In “On Conflagration: The Masks of Natalie Portman,” I compare Portman’s gratitude for a deleted history of emails to the turn-of-the-century trend of letter burning. The essay explores the form of the letter, Virginia Woolf’s notion of the “cotton wool” of daily life, the Jamesian inner world, Dior, Chekhov, Garden State, how we navigate identity in our youth, and the nature of celebrity.
On Conflagration: The Masks of Natalie Portman
Related Posts
On Light, Falling: Virginia Woolf, Joaquín Sorolla, and Sally Mann
In “On Light, Falling: Virginia Woolf, Joaquín Sorolla, and Sally Mann,” I look (fondly, reminiscent) at the role of late summer
That Rococo Feeling: Joie de Vivre
In “That Rococo Feeling: Joie de Vivre,” I examine an antebellum parlor recently transported from the Butler-Greenwood Plantation in Louisiana to
Exhibition Pick: Michael Meads
In my exhibition pick on artist Michael Meads, I examine his vision of New Orleans: a world of sex, death,