरामश्च सप्तैते चिरंजीविनः॥

George Orwell:

"Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing. There is always a new tyrant waiting to take over from the old — generally not quite so bad, but still a tyrant. Consequently two viewpoints are always tenable. The one, how can you improve human nature until you have changed the system? The other, what is the use of changing the system before you have improved human nature? They appeal to different individuals, and they probably show a tendency to alternate in point of time. The moralist and the revolutionary are constantly undermining one another. Marx exploded a hundred tons of dynamite beneath the moralist position, and we are still living in the echo of that tremendous crash. But already, somewhere or other, the sappers are at work and fresh dynamite is being tamped in place to blow Marx at the moon. Then Marx, or somebody like him, will come back with yet more dynamite, and so the process continues, to an end we cannot yet foresee. The central problem — how to prevent power from being abused — remains unsolved. Dickens, who had not the vision to see that private property is an obstructive nuisance, had the vision to see that. ‘If men would behave decently the world would be decent’ is not such a platitude as it sounds."

Terry Eagleton:

"There’s irony in the fact that in the midst of the most affluent civilization history has witnessed people are scavenging in rubbish baskets for food. That’s the kind of contradiction I think Marx was talking about. I also stressed how much Marx admired the way that capitalism had in a very short space of time accumulated such wealth—material, spiritual, cultural—but that it couldn’t do that without the contradiction of generating inequality at the same time; we’re seeing a stark instance of that in Greece today. So that’s the kind of thing I’d point to to show the relevance of Marx. Even within the anti-capitalist movement, Marx is not a majority presence. One has to say that. It’s partly because of the discrediting of Marxism by Stalinism, which will take a long time for the Marxist left to recover from. But I’m not myself madly concerned about whether people stick the label “Marxist” onto themselves as long as they take a critical stance towards the present situation. It doesn’t matter what they call themselves."

Jonathan Sperber:

“The man who would write the Communist Manifesto just five years later was advocating the use of the army to suppress a communist workers’ uprising!”

Karl Marx on German-Jewish socialist Ferdinand Lassalle:

"It is now completely clear to me, that, as proven by the shape of his head and the growth of his hair, he [Lassalle] stems from the Negroes who joined the march of Moses out of Egypt (if his mother or grandmother on his father’s side did not mate with a nigger). Now this combination of Jewry and Germanism with the negroid basic substance must bring forth a peculiar product. The pushiness of this lad is also nigger-like."

Once I was almost a card-carrying Marxist- communist. That was long time ago.  

Then I used to buy lots of low-cost English translated Russian books from frequently held exhibitions in Kolhapur and Sangli. 

Most of the books I bought,  including those by greats Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoyevsky,  went almost unopened. The only such books I read were of  metallurgy, an engineering subject. 

I thought my book-buying spree,  wasting in the process my father's very hard earned money, was helping the cause of revolution.   It was not helping anyone, really. 

I loved and read and re-read Anil Barve's (अनिल बर्वे) poetic play in Marathi-  'Thank you Mister Glad' ('थँक यु मिस्टर ग्लाड') and I cried and although I wanted to die like the protagonist there,  by then I had lost faith in revolutions (even before I lost it in bachelorhood).

For a while later I was a 'socialist' and then one day I saw and read Vijay Tendulkar's (विजय तेंडुलकर) 
"Kanyadan" (कन्यादान) and since then I have seen, read and heard so many 'socialists' like Nath Deolalikar (नाथ देवळालीकर) in India. They now belong to all the castes. 

Artist: James Thurber, The New Yorker, October 30 1937 (btw This is the month my mother was borne!)

But all along I never forgot Marx because of the late Prabhakar Padhye's (प्रभाकर  पाध्ये) Marathi book 'Manav aani Marx' ('मानव आणि मार्क्स') that I had read in the late 1970's. I have never forgot parts of the book.

My respect for Karl Marx has never diminished ever since my father told me that the veteran boar Old Major in 'Animal Farm' was him.

For me,  today he is a Don Quixote like character. Some people may judge him as a failure but more importantly for me he is a dreamer and eternal. I like to think of him as 8th Chiranjivi (चिरंजीवी).

 Wikipedia defines them as " long lived beings in Hinduism who are to remain alive through this Kali Yuga until the next Satya Yuga".

As long as we have so much economic inequality in this Kali Yuga,  Marx will continue to prick our conscience.

Like Ashwathama,  he will continue to come to our door...Like King Bali he will continue to hold mirror to the fundamental unfairness of our system...Like Parashurama he will remind us the mindless slaughter that happened in his name...

Karl Marx sure didn't know how to to get to  Satya Yuga, if one exists, and admittedly his self styled followers have slaughtered innocent men and women in millions, but he knows what Satya Yuga may look like:

‘…in communist society, where nobody [has] one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus make it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have in mind, without ever becoming a hunter, fisherman, cowherd, or critic."

In a recent essay, John Gray says: "No doubt the belief that humankind is evolving toward a more harmonious condition affords comfort to many; but we would be better prepared to deal with our conflicts if we could put Marx’s view of history behind us, along with his nineteenth-century faith in the possibility of a society different from any that has ever existed."

But I doubt if humans will ever stop dreaming of a "society different from any that has ever existed." And how can they as long as Chiranjivi Marx keeps showing up at their doors or their dreams?

If Marathas and Tipu-sultan Came Together... एक दरबारचित्र आणि दोन मोठ्या चुका नवीन पुस्तकातील

Loksatta dated April 28 2013 has published edited version of preface written by M/s Suhas Bahulkar and Deepak Ghare (सुहास बहुळकर,  दीपक घारे) for their own book 'Shilpakar Charitrakosh' (शिल्पकार चरित्रकोश') that is going to be published on May 4 2013.

I look forward to the book.

However,  I was startled by this part of their preface:

"सवाई माधवरावांच्या काळातील पुण्यातील रेसिडेन्ट मॅलेट यानेही जेम्स वेल्स या चित्रकाराला आमंत्रित करून एक भव्य चित्र रंगवण्यास सांगितले होते. हे चित्र इंग्रज, मराठे व टिपू सुलतान यांच्यात ६ ऑगस्ट १७९० रोजी झालेल्या त्रिवर्ग तहाचे..."

(Pune 'Resident' Malet during the reign of Sawai Madhavrao had invited artist James Wales and asked him to paint a majestic picture. That picture was of a tripartite treaty between the British, Maratha and Tipu sultan done on August 6 1790...)

Artist: Thomas Daniell, commissioned by Sir Charles Malet circa 1805

courtesy: Tate Gallery and Wikimedia Commons

I have already written about this picture on September 23 2007.

Like the picture above, funnily there are two blunders in Bahulkar/Ghare statement as well!

1:  The artist of the picture is Thomas Daniell and NOT James Wales.

(p.s. It has been claimed that the painting was started by James Wales and his team but completed by Thomas Daniell. Visit here to read about it.)

2:  The treaty was NOT with Tipu sultan but it was AGAINST HIM. It was among the Nizam , Marathas and the British! If Marathas and Tipu sultan had come together, the history of India would have turned out to be quite different. The British were most scared of that possibility. The way USA is scared today of India and China coming together.


If the book on the history of art starts with such bloomers, can I trust such a book for anything else other than  pretty pictures in there?

Drinking at the same Watering Hole...Lion, Johnny-come-lately and Vinod Khanna

Natalie Angier:

"...Thirstiness is a universal hallmark of life. Sure, camels can forgo drinking water for five or six months and desert tortoises for that many years, and some bacterial and plant spores seem able to survive for centuries in a state of dehydrated, suspended animation. Yet sooner or later, if an organism plans to move, eat or multiply, it must find a solution of the aqueous kind..."

Robin McKie

“…we still dig up plenty of 100-million-year-old dinosaur bones today. However, those ancient animals thrived for tens of millions of years. By contrast, Homo sapiens has lasted around 100,000. By that reckoning, we are a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies.” 

"A lion quenching thirst by drinking water at nearby pond in Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad."

 Photo: Nagara Gopal

courtesy: The Hindu, April 2013

When I saw the majestic picture above, I remembered following great picture.

 Hunter who is probably out to hunt the lion is drinking with that same lion at a watering hole...in fact, if you watch closely, the hunter will be  drinking small quantity of water already mouthed by the lion...

                                                                   'Thirst'

Artist: Laszlo Reber  (László Réber) 1920-2001, Hungarian graphic artist, illustrator, cartoonist

[I have taken this picture from one of Vasant Sarwate's (वसंत सरवटे) books. This is Sarwate's one of favourite cartoons. During the period I was writing this post, he called. I told him I was not finding the artist in Google search. He got up, looked up Reber's book and helped me locate him. He also promised to send me the book's preface. This is Sarwate for me. Great artist, kinder man!]

....and how can Darwin say: humans are like other animals?...they need a water bag....unless they are Vinod Khanna in "Mera Gaon Mera Desh", 1971.

courtesy: Shemaroo and the distributor of the film, the publisher of the film

(This picture and movie became cult things for us. We never drank this alright! But we swooped down like this as a part of the thieves-cops (चोर-पोलीस) game we played.)

Where is Pervez Musharraf's White House?

These days it has been great fun to watch Pakistan's former dictator Pervez Musharraf. It maybe schadenfreude but I have no guilt.

I have never liked him largely because he has blood of Indian and Pakistani soldiers martyred in The Kargil War.

Artist: James Stevenson, The New Yorker, February 28 1970

I’ll give thee a wind...Yes, I Have No Doubt

Today April 23 2013 is 397th Death Anniversary of  William Shakespeare

Hilary Mantel: 

“It’s for Shakespeare to penetrate the heart of a prince, and for me to study his cuff buttons.”

William Logan:

"...Usually in tragedy a good person is made to suffer through a flaw in his goodness. In ''Macbeth'' this pattern is reversed: it is the streak of goodness that causes pathos and suffering. (W H Auden) ''Macbeth and Lady Macbeth attempt to be murderers without malice.''..."



"...Second Witch: I'll give thee a wind.

First Witch: Thou'rt kind.

Third Witch:  And I another.

First Witch:  I myself have all the other,
                   And the very ports they blow,
                   All the quarters that they know..."


(Act I, Scene 3,  'Macbeth', c 1606)


I understand little of Macbeth or any of Shakespeare but I was bewitched (!) by the magnificence of this picture:

Artist: John Raphael Smith,  'Macbeth',  the Weird Sisters, 1785

courtesy: British Museum and Guardian  

After seeing the picture, I can't question the power of  "Three Weird Sisters"...

Should I Read Vijaya Mehta's Autobiography 'Zimma'?...उदात्त एपिक क्षणांच्या ठिणग्या

Samuel Beckett:

“I went to Godot last night for the first time in a long time. Well played, but how I dislike that play now. Full house every night, it’s a disease”.

(about language) “Since we cannot dismiss it all at once, at least we do not want to leave anything undone that may contribute to its disrepute. To drill one hole after another into it until that which lurks behind, be it something or nothing, starts seeping through — I cannot imagine a higher goal for today’s writer.” 

'There is nothing to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.''

विलास सारंग:

"… एक आश्चर्याची गोष्ट म्हणजे 'महाभारता'वर आधारलेली सोफिस्टिकेटेड सांस्कृतिक मूल्यावर उभी राहिलेली एकही प्रभावी नाट्यकृती (इतक्या शतकांत) निर्माण झाली नाही, जिने जनमानसावर सर्वकष मोहिनी टाकली आहे. इ. स. 1000  नंतर ज्या प्रकारची संस्कृती रुढ झाली , त्यामध्ये साधारणत्व व विश्वात्मकता हे गुण प्राय: लुप्त झाले...आपली  संस्कृती अकाली विश्वात्मक साधारणतेला मुकली आहे." 

('वाङ्‌मयीन संस्कृती व सामाजिक वास्तव', 2011)

[ Vilas Sarang:

"...One surprising fact is not a single influential play based on Mahabharata grounded in sophisticated cultural values (in so many centuries) has  been created, the one that has enchanted the society in its entirety. The kind of culture that was established after 1000 CE, in that virtues of commonality and catholicity almost disappeared...our culture has untimely lost universal commonality."]

Discussion on the subject of Marathi drama thus starts on a somber note.

I did not read Dr. Shreeram Lagoo  (डॉ. श्रीराम लागू) 'Laman' (लमाण) because it was (and still is)  unaffordable and I did not get to read a single good review of it.

There will one less reason NOT  to read Ms. Vijaya Mehta's (विजया  मेहता) thanks to Kamlakar Nadkarnni's  (कमलाकर नाडकर्णी)  excellent review of it in Loksatta (लोकसत्ता) April 21 2013.



courtesy: Rajhans Prakashan and Ms. Vijaya Mehta and the cover artist(s)

 What I liked the best about the review is one of the two benchmarks against which it measures the book:  'Bahurupi' (बहुरूपी) by the late Chintamanrao Kolhatkar (चिंतामणराव कोल्हटकर). For me, 'Bahurupi' remains one of the bests books of 20th century. I keep reading it from time to time.

[I say one of the two, second being Nanasaheb Phatak's (नानासाहेब फाटक) 'Mukhavtyanche Jag' (मुखवटय़ांचे जग), because I have still not read it.]

Ms. Mehta is an important stage personality of independent India. (Don't go by moth-eaten entry on her in English Wikipedia and almost nonexistence of it on Marathi Wikipedia!)

I have never seen her perform on the stage but seen Girish Karnad's 'Hayavadana' (हयवदन) and 'Nagamandala'  (नागमंडल) directed by her. They were beautifully staged at NCPA, Mumbai. But today almost nothing from those plays stands out in my mind.

Last year or so I saw her longish interview on Marathi TV in many parts. I forgot what she said as soon I changed the channel or switched off the TV. I thought she looked great for her age!

I have seen a few  of her pictures from the youth and she looks stunning, very attractive. I hope this aspect of her personality has been done adequate justice in her book.

Mr. Nadkarni writes in the review:

"बाई इतरांबद्दल लिहितात; पण ते त्यांना लाभलेल्या नेपथ्यकारांबद्दल..." (Madam writes about others; but about the art directors she got...).

I understand that Ms. Mehta and the late D G Godse (द ग गोडसे), renowned art director, were friends and I hope she has written about Shri. Godse because the TV interview I refer above had no mention of him. (disclaimer- I may be wrong if I missed that part of the show.) In fact, one of the principal reasons I saw the interview was to hear her talk about Godse!

The review made me disappointed with Ms. Mehta's actions such as:

"आयनेस्कोच्या 'खुच्र्या'बद्दलही त्या घाईघाईत लिहून जातात." (On Eugene Ionesco's 'Chairs' she writes in a haste.)

" '.. नाटय़कृती सामान्याकडून असामान्याकडे जाते आणि त्यातून उदात्त एपिक क्षणांच्या ठिणग्या उडतात. असे अनेक क्षण ब्रुक यांच्या महाभारतात मला मिळाले. म्हणून मी त्यांना गुरू मानते.' बाई फक्त दोनच प्रसंग त्रोटकपणे लिहितात."  ["...'the play moves from the ordinary  to the extraordinary and from that sparks of sublime epic moments fly. I got many such moments from (Peter) Brook's Mahabharata. And hence I consider him guru' Madam writes only two incidents briefly."]

(BTW- I kind of understand all the individual words there but I have no clue what 'उदात्त एपिक क्षणांच्या ठिणग्या' are...although, I agree, it's fashionable to speak and write such Marathi these days. )

Is this intellectual inadequacy because even her TV interview gave me the same impression? A kind of shallowness. Problem of the medium? She did not give me the impression that she once was a  friend of great artist and art critic D G Godse.

Mr. Nadkarni concludes:

"...तसं झालं असतं तर 'बहुरूपी' (चिंतामणराव कोल्हटकर) आणि 'मुखवटय़ांचे जग' (नटवर्य नानासाहेब फाटक) या तोडीच्या नाटय़ग्रंथांत आणखी एकाची भर पडली असती. आताचा 'झिम्मा' आठवणींचा आढावा म्हणूनच लक्षात राहील..." [...had that happened another book of the quality of 'Bahurupi' (Chintamanrao Kolhatkar) and 'Mukhavatyanche Jag' (Natvarya Nanasaheb Phatak) would have been added to the books on drama. Current 'Zimma' will be remembered for summary of memoirs...]'

This conclusion and 'उदात्त एपिक क्षणांच्या ठिणग्या' reminded me of this cartoon:

Artist: Robert J. Day, The New Yorker, March 14 1959

American Media and Our Loksatta!

Niall Ferguson: 

"I was riveted by (Karl) Kraus’s central theme, that World War I could to some extent be understood as a media-driven event."

Lewis Lapham:

"The reading of history damps down the impulse to slander the trend and tenor of the times, instills a sense of humor, lessens our fear about what might happen tomorrow...

...What I’m telling you is the media is not trustworthy."

Following is what Marathi daily Loksatta has published on its front page on April 20 1013. The paper is lauding American media's maturity in handling the Boston manhunt.

courtesy: Loksatta daily April 20 2013

Sure,  26/11 coverage was bungled by Indian media but American e-news-media are as lousy as Indian if not worse because  they have been in the business for much longer.

This is what Adam Gopnik says in The New Yorker on the Boston episode:

On leaders' behaviour in the wake of the conclusion of the manhunt:

"Then, of course, the cops and officials stepped forward to claim credit, or at least a piece of the spotlight, for the arrest. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced that now “my journey begins.” One imagined the real heroes and heroines of the occasion standing back in the shadows, smiling ironically at the politicians’ posturing."

On the over-reaction of the administration:

"...The decision to shut down Boston, though doubtless made in good faith and from honest anxiety, seemed like an undue surrender to the power of the terrorist act—as did, indeed, the readiness to turn over the entire attention of the nation to a violent, scary, tragic, lurid but, in the larger scheme of things, ultimately small threat to the public peace.

The toxic combination of round-the-clock cable television—does anyone now recall the killer of Gianni Versace, who claimed exactly the same kind of attention then as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did today?—and an already exaggerated sense of the risk of terrorism turned a horrible story of maiming and death and cruelty into a national epic of fear. What terrorists want is to terrify people; Americans always oblige."


On media:

"The incomparable A. J. Liebling wrote once that there are three kinds of journalists: the reporter, who says what he’s seen; the interpretive reporter, who says what he thinks is the meaning of what he’s seen; and the expert, who says what he thinks is the meaning of what he hasn’t seen. The first two—reporters and interpretive reporters—have been largely undermined by economics and incuriosity. But the third category never stops growing. We are now a nation of experts, with millions of people who know the meaning of everything that they haven’t actually experienced."