
“New York has swallowed me” by Italo Calvino, 1959-1960
Dear Pillo, I have not written to you yet, I never write to anyone, New York has swallowed me up like a carnivorous plant swallowing a fly, I have been living a breathless life for fifty days now, here life consists of a series of appointments made a week or a fortnight in advance: lunch, […]

Don DeLillo, Jean-Luc Nancy, the missing community
The Latin mass had an odd glamour—all that mystery and tradition. Religion has not been a major element in my work, and for some years now I think the true American religion has been “the American People.” The term quickly developed an aura of sanctity and inviolability. First used mainly by politicians at nominating conventions […]

“But there’s something in the New York air…” by Simone de Beauvoir, 1948
January 29, 1947 ― Again I slept late. But there’s something in the New York air that makes sleep useless; perhaps it’s because your heart beats more quickly here than elsewhere―people with heart conditions sleep less, and many New Yorkers die of heart problems. In any case, I’m enjoying this windfall: the days seem too […]

Cover of the Saturday Evening Post, November 22, 1941 by Richard C. Miller
☛ The Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Cover of the Saturday Evening Post, November 22, 1941” by Richard C. Miller, offset lithograph, image: 34.9 x 27.5 cm. Credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Collection of the Miller Family Trust. This photo is significant in at least three ways. First, it was the very first […]