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TRAVEL & FßD ISSUE APRIL 23, 2018 7 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 25 THE TALK OF THE TOWN George Packer on Trump and Syria; super-car reviewer; performing-arts visas; Dolce & Gabbana; struggling playwrights. OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS Ian Frazier 32 The Maraschino Mogul Red bees, sticky cherries, and an odd smell. SHOUTS & MURMURS Ann Beattie 39 Tasting Notes for a Teetotalling President A CRITIC AT LARGE Dan Chiasson 40 Anybody There? The making of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” A REPORTER AT LARGE Nick Paumgarten 44 Water and the Wall A trip along the Rio Grande. ANNALS OF GASTRONOMY Burkhard Bilger 56 Bean Freaks The world of posh pulses. FICTION Yiyun Li 66 “A Flawless Silence” THE CRITICS POP MUSIC Carrie Battan 74 Cardi B’s “Invasion of Privacy.” BOOKS 77 Briefly Noted Adam Gopnik 78 Edward Lear’s bifurcated life. ON TELEVISION Emily Nussbaum 84 The trouble with the “Roseanne” reboot. THE THEATRE Hilton Als 86 “Carousel.” POEMS Jennifer Chang 62 “We Found the Body of a Young Deer Once” Andrew Grace 70 “Not a Mile” COVER David Hockney “The Road” DRAWINGS Maddie Dai, P. C. Vey, Barbara Smaller, Seth Fleishman, Mitra Farmand, Edward Steed, Roz Chast, Liana Finck, John O’Brien, Emily Flake, David Sipress, Harry Bliss, William Haefeli, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Tom Cheney, Tom Toro, Amy Hwang, Drew Dernavich, Sophia Wiedeman SPOTS Pablo Amargo CONTRIBUTORS Nick Paumgarten (The Talk of the Town, Burkhard Bilger (“Bean Freaks,” p. 56) p. 26; “Water and the Wall,” p. 44) has been has been a staf writer since 2001. writing for the magazine since 2000. Yiyun Li (Fiction, p. 66) is the author Ann Beattie (Shouts & Murmurs, p. 39), of several books, including, most re- a contributor to The New Yorker since cently, “Dear Friend, from My Life I 1974, is the recipient of a PEN/Mala- Write to You in Your Life.” mud Award for excellence in short fic- tion. “The Accomplished Guest” is her Dan Chiasson (“Anybody There?,” p. 40) latest story collection. teaches English at Wellesley College and has contributed to the magazine David Hockney (Cover), a painter based in since 2007. “Bicentennial” is his latest England and California, recently had a book of poems. career retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exhibitions of his work Naomi Fry (The Talk of the Town, are currently on view in New York City, p. 30) became a staf writer in 2018. Los Angeles, and Venice, California. She also writes about pop culture for newyorker.com. Carrie Battan (Pop Music, p. 74) began contributing to the magazine in 2015, Ian Frazier (“The Maraschino Mogul,” and became a staf writer in 2018. p. 32) most recently published “Hogs Wild: Selected Reporting Pieces” and George Packer (Comment, p. 25), a staf is working on a book about the Bronx. writer, is the author of “The Unwind- ing” and seven other books. Jennifer Chang (Poem, p. 62) teaches at George Washington University. Her Emily Nussbaum (On Television, p. 84), second poetry collection, “Some Say the magazine’s television critic, won the Lark,” won the 2018 William Car- the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. los Williams Award. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more. PHOTO BOOTH LIKES Pari Dukovic’s scenes from New Yorker stafers recommend the Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda best of what they’re reading, extravaganza in New York. watching, and listening to this week. SUBSCRIBERS: Get access to our magazine app for tablets and smartphones at the App Store, Amazon.com, or Google Play. (Access varies by location and device.) YORKER THE NEW FOR DUKOVIC PARI BY PHOTOGRAPH LEFT: THE MAIL GUNS IN THE HANDS OF KIDS reserve. In Drum’s ranch house, the adolescent gun users are learning how rifles up on the wall—lovely old Win- to use their tools responsibly, and that There was a strange dissonance be- chester lever-actions and such—were education is something that should be tween Sharif Hamza’s photographs of for history, not for shooting. Valuable, supported. teen-agers with guns and Dana Good- of course, if somebody stole them. But K. A. Robinson year’s accompanying article (Portfo- his really good rifles and shotguns were Montclair, N.J. lio, March 26th). Goodyear mentions well hidden and locked up. A lot of gun-related deaths and injuries, but what’s for sale out front in the gun stores I suppose the goal of Hamza’s photos mostly focusses on a “parallel realm, is tricked-out trash. I prefer archery. was to humanize gun owners and to where guns signify . safety, disci- Gary Snyder show us how “normal” gun ownership pline, and trust.” Hamza’s pictures, by Nevada City, Calif. is for many people. So what? We al- contrast, were outright frightening. ready know that not all gun owners are We can talk about target shooting or The majority of Americans both re- big-bellied, bearded yahoos. We have trap and skeet, but guns have only one spect a person’s passion for firearms heard plenty of stories about ladies tot- purpose, which is to kill. These armed and favor stricter gun laws, in order to ing pistols in specially made purses, children, regardless of the occasional prevent guns from being obtained by and about mothers who are gun own- smile, look menacing. There is sim- mentally unstable individuals who kill ers. We certainly don’t need remind- ply no way to take benign photos of innocent citizens. The idea that the left ing that gun owners can be young. An armed people. wants to take away someone’s Second innocent or appealing face does not Looking at the picture of Cheyenne Amendment rights is propaganda from dispel the reality that guns kill. Ham- Dalton, a sixteen-year-old from Mis- the National Rifle Association. Should za’s young figures did not convince me souri, whose mother is concerned about semiautomatic weapons designed for that a despicable activity is acceptable— self-defense, I could not help think- purposes of war be banned? As a non- only that appearances can be deceiv- ing of a New Yorker cartoon by Mat- gun-owning person, I say yes. How- ing. What a waste of ten pages. Even thew Difee, from 2011, in which a gun ever, each of us deserves the right to worse, these photos served as an ad- salesman says, “O.K., but say that you enjoy our passions. If children wish to vertisement for more gun ownership. have up to six hundred intruders per use AR-15s in sanctioned competitions, Laura Inman minute.” then I can support that choice, pro- 1Rye, N.Y. Peter Hantos vided that there are strict registration Los Angeles, Calif. and training requirements. But victims DEFINITIONS OF BEAUTY of gun violence deserved to live their There are plenty of people out beyond lives without being killed as if they I am disappointed by Anthony Lane’s the suburbs who are active and con- were in the midst of war. glib criticism of my character’s appear- scious gun owners. Many of them are Larry Kwiatkowski ance in the film “Gemini” (The Cur- appalled by what has happened with Bellingham, Wash. rent Cinema, April 2nd). To deem un- guns—the loss of training, practice, and flattering the “big jeans” and “baggy discipline in gun handling; the igno- When I lived in Manhattan, I attended gray top” I wear throughout the film is rance and apathy of gun dealers and a program sponsored by the N.R.A. to suggest a preference for heroines in police. The people I know are ranch- called Women On Target. After work, more tight-fitting clothes. And to even ers, farmers, or aficionados. They are a group of women would assemble in mention my “haircut from hell” is to not interested in military-type weap- a basement firing range on the West miss the point of my performance en- ons like the AR-15, because they’re not Side to practice responsible gun use tirely. We need to see female charac- accurate, they’re noisy, and there’s no and safety. I learned that guns are tools, ters be powerful and beautiful in ways use for them. Skeet shooting requires and that, like all tools, they are de- that don’t rely on outdated represen- well-made, balanced, and accurate shot- signed for a specific purpose. It is dis- tations of women. guns. They are an enthusiasm all their ingenuous for the N.R.A. to promote Lola Kirke own. Hunters want accuracy and reli- itself as an organization that teaches Los Angeles, Calif. ability in their long guns. After my gun safety, even as it refuses to ac- friend the late rancher Drummond knowledge the need for gun reform in • Hadley (the author of a fine book of order to promote true safety. It was Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, cowboy poems) talked to experts at a also exploitative for The New Yorker to address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited rifle company about the accuracy of a use photographs of kids with guns to for length and clarity, and may be published in new .270, they sent him one with a sidestep the fractious topic of the ep- any medium. We regret that owing to the volume super-accurate barrel that they kept in idemic of gun violence. These trained, of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YORKER, APRIL 23, 2018 5 FLATTS VILLAGE FLATTS YOU MAY NEVER MAKE IT BACK HOME THE SAME. APRIL 18 – 24, 2018 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN Johannes Schenk’s twelve viol sonatas, by turns sprightly and solemn, and collectively called “Le Nymphe di Rheno,” were a swan song, in 1702, for the now archaic ancestors of the modern violin.