The Magazine
February 10, 2020
Reporting
Dept. of Finance
Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth?
The critique of economic growth, once a fringe position, is gaining widespread attention in the face of the climate crisis.
Life and Letters
Vivian Gornick Is Rereading Everyone, Including Herself
The critic and memoirist returns to the books she’s loved—and the lives she’s lived.
Annals of Covert Action
Qassem Suleimani and How Nations Decide to Kill
A new frontier in the use of assassination.
A Reporter at Large
The Wrong Way to Fight the Opioid Crisis
People struggling with addiction who share a lethal dose of drugs are being prosecuted as killers.
The Critics
The Theatre
“Medea” and “Mac Beth” Reflect Modern Tragedies
Two new productions use the familiar thrusts of Shakespeare and Euripides to find the reality in long-running theatrical archetypes.
Musical Events
The Pittsburgh Symphony’s Savage Precision
Manfred Honeck and his musicians prove that the right orchestra and the right conductor can unleash unsuspected energies in familiar works.
On Stage
Can Louis C.K. Spin His Troubles Into Art?
Touring for the first time since his sexual-misconduct scandal, the comedian gestured at his actions without really acknowledging what he’d done.
Books
Briefly Noted
“A Game of Birds and Wolves,” “Dominion,” “Interior Chinatown,” and “Stateway’s Garden.”
Books
Did Lincoln Really Matter?
What the Civil War tells us about who has the power to shape history.
The Talk of the Town
Amy Davidson Sorkin on the impeachment trial; the “Oscar” time forgot; Trumpists at the racetrack; Caro in Chinese; the eye-opening art of the Residents.
Dept. of Hate-Watching
The Return of “The Oscar,” an Unseeable, Unwatchable Flop
Patton Oswalt and friends hate-watch a remastered version of the 1966 cult movie that, despite featuring Jill St. John, Elke Sommer, Tony Bennett, and Milton Berle, was the “Gigli” of its time.
Chengdu Postcard
China’s L.B.J. Cliffhanger!
Fans can’t wait for the next installment of Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson biography in translation. Why is the Chinese publisher holding it up?
Trump Country
No Impeachment Talk at Daytona
Up the coast from Mar-a-Lago, thousands of Trump supporters talked guns, slavery, and Oreo pudding shots as they watched twenty-four uninterrupted hours of auto racing.
Doppelgängers Dept.
The Residents “Stumble Through” a Rock Opera
The anonymous cult collective tweak their iconic eyeball helmets and tuxedos for an adaptation of “God in Three Persons” at MOMA.
Comment
Trump’s Impeachment and the Degrading of Presidential Accountability
The President will see an acquittal—which was preordained by the highly partisan Senate—as license for further abuse.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Etymology of Some Common Typos
Cartoons
1/12
“I think it was Fitzgerald who wrote, ‘The very rich are different from you and me.’ ”
Cartoon by Sam Gross
Fiction
Sketchbook
A Nation Divided
Poems
Poems
Boy
Goings On About Town
Tables for Two
Leo Has Its Finger on the Pulse
Serving up heirloom beans, pillowy lasagna, and pizza with naturally fermented dough, this Williamsburg restaurant presents a snapshot of our current culinary moment.
The Theatre
“Cambodian Rock Band” ’s Disarming Exploration of Political Trauma
A father and a daughter grapple with the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge in the playwright Lauren Yee’s latest, the first work in her Signature Theatre residency.
The Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.