SEPT–OCT 2011, v OlumE 104, numb Er 1 m E xi CO C i T y … grav E CO n CE rn S … hubbl E SP a CESC a PES … indian ar T … g E r T rud E himm E lfarb mar–a in theatres march 22nd P r 2013 r mar–aPr 2013, v OlumE 105, numb Er 4 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ALUMNI MAGAZINE STREET DATE: FEB/MARCH DUE DATE: 1/22 non-bleed: 6.4375” x 8.825”, 4-Color JANUARY 22, 2013 1:30 PM EST UCH_MAR_APRIL_covers and spine_v4.indd 1 2/25/13 10:40 AM 130315_FocusFeatures_Chicago.indd 1 1/23/13 8:40 AM alumniweekend June –, CELEBRATE EXCEPTIONAL UCHICAGO Register today for Alumni Weekend 2013. • HONOR outstanding achievement at the 72nd Annual Alumni Awards Ceremony. • SHOW YOUR PRIDE in UChicago at the Alumni Parade. • CELEBRATE the academic rigor and challenges that formed your UChicago experience. • REDISCOVER the intellectual destination that is UChicago. Visit alumniweekend.uchicago.edu to register today. uestions? Call 800.955.0065, e-mail [email protected], or visit alumniweekend.uchicago.edu. AlumniIFC_AlumniWeekendAd_4c.indd Weekend Mar-Apr ad_12.11.indd 4 1 2/27/13 11:1811:19 AM Features 32 adrift in the city On walks across Mexico City, historian Mauricio Tenorio Trillo finds a path to the past. By Elizabeth Station 38 decomposure An alumna mortician, medievalist, and video sage tries to change the way Americans think about death. By Michael Washburn, AM’02 46 raised voices The Sahmat collective galvanizes artists across India to create work that Mar–aPr 2013 vOLuME 105, N uMBEr 4 resists divisive politics. A Smart Museum exhibition tells its story. By Katherine Muhlenkamp 54 glimpses Social critic and Victorian historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, AM’44, PhD’50, looks back on her Chicago education. By Kelly Jane Torrance 56 the astronomical sublime Part of a visual tradition that reaches back to Romanticism, images from the Hubble Space Telescope awe as they inform. By Elizabeth Kessler, PhD’06 Plus: “Scope of Inquiry.” By Claire Zulkey Departments 3 editor’s notes The long and short of it: Some books should never end. 4 letters Readers write in about driving to India, interactions with historical figures, academic partnerships past, pocketbook politics, and more. 13 on the agenda Career Advancement executive director Meredith Daw discusses the growth in services that assist students in preparing for the future. 15 uchicago Journal A high-tech hospital opens; a different kind of online Singles scene emerges; rising waters encroach on the coasts; Neil Shubin traces connections between humanity and the cosmos; shadow puppetry becomes cinematic; a card game rewards irreverence; law students fight for their First Amendment rights; and legal philosopher Brian Leiter asks, “Why tolerate religion?” 28 marKetplace of ideas Background checks and balances: How to legislate gun safety. 30 course WorK Love scene: Film scholar Tom Gunning explains how editing conventions create the splice of life. Edwin Hubble, SB 1910, PhD 1917, observes through the 65 peer revieW 100-inch Hooker telescope The enviable Jessica Burstein, AM’90, PhD’98, fashions an essay out at Mt. Wilson Observatory of academic envy, and Michael C. Kotzin, AB’62, remembers Richard Stern. in a 1937 Margaret Bourke- Plus: Alumni News, Deaths, and Classifieds. White photo for Life 96 lite of the mind magazine. See “Scope of Autoresponders: Out of office e-mail messages can be an art form all their Inquiry,” page 63. Time & own. We’ve collected some of the best from the Magazine’s in-box. Life Pictures/Getty Images. See the full print issue of the University of Chicago Magazine, web-exclusive content, and links to our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, SFI-01042 and Tumblr accounts at mag.uchicago.edu. the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2013 1 UCH_Contents_v3.indd 1 2/27/13 10:10 AM Dubbed “Mystic Mountain” by the Hubble Heritage Project, this pillar of gas and dust is three light-years tall. For more on Hubble Space Telescope images and their visual forebears, see “The Astronomical Sublime,” page 56. NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI). Dubbed “Mystic Mountain” by the Hubble Heritage Project, this pillar editorˆs notes of gas and dust is three light-years tall. For more on Hubble Space Telescope images and their visual Volume 105, Number 4, Mar–Apr 2013 forebears, see “The Astronomical Sublime,” page 56. NASA, ESA, executive editor Mary Ruth Yoe and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th editor Laura Demanski, AM’94 associate editors Lydialyle Gibson, The long and short of it Anniversary Team (STScI). Jason Kelly art director Guido Mendez by laura demanski, am’94 alumni news editor Katherine Muhlenkamp proofreader Rhonda L. Smith student interns Colin Bradley, ’14; avid Blum, AB’77, is the exhaustible. But I read more and more Emily Wang, ’14 editor of Amazon’s elec- blissfully, and in content assurance graphic designers Nicole Jo Melton, tronic publishing arm, that indefinite pages lay ahead. The Aaron Opie lite of the mind & interactive Kindle Singles. In “Craft third volume marks a shift, breaking content editor Joy Olivia Miller Singles” (UChicago Jour- the rhythm of parties and love af- web developer Chris Wilczak nal, page 16), he notes that fairs as World War II envelops all of contributing editors John Easton, the e-books let stories grow England. It was near the end of this AM’77; Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93; Brooke E. O’Neill, AM’04; Amy Braverman to their natural length, un- volume—1945 in Dance time, 2011 in Puma; Elizabeth Station constrained by magazine mine—that it hit home: I would actu- staff bios mag.uchicago.edu/masthead publishers’ maximum ally finish all twelve novels. And then word counts and book pub- there would be none left. Editorial Office The University of Chicago Magazine, 401 North Michigan Avenue, lishers’ minimums. Good for writers For more than a year, I’ve been on Suite 1000, Chicago, IL 60611. telephone and good for readers. But what about page 119 of volume four, nearly half- 773.702.2163; fax 773.702.8836; d books whose natural length, if we had way through the tenth novel, Books e-mail [email protected]. our druthers, would be infinite? Do Furnish a Room. This one has fur- The Magazine is sent to all University of Chicago alumni. The University of Chicago In spring 2007 I started reading A nished mine for that span. Sometimes Alumni Association has its offices at Dance to the Music of Time (1951–75). I even tote it along on my commute. 5555 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Rising six and three-eighths inches But mentally I’ve deposited those last IL 60637. telephone 773.702.2150; fax 773.702.2166. address changes tall as a stack, Anthony Powell’s mas- 700 pages in the bank. Until when? 800.955.0065 or [email protected]. terwork has epic proportions but re- We’ll see. web mag.uchicago.edu counts ordinary events. The sequence From comparing notes with other of 12 novels about life in English artis- Powellites, I know my stalling is not The University of Chicago Magazine (ISSN-0041-9508) is published bimonthly tic and political circles from the early unique. Maybe it’s how unplanned the (Sept–Oct, Nov–Dec, Jan–Feb, Mar–Apr, 1920s to, I’m told, 1971 is often com- novels feel, approximating life; they May–June, and July–Aug) by the University pared to Marcel Proust’s À la recherche seem to be heading not toward a cli- of Chicago in cooperation with the Alumni du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). mactic ending but to a slow dwindling Association, 5555 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637. Published continuously Each of the four sturdy volumes in my of experience. Oh well—with books, since 1907. Periodicals postage paid at handsome Chicago paperback edition, at least, one can start again. ◆ Chicago and additional mailing offices. bedecked with figures from Nicolas postmaster Send address changes to The Poussin’s painting of the same title, University of Chicago Magazine, Alumni Records, 1427 East 60th Street, Suite 120, contains three novels. All told, it num- Chicago, IL 60637. bers nearly 3,000 pages. Narrator Nick Jenkins is the sun © 2013 University of Chicago. in Powell’s orrery. As a host of other Ivy League Magazine Network characters enter his orbit, drift away, advertising and production office and loop back, Jenkins tries to divine 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, patterns in their movements. Strag- 617.496.7207. director of sales development gling through the first couple of nov- 631.754.4264. els, I labored to keep the vast dramatis chicago Karen Walker, 262.664.3209. personae straight, rewarded by Pow- detroit Linda Donaldson, 248.933.3376. ell’s drily hilarious portraits along the new england & mid-atlantic Robert Fitta, 617.496.6631. way—highly specific specimens of def- new york Beth Bernstein, 908.654.5050; inite English types. My progress was Mary Anne MacLean, 631.367.1988. halting in volume one, not yet deliber- southwest Dan Kellner, 972.529.9687. ately. Between chapters I sometimes travel Northeast Media Inc, 203.255.8800. read whole other books. I vaguely as- west coast John Buckingham, 310.478.3833. pired to reach the end someday. In the second volume, the hook now photography by tom tian, ab’10 firmly lodged, the books still felt in- the university of chicago magazine | mar–apr 2013 3 static categories at the dynamics of social phenomena. I have been teach- LETTERS ing an introductory graduate course in research methods at the University of Washington in Seattle for many years, and I always recommend the book to Interesting to see the map of this voyage (“A Passage to India,” Jan–Feb/13).