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The Case of the Arabic Noirs
Pause Play Play Prev | Next Cairo: the metal detector beeps. The security man wears a crisp white uniform. He nods and leans back in his chair. The lobby’s red oriental carpet, so worn it’s barely...
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The Lion Cage
Leonid Pasternak, Rilke in Moscow (detail), 1928. Rainer Maria Rilke was born on this day in 1875. The below is excerpted from “The Lion Cage,” one in a series of Rilke translations by Stephen Mitchell...
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The Death Instinct
The autobiography of one of France’s most notorious criminals. Mesrine’s mugshot, 1973. On the morning of November 2, 1979, a gold BMW pulled up behind a blue truck stopped at a stoplight in Porte de...
View ArticleThe Case of the Arabic Noirs
We’re out until January 5, but we’re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2014 while we’re away. We hope you enjoy—and have a happy New Year! Cairo: the metal detector beeps. The security man...
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Divine Ordure
A master class in hailing Satan. An illustration by Félicien Rops for a bootleg edition of Là-Bas. “The odor from those incense burners is unbearable … What do they burn that smells like that?”...
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Of Pimps and Pyknics
Adventures in dictionaries. An aurochs from The Wonderful Paleo Art of Heinrich Harder, 1920. I. In the novel by Patrick Modiano I’m translating, a bus stops at Cross Road in Bournemouth “devant un...
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The Clown Spirit of 1923, and Other News
Ulen is a clown-like male spirit, whose role is to entertain the audience of the Selk’nam Hain ceremony, 1923. Photo: Martin Gusinde/Anthropos Institute/Éditions Xavier Barral, via NYRB In New York,...
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Football: Three Impressions
WONDER Football, like painting, according to Leonardo da Vinci, is a cosa mentale; it is in the imagination that it is measured and appreciated. The nature of the wonder that football provokes...
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