Books & Film Archives • VAN Magazine https://van-magazine.com/mag/tag/books-film/ An independent online classical music magazine Thu, 08 Aug 2024 06:47:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://van-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-van-logo-square-32x32.png Books & Film Archives • VAN Magazine https://van-magazine.com/mag/tag/books-film/ 32 32 192294250 Off-Site Eden https://van-magazine.com/mag/roland-barthes-a-lovers-discourse-playlist/ Thu, 27 Jun 2024 13:57:58 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=29009

In his dazzling, fragmentary book A Lover’s Discourse, Roland Barthes wrote, “Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words.” When I first encountered this analogy in my early 20s, I felt somehow relieved. I […]

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Kafka’s Coloratura https://van-magazine.com/mag/kafka-100-anniversary-josephine-the-songstress/ Thu, 30 May 2024 12:51:36 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=28381

To read Franz Kafka’s last short story “Josephine, the Songstress or The Mouse Folk” is to recognize the reflection better the dirtier the glass. The subject of the story is an artist and the creatures in whose midst she makes her art. Her name is Josephine. She is a singer. Or is she? Josephine’s folk […]

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A Lord Byron Playlist https://van-magazine.com/mag/lord-byron-playlist/ Thu, 18 Apr 2024 15:31:53 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=27582

Back when Twitter was still (somewhat) good, someone by the user name @Swaefastide posted a portrait of Lord Byron, in traditional Albanian costume, with the caption, “I will NEVER apologize for being a wildly successful alpha male,” lampooning the words of Trump-endorsed author Nick Adams. Non-Trump-endorsed author Ryan Ruby took the parody one step further, […]

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The Best Opera Scenes in Film  https://van-magazine.com/mag/best-opera-scenes-in-film/ Thu, 11 Apr 2024 11:41:17 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=27404

On film, characters go to the opera house for meetings, espionage, or murder; operas can bring about moments of revelation, connection, or catharsis. They progress the plot or add texture to the lived-in dimensions of the film’s world. But the best uses of opera in film boost something under the surface, and even add additional […]

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An Edward Said Playlist https://van-magazine.com/mag/edward-said-playlist/ Wed, 25 Oct 2023 14:55:47 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=24210

Edward Said reigned as the poster child for public intellectuals, having made early waves with his breakout 1978 tract, Orientalism. Just a few weeks after the 20th anniversary of his death from leukemia at the age of 67, his name is being invoked again on all sides of the news cycle. His criticism of both […]

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Abstracting Evil https://van-magazine.com/mag/oppenheimer-john-adams-vs-christopher-nolan/ Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:42:52 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=23925

In 2012, Austrian film director Michael Haneke criticized Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Holocaust drama, “Schindler’s List,” for the way it manipulates its audience. “The idea, the mere idea of trying to draw and create suspense out of the question of whether gas or water is going to come out of the showerhead to me is unspeakable,” […]

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An Imperfect Cassandra https://van-magazine.com/mag/blair-tindall-mozart-in-the-jungle-metoo/ Wed, 26 Apr 2023 10:45:58 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=20991

For a while, it seemed like the lasting legacy of oboist and Mozart in the Jungle author Blair Tindall, whose April 12 death was confirmed late last week, would be that she had a short-lived, invalid marriage to Bill Nye that ended with the Science Guy taking out a restraining order against her.  According to […]

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Quarter Rest with Fermata https://van-magazine.com/mag/quarter-rest-with-fermata-poem/ Thu, 26 Jan 2023 12:28:53 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=19688

Quarter Rest with Fermatafor Richard R. Schantz On this dayin the Weih-nocturne glowof this roomful of rhombicuboctahedronsthe real augmented by reflection time isn’t ordinary. Right on cue(you always said to anticipate entrances in light of narrative)there you areby your crystal fountain, posing unanswered questionsd’arte, d’amoreexposition, disclo(the)sure(your Sprechstimme unequivocalstill strictly, stubbornly non-rhotic). You extend, generouslyarsis, thesisup and down, […]

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Pianist of the Century https://van-magazine.com/mag/igor-levit-house-concert/ Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:07:17 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=19458

“Igor Levit’s career is a stark demonstration of the dissolving of boundaries between art and commerce, journalism and public relations,” wrote Hartmut Welscher in an article for VAN in 2020. One can add publishing to the ever-growing list of formats whose traditional ethical boundaries Levit has blurred, as House Concert, written by Florian Zinnecker under […]

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A Dark Academia Playlist https://van-magazine.com/mag/dark-academia-playlist/ Thu, 27 Oct 2022 13:24:14 +0000 https://van-magazine.com/?p=17111

I hadn’t heard of Dark Academia—a subculture born on Tumblr that soon migrated to Instagram and TikTok—until sometime last year when I suddenly started seeing posts about Donna Tartt’s The Secret History everywhere. One of my favorite books, I was surprised to see it now become the basis of memes, outfits of the day, playlists, […]

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