We Have Moved

An interview with Marilynne Robinson on faith, place, and the new atheists

In an interview with PBS reporter Bob Abernethy, Marilynne Robinson, the award-winning author of Gilead and Home discusses her Protestant faith and its deep roots in her Idaho home. She also reveals her abiding suspicion of the writings of the so-called new atheists, much of which is covered in her new book published by Yale University Press, Absence of Mind.

An excerpt from the interview follows the video:

ABERNETHY: Robinson has great respect for the 16th-century reformer John Calvin, who she says was far more compassionate than his stern reputation suggests—for instance, about forgiveness.

ROBINSON: The assumption is that forgiveness is owed wherever God might want forgiveness to be given, and we don’t know, so you err on the side of forgiving. You assume your fallibility, and you also assume that anybody that you encounter is precious to God—or is God himself.

ABERNETHY: So you cannot judge. You have to forgive. But Robinson is very critical of the work of the so-called new atheists.

ROBINSON: I think this sort of avalanche of literature we have gotten lately is very second-rate. It simply is not well informed and not well considered. I mean I consider it to be kind of noise.

Tuesday Studio: I can has Victorian photocollage?

Before there were LOLcats, there was the art of Victorian photocollage.

Today's Wall Street Journal features an online slideshow of whimsical assemblages created by highly creative women in 19th century England. These images, which place human heads on animal bodies and assemble bizarre dinner parties in painted landscapes, are taken from the exhibition "Playing with Pictures," which was organized by Elizabeth Siegel at the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 9.

As the Journal notes, these works were created in a society "known mostly for being formal and stuffy;" however, they often reveal a cutting wit and true appreciation for the absurd. Check out the accompanying exhibition catalog for more, but in the meantime, enjoy the lulz.

Alberto Manguel: "Borges and the Impossibility of Writing"

Alberto Manguel delivers the Finzi-Contini Lecture at Yale University, entitled "Borges and the Impossibility of Writing". He is introduced by Maria Menocal, director of the Whitney Humanities Center.

An acclaimed anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, and editor, Manguel once served as a reader for Jorge Luis Borges and has been hailed by the Times of London as "the Scheherazade of books". Reviewing his latest collection, A Reader on Reading, the New York Review of Books commented, "Essays of this quality are worth reading, or rereading, wherever they are encountered." Manguel's The Library at Night is also now available in paperback through YUP.

Follow Friday Links: April 16, 2010

More great links this week:

@jonathasmello clues us in on John Cage's rather strange dietary habits through the video posted above.

@drshow (The Diane Rehm Show) links to their interview with Taliban author Ahmed Rashid while @WashUnplugged prepares for their Monday airing.

@Fictional 100 and @celticglambert both recommend Alberto Manguel's A Reader on Reading.

Tuesday Studio: Matisse's Radical Invention

When the Art Institute of Chicago acquired Henri Matisse's "Bathers by a River" in 1953, the artist wrote a postcard congratulating the museum, noting that he considered the painting one of the most pivotal works of his career. Years later, the painting would come to serve as the inspiration and keystone picture in the museum's latest exhibition, Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917.

As AIC Director James Cuno and Curator Stephanie D’Alessandro explain in their wonderful video overview, the exhibit covers a turning point in the artist's career both in his approach to art and his methods of construction. Layering, scratching, and starkly contrasting colors mark the highly-abstracted works Matisse created during this four-year period. In browsing the gallery of selected works, one also feels a sense of somberness and lurking danger that may have reflected the long shadow of war under which these works were conceived.

The exhibit runs through June 20, during which time the museum has lined up several enticing events, including lectures, a musical performance, and even a "Matisse-inspired Cooking Class". (Our tastebuds are piqued!) And, of course, be sure to check out the YUP-distributed exhibition catalogue, featuring in-depth studies of individual works including "Bathers by a River," exquisite illustrations, and much more.

Follow Friday Links - April 9, 2010

Back this week with more interesting YUP-related links from the Twitterverse:

@LDWeinberg's link to a cheat sheet for Matisse: Radical Invention was passed around by several art enthusiasts.

@TorontoSymphony placed Sibelius in an unlikely locale as part of an online contest.

@arbitrix and @vitamingc checked in from Ken Chen's book party for Juvenilia. Thanks to Wednesday's record-breaking temperatures, it was apparently quite warm.

@CharlieRoseShow covered John Logan's play 'Red' about Mark Rothko.

Tuesday Studio: Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art

Though an important practice in many religious traditions, the act of pilgrimage holds particular significance in the Buddhist faith. A new exhibit hosted by the Asia Society traces the spread of Buddhist sites across Asia and collects over 90 objects including narrative paintings and sculptures, mandalas, prayer wheels, and maps, all of which reveal the beauty of the works produced in the Buddhist culture of pilgrimage.

The exhibit's outstanding website boasts a number of features that help orient visitors to the world of these sacred artworks. Be sure to watch Curator Adriana Proser's excellent introductory video and play around with the interactive map of sacred sites, which allows users to create their own pilgrimage itineraries without even leaving home. You can also pick up a copy of the exhibition catalogue through the Asia Society's online store or from Yale University Press.

Also, be sure to watch out for PBS's The Buddha documentary, which was produced in conjunction with the exhibition and premiers on April 7:

Scenes from the other "London Underground"

Faced with the impending blitz during the Second World War, Winston Churchill and his cabinet sought protection in an underground headquarters beneath the Treasury building in London. Though the prime minister much preferred to observe the war from the keener vantage point of the top floor of 10 Downing Street ("to the horror of his staff"), the Cabinet War Rooms played host to more than 100 meetings of Churchill's war cabinet between 1939 and 1945.

Since 2003, when the restored Churchill War Rooms were reopened to the public, visitors have had the opportunity to tour the site for themselves, yet many continue to wonder how a dank storage basement could have become the prime minister’s base of wartime operations, not to mention what life was really like in this underground bunker. Drawing on a wealth of original material, including new firsthand accounts of the people who lived and worked there, distinguished Churchill biographer Richard Holmes provides the first comprehensive history of the Cabinet War Rooms in his new book Churchill’s Bunker.

For those unlikely to be making a pilgrimage to London in the near future, be sure to view the Imperial War Museum's excellent virtual tour below, and read up on Churchill's wartime retreat in Holmes's excellent new book.