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PRICE $8.99 AUG. 9, 2021 IF YOU CAN MAKE IT HERE, MAKE IT HERE. AUGUST 9, 2021 4 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 11 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Sue Halpern on the House’s January 6th hearing; David Adjaye’s citadel; of Mitfords and flowers; a menu made of memories; taking the show on the road. BRAVE NEW WORLD DEPT. Eric Klinenberg 18 Manufacturing Nature How a landscape architect is responding to rising seas. SHOUTS & MURMURS Zoe Pearl 25 Left Behind PERSONAL HISTORY David Sedaris 26 Happy-Go-Lucky A father’s late-in-life change of personality. A REPORTER AT LARGE Jane Mayer 30 The Big Money Behind the Big Lie Who is funding the election-fraud myth? PROFILES Calvin Tomkins 42 On an Epic Scale The virtuosic artistry of Kerry James Marshall. FICTION Sarah Braunstein 54 “Superstition” THE CRITICS THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 61 “The Green Knight,” “John and the Hole.” BOOKS 63 Briefly Noted James Wood 65 “China Room,” a new novel by Sunjeev Sahota. Andrew Chan 68 The poetry of Kaveh Akbar. POP MUSIC Carrie Battan 70 Hyperpop is going mainstream. POEMS Sarah Arvio 36 “Handbag” Elisa Gonzalez 48 “Notes Toward an Elegy” COVER Mark Ulriksen “Summer Treat” DRAWINGS Robert Leighton, Adam Douglas Thompson, Drew Dernavich, Leise Hook, John Klossner, Zachary Kanin, Millie von Platen, Ellis Rosen, Lars Kenseth, Roz Chast, Sophie Lucido Johnson and Sammi Skolmoski, Liana Finck, Mick Stevens, Frank Cotham, Trevor Spaulding SPOTS Antony Huchette CONTRIBUTORS Jane Mayer (“The Big Money Behind the Calvin Tomkins (“On an Epic Scale,” Big Lie,” p. 30), the magazine’s chief p. 42) is a staff writer who covers art Washington correspondent, is the au- and culture for the magazine. He most thor of “Dark Money” and the recipient recently published “The Lives of Art- of a 2021 Freedom of the Press Award. ists,” a six-volume collection of his Commemorative profiles. Eric Klinenberg (“Manufacturing Na- Cover Reprints ture,” p. 18) is a professor of sociology Elisa Gonzalez (Poem, p. 48), the win- Search our extensive and the director of the Institute for ner of a 2020 Rona Jaffe Foundation archive of weekly Public Knowledge at New York Uni- Writers’ Award, is at work on her first versity. His latest book is “Palaces for book. covers dating back to the People.” 1925 and commemorate David Sedaris (“Happy-Go-Lucky,” a milestone with a Sarah Braunstein (Fiction, p. 54), the au- p. 26) has contributed to the magazine New Yorker thor of “The Sweet Relief of Missing since 1995. He will publish “A Carnival cover reprint. Children,” teaches at Colby College. of Snackery” in October. newyorkerstore.com/covers Andrew Chan (Books, p. 68), the Web Zoe Pearl (Shouts & Murmurs, p. 25) editor at the Criterion Collection, began writing humor pieces for The writes about film, music, and books. New Yorker in 2017. PRICE $8.99 OCT. 24, 2016 Sarah Arvio (Poem, p. 36) is a poet and Darryn King (The Talk of the Town, a translator. Her poetry collection “Cry p. 17), a freelance journalist, is based Back My Sea” will be out in August. in New York City. Mark Ulriksen (Cover), an artist and Caitlin Reid (Puzzles & Games Dept.) an illustrator, has contributed more has been a crossword constructor since than sixty covers to The New Yorker 2017. Her puzzles have appeared in since 1994. the Times and the Wall Street Journal. THIS WEEK ON NEWYORKER.COM R E K R O Y W E N N E O H S T D L R A O N F O M D A R M G O N R I F A H C I P S A S R E PAG E TURNER U.S. JOURNAL G J : O T T H O Rachel Syme takes readers on A family faces losing their home G I H R P ; E an interactive tour of her favorite as the C.D.C.’s eviction moratorium Y T C T R E Hollywood memoirs. expires, Oliver Whang reports. U G O / S ; N M I O I K T A C E N : L T Download the New Yorker app for the latest news, commentary, criticism, L F O E and humor, plus this week’s magazine and all issues back to 2008. L C 2 THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 9, 2021 PROMOTION THE MAIL WHO WAS O. HENRY? of a pseudonym may have served the aim of concealing his past, but it was Louis Menand, in his review of the new not unusual. Library of America volume of short sto- Craig Saper ries by O. Henry, notes that the prolific 1Owings Mills, Md. writer once worked at a bank, and had various problems, large and small, han- CRAZY FOR COCKATOOS dling money (Books, July 5th). Money is a theme in his stories, too. Indeed, Rebecca Mead’s essay about how an in the opening line of “The Gift of the Australasian cockatoo came to appear Magi,” he informs the reader that Della in a fifteenth-century Italian painting, has only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a and what it reveals about the world’s Christmas gift. We learn that Jim’s interconnectedness at that time, men- weekly salary has shrunk from thirty tions Chinese trade routes, but it doesn’t dollars to twenty, and that the weekly explore China’s own love affair with rental price of a furnished room is eight cockatoos (“Invasive Species,” July 5th). dollars. The story’s obsession with such After reading Mead’s piece, I hastened particulars is a reminder of the finan- to retrieve my copy of “The Golden cial pressure that O. Henry felt when Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of it came to writing and selling his sto- T’ang Exotics,” a delightful 1963 work ries—and perhaps also stems from his by the American Sinologist Edward H. days as a teller, counting other peo- Schafer, which examines exotic goods ple’s pennies. imported to China in the years 618-907. Margaret Earley Whitt In a chapter on birds, including hawks, Professor Emerita falcons, peacocks, and parrots, he notes Department of English that “the ‘white parrots’ of Chinese lit- University of Denver erature were plainly cockatoos from . Denver, Colo. remote lands,” brought in by seafarers and diplomats. Menand’s piece, which is full of sur- As in Europe, Schafer writes, cock- prising details, suggests that William atoos were immortalized in paintings Sidney Porter signed his stories with in China. One “famous white cockatoo the pseudonym O. Henry in an effort preserved in paint” was the pet of Yang to keep the public from learning of Kuei-fei, a concubine of a Tang em- his three-year stint in prison. It’s worth peror, which was named Snow-Garbed pointing out that, in Porter’s time, Maiden; another, a cockatoo with “ten many short-story writers for pulp mag- long pink feathers on its crown,” was azines used pseudonyms. Sometimes likely a gift from the Moluccas, in east- pen names were employed to make it ern Indonesia. And, in a charming an- seem as though a magazine were writ- ecdote, Schafer claims that, by special ten by many different contributors, decree of the Emperor T’ai Tsung, both as in the October, 1914, issue of the a five-colored parrot and a cockatoo— literary magazine The Smart Set, co- birds that “complained frequently” about edited by George Jean Nathan and the cold—“were manumitted and sent H. L. Mencken, which featured mul- home again.” tiple stories by Robert Carlton Brown Barbara Ann Porte under different bylines. Pseudonyms Arlington, Va. were also used by women writing for male-dominated magazines, such as • Alice B. Sheldon, who published her Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, work under the name James Tiptree, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited Jr.; or because stories were written by for length and clarity, and may be published in groups of people, with plotlines sup- any medium. We regret that owing to the volume plied by story consultants. Porter’s use of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many New York City venues remain closed. Here’s a selection of culture to be found around town, as well as online and streaming; as ever, it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements. AUGUST 4 – 10, 2021 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN Robert Longo is a key figure of the Pictures Generation, an influential group of American artists who gave image-making conceptual cred starting in the late seventies. He is best known for his cinematic charcoal-on- paper works, epic in both subject matter—the eternal mysteries of the sea, in the case of “Untitled (Rumi),” from 2019, above—and scale (the magnificent hand-drawn piece is more than seven feet high). The exhibi- tion “Robert Longo: A History of the Present” opens on Aug. 7 at Guild Hall, in East Hampton, New York. 1 resentation of that particular vein of d.j., with and taking a radical approach to inclusivity MUSIC Maurice Fulton, Osunlade, Eli Escobar, Soul come as naturally as breathing to the members Clap’s Eli Goldstein, and Nickerson among of the intrepid string band PUBLIQuartet. the attractions. Tickets to the event—billed Hosted by Death of Classical as part of its Leon Bridges: as “Kid friendly!”—are fifty dollars in ad- inventive series “The Angel’s Share,” the vance.—Michaelangelo Matos (Aug. 6-8.) group presents “Freedom and Faith,” a pro- “Gold-Digger Sound” gram that explores spirituality and resilience SOUL Leon Bridges made his musical début with in music spanning ten centuries.