Everyone says I look great, that I have become more sophisticated and cool, that my new fashionable hair-do and subtle makeup suit me – that I look like a real lady now – not just plain old English as I did before.Mabel especially thinks it’s wild how much I have changed. “Let’s go shopping,” sheContinue reading “Chapter 14: The Lady is a Tramp”
Category Archives: Aesthetics
The Brutality of Fact: David Sylvester and the Vocation of Looking
The greatest British art critic of the twentieth century never wrote a book he was satisfied with. What he left behind instead was something rarer — a model of attention so exacting it changed what art could ask of its audience. By Bergotte There is a way of sitting in front of a painting thatContinue reading “The Brutality of Fact: David Sylvester and the Vocation of Looking”
Chapter 13: Follow That Dream
“Where do you usually summer?” asks a man in his early thirties. He has a mess of sandy hair and a broad grin and has stopped to chat on the beach. He introduces himself to me as Jack. He looks familiar, though I can’t place him. I hesitate, half amused, half at a loss. IContinue reading “Chapter 13: Follow That Dream “
Ways of Being Seen: John Berger and the Art of Paying Attention
Eight years after his death, the critic, novelist, and storyteller who changed how we look at art remains the most generous — and the most radical — writer England ever produced. By Bergotte There is a moment in the first episode of Ways of Seeing — the 1972 BBC television series that made John Berger,Continue reading “Ways of Being Seen: John Berger and the Art of Paying Attention”
Chapter 12: Celluloid Heroes
I’m out in New York City with Cary Grant, who confides that he’s lonely. I’ve come to the city with Tilly, though her parents have whisked her and her siblings away to a christening. Mr Grant, in town on movie-star business, has offered to take me out for dinner. We spend the afternoon strolling throughContinue reading “Chapter 12: Celluloid Heroes”
The Wound and the Camera: Susan Sontag and the Unfinished Project of Seeing
Twenty years after her death, the great critic’s ideas about images, suffering, and the moral life feel less like history than like prophecy. By Bergotte There is a photograph that Susan Sontag never saw — or rather, she could not have seen it in the form we now encounter it, scrolling past it on aContinue reading “The Wound and the Camera: Susan Sontag and the Unfinished Project of Seeing”
Chapter 11: True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
Somehow, I know deep in my heart that no one owns another person, that we belong to no one. But sometimes, if we’re lucky, we belong with somebody. The boy weeps when I share this philosophy. I think I’m being profound; he thinks I’m being callous. He truly believes we belong together, that we should,Continue reading “Chapter 11: True Love Travels on a Gravel Road”
Ripley Part II: The Many Lives of Tom Ripley: From Highsmith’s Novels to Screen Legends
When Patricia Highsmith published The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1955, she created a new kind of antihero: elegant, amoral, adaptable, and disturbingly successful. Tom Ripley not only survives but thrives, slipping into identities, murdering when necessary, and always convincing us — against our better judgment — to follow him. Over five novels (collectively known asContinue reading “Ripley Part II: The Many Lives of Tom Ripley: From Highsmith’s Novels to Screen Legends”
Chapter 10: I’ll Be Home for Christmas
“You seem different.” The boy looks amused as I wave from the drive. I’ve been waiting, impatient to see him, on the steps outside the front door.“Do I?” I do a jazzy walk towards him to make him laugh.“Yeah. You grown some?” He jokily pats me on the head.“Yeah, haven’t you?” I mirror his gesture.“IContinue reading “Chapter 10: I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
Ripley Part I: The Two Talented Mr. Ripleys: Page, Screen, and the Art of Ambiguity
Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley is one of the most enduring crime novels of the twentieth century. Published in 1955, it introduced Tom Ripley, a young conman who insinuates himself into the lives of the wealthy and, through a combination of charm and violence, takes their place. The book was a revelation: not aContinue reading “Ripley Part I: The Two Talented Mr. Ripleys: Page, Screen, and the Art of Ambiguity”
My World of Interiors 