PRICE $8.99 MAY 15, 2017 THE INNOVATORS ISSUE MAY 15, 2017 7 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 31 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Amy Davidson on politicians and speaking fees; Streep and Sondheim; Real News; luxury bongs; Sheelah Kolhatkar on compliance officers. ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH THE SCIENCES Nicola Twilley 38 Sight Unseen The promise of sensory-substitution technology. SHOUTS & MURMURS Ian Frazier 43 Goodbye, My Funding PROFILES Matthew Trammell 44 Track Record Richard Russell and XL Recordings. DEPT. OF LABOR Nathan Heller 52 The Gig Is Up Adventures in the sharing economy. ANNALS OF LAW William Finnegan 64 A Righteous Case Zainab Ahmad’s counterterrorism mission. FICTION Etgar Keret 76 “Fly Already” THE CRITICS A CRITIC AT LARGE Adam Gopnik 79 Rethinking the American Revolution. BOOKS 83 Briefly Noted Vinson Cunningham 85 John McWhorter’s “Talking Back, Talking Black.” Dan Chiasson 88 Two début poetry collections. THE ART WORLD Peter Schjeldahl 90 A Florine Stettheimer retrospective. MUSICAL EVENTS Alex Ross 92 Chaya Czernowin’s cataclysmic new opera. Continued on page 2 THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 94 “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Chuck.” POEMS Emily Jungmin Yoon 58 “Time, in Whales” Yusef Komunyakaa 70 “The Soul’s Soundtrack” COVER Roz Chast “Motherboard” DRAWINGS Emily Flake, Jeremy Nguyen, Amy Kurzweil, P. C. Vey, Harry Bliss, Edward Steed, Roz Chast, Trevor Spaulding, Benjamin Schwartz, Christopher Weyant, Liana Finck, Paul Noth, Will McPhail, John O’Brien, Tom Chitty, Robert Leighton SPOTS Sébastien Plassard “It’s still in beta.” 2 THE NEW YORKER, MAY 15, 2017 CONTRIBUTORS Nicola Twilley (“Sight Unseen,” p. 38), a William Finnegan (“A Righteous Case,” contributing writer for newyorker.com, p. 64), a staff writer, won the 2016 Pu- is the author of the blog Edible Ge- litzer Prize in biography for his book ography and a co-host of the podcast “Barbarian Days.” “Gastropod.” Amy Davidson (Comment, p. 31), a staff Etgar Keret (Fiction, p. 76) is an Israeli writer since 2014, has been at The New writer. “The Seven Good Years” is his Yorker since 1995. most recent book. Matthew Trammell (“Track Record,” Nathan Heller (“The Gig Is Up,” p. 52), p. 44) joined the magazine in 2015, as a staff writer, has contributed to the the Night Life editor of Goings On magazine since 2011. About Town. He covers music for newyorker.com. Emily Jungmin Yoon (Poem, p. 58) is a poet and translator. She currently serves Roz Chast (Cover; Cartoon, p. 60), a New as the poetry editor of The Margins, Yorker cartoonist since 1978, is the au- the literary magazine of the Asian thor of the graphic memoir “Can’t We American Writers’ Workshop. Talk About Something More Pleasant?” Adam Gopnik (A Critic at Large, p. 79), Vinson Cunningham (Books, p. 85) joined a staff writer, has been contributing to the magazine as a staff writer in 2016. The New Yorker since 1986. His most recent book is “The Table Comes First.” Sheelah Kolhatkar (The Financial Page, p. 37) is a staff writer. Her book, “Black Alex Ross (Musical Events, p. 92) is a Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, staff writer and the author of “The Rest and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Wanted Man on Wall Street,” came Century” and “Listen to This.” out in February. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more. PHOTO BOOTH PODCAST Carolyn Kormann writes about Bryan On this week’s episode, Etgar Keret Thomas’s photographs of a changing reads “Fly Already,” his short story Florida coastline. from the issue. 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.) THOMAS BRYAN BY PHOTOGRAPH LEFT: 4 THE NEW YORKER, MAY 15, 2017 THE MAIL LEADING THE REVIEW Dreher is unable to see the liberative as- pects of gospel identity along with the Though my memory may be imperfect “ordering” aspects that he so admires. after half a century, it is highly unlikely Mark Genszler that Norman Podhoretz, the author of St. Francis Episcopal Church “Making It,” a critique of New York in- 1North Bellmore, N.Y. tellectuals, was asked to become a co- editor of The New York Review of Books, TRUMP’S FIRST HUNDRED DAYS as my late wife, Barbara Epstein, has re- counted and as Louis Menand reports I share many of David Remnick’s opin- in his essay on Podhoretz (Books, May ions about Donald Trump and his so- 1st). When Barbara and I, along with called policies, but not the dread expressed Elizabeth Hardwick and her husband, in his recent Talk of the Town piece Robert Lowell, envisioned the Review at (Comment, May 1st). The article attempts dinner, in the early nineteen-sixties, we to convince the reader that President decided immediately that Bob Silvers— Trump poses a threat to America’s de- and only Bob—could edit it. That eve- mocracy. It warns that we may be wit- ning, we called Bob, who immediately nessing the nation’s demise, and notes grasped what we were planning and ac- that, to date, many democracies have cepted the job. (Bob died a few weeks failed. The United States was never as ago.) I became estranged from Podho- liberal as Remnick seems to imply, nor retz some years later, after he threatened are democracies from different eras quite to end our friendship if the Review did as comparable as he suggests. Our de- not celebrate his book. I told him that mocracy remains a work in progress. We the Review leaves such judgments en- should embrace vigilance rather than de- tirely to the reviewer. In the case of “Mak- bilitating anxiety about the future. ing It,” the reviewer, like most others, Jeffrey J. Cymrot found the book foolish. Newton, Mass. Jason Epstein 1New York City Remnick spends nearly all his extended Comment talking about the Bad Guy, CHRISTIAN EXILES Donald Trump. But, if there is to be a liberal, democratic future, Remnick, the I am a gay, married Episcopal priest, so media, and the Democratic Party need I was particularly interested to read Joshua to start promoting true progressives, such Rothman’s Profile of Rod Dreher, the as Bernie Sanders, who are not beholden religious writer, whose recent book, “The to corporations, rather than Democrats Benedict Option,” entreats Christians to like Elizabeth Warren, who has been exile themselves from modern life and moving toward the center for the past retreat into religious communities (“The two years. They must also realize that, Seeker,” May 1st). Much of what Dre- as unhappy as many people are with her writes about resonates with me, from Trump, some citizens—even on the left— his dislocation, his restlessness, and his are relieved that the candidate whom yearning to belong to his critique of both they consider the greater of two evils was right-wing and left-wing Christianity, not elected. with their vapidities and identity poli- Alan Cohen tics. But I take issue with the gender bi- Eugene, Ore. nary that Dreher seems to adhere to, and the fear associated with it. It is possible • to experience the truth of God—and to Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, withdraw from the world into a small, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited religious community—without subscrib- for length and clarity, and may be published in ing to essentialist notions of gender, sex- any medium. We regret that owing to the volume uality, or identity. It is sad to me that of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. THE NEW YORKER, MAY 15, 2017 5 MAY 10 Ð 16, 2017 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN The Bronx Zoo is one of many institutions under the aegis of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which protects ecosystems around the world. New to the zoo are eight Indian gharials—critically endangered reptiles of the crocodilian order, indigenous to the Chambal River, in India—identifiable by their needle-nose snouts. They can be found basking in the JungleWorld exhibit, along with white-cheeked gibbons, painted storks, and Indian fruit bats. The gharials eat mainly fish, and not humans, perhaps only because their mouths aren’t wide enough. PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY body of work. He now spends much of his time in New York City, and his Symphony Space residency includes a recital by the sterling pianist Lisa Moore CLASSICAL MUSIC at the intimate Thalia Theatre. It also sprawls beyond 1 the venue, with the esteemed chorus the Crossing performing “Canticles of the Holy Wind” at St. Mi- OPERA Rutter performs all twenty-four songs in the sev- chael’s Church, while Alarm Will Sound disperses enty-five-seat Cabaret Theatre at the Duplex, with throughout Morningside Park to play “Ten Thou- Operamission’s director, Jennifer Peterson, at the sand Birds.” May 11 at 7, May 12 at 7:30, and May 14 Metropolitan Opera piano. May 16 at 9:30. (61 Christopher St. at Seventh at 3. (Broadway at 95th St. symphonyspace.org.) A crew of topnotch singers brings a wealth of dra- Ave. purplepass.com/operamission.) matic specificity to the current revival of “Don 1 Chiara String Quartet Giovanni.” Mariusz Kwiecien’s leathery-voiced The Chiara, a favorite ensemble at the Met Mu- Don is a dandy with an alpha male’s desire to dom- ORCHESTRAS AND CHORUSES seum, returns to offer a concert of two substantial inate those around him, but that doesn’t stop Erwin works: the Clarinet Quintet by Brahms (with Todd Schrott from stealing the show as a best-in-class New York Philharmonic Palmer) and the String Quartet No.