Tag Archives: New York City
The Blame Game
The Blame Game We don’t start life with a clean slate. Childhood is the time we spend figuring out what kind of a hand of cards we’ve been dealt and how to start playing it. What happens to us – … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mysticism, nineteenth-century, novels, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged appeals to fairness, black leotard, blaming the victim, cartoon, cat calls, childhood, civil rights movement, class bias, clean slate, contradictions in capitalism, coquetry, cultural bias, despising women, documentary film, dodging blame, end of class struggle, end of history, enemy of the people, exploiting women, feminist movement, film footage, gayborhood, going viral, group identity, group preferences, guillotine, hand-to-hand combat, hanging out, hitch-hiking, idealizing women, indignant outcry, intersectionality, involuntary pregnancy, Les Tricoteuses, lynch mob, Manhattan, mob rule, moral rank, Neo-Marxism, New York City, off-Broadway comedy, people of color, persecution of feminists, protecting identity, racist film, reality TV, Reign of Terror, Robespierre, romantic truth, safe space, second wave feminism, self-defense, skin in the game, social asymmetry, social conscience, social experiment, social identity, social inequality, strategy for women, street mores, street people, tabula rasa, the blame game, the dance of life, the game of life, the hand we're dealt, the internationale, the knitting women, the male animal, the oppressed, the weaker sex, the wretched of the earth, thought police, victim competition, victims status, white people, wolf whistles, women as losers, women asking for it, women's rights, women's vulnerability, working class solidarity
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Paying Nostalgia Forward
Paying Nostalgia Forward Jerry and I celebrated our eighteenth wedding anniversary last Friday. We watched the inauguration (moving right along here), and then drove through the rain to a Hindu temple in New Jersey that the wonderful lady who runs … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, health, heroes, hidden God, history, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a good marriage, being a good couple, being understood, childhood, courage, courtship, cutting the umbilical cord, cyclical time, defining desires, desire, Eastern art, emotional health, falling in love, filial piety, first love, French restaurant, growing up, Hindu temple, homesickness, Indian aesthetic, integrality, lasting desires, life frontiers, life story, linear time, longing, Madison Avenue, Manhattan apartment, marble sculpture, Marriage, maturity, new projects, New York City, New Yorkers, non-historical v historical, nostalgia, opposites attract, overcoming tyrannies, parents, Paris, partnership, personal identity, private space, professional identity, publishing articles, recovery, refusing to grow up, renewal, repairing wounds, repression, Romantic Love, romantic risks, sculpture in high relief, secrets of the future, secrets of the past, seeing significance, self-recovery, self-renewal, self-repair, shared space, suitable life partner, Texans, Texas panhandle, the big picture, the future, the large scheme, the past, the present, true love, uncured wounds, unworthy suitors, Washington DC, wedding anniversary, Western art, wholeness
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“What the Fortune Cookie Said”
“What the Fortune Cookie Said” In the last few weeks, whenever we’ve brought home supper from the Chinese take-out place, and opened the fortune cookie, mine has been deplorable. Things like, “When climbing the hill of difficulty, don’t slip and … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged A.P.A., Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic audience, academic journals, academic publication, achievement, aftermath, American Philosophical Association, Amy Reuther PT, anonymity, Ariadne's Thread, blog, blogging, broken bones, burka, c.v., celebrity, China, Chinese take-out, classified information, colleagues, collegiality, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, destiny, Dewey Lecture, dream warnings, Eastern and Western medicine, elusiveness, Epilogue, fame, fashion, fate, felicity, final chapter, fortune, fortune cookie, fulfillment, government secrets, Greek mythology, healing, hero, heroine, hiding, ill-fortune, ill-luck, injury, introverts, invisibility, invited lecture, labryrinth, life goal, life quest, luck, mending, Minotaur, modesty, New York City, night life, obscurity, peer-reviewed, performance, philosophical journals, preface, primary care doctor, privacy, Prologue, public figures, public intellectuals, public persona, publicity, readership, recovery, recuperation, rehabilitation, revealing clothes, Richard J. Firnhaber acupuncturist, self-concealment, short skirts, significant coincidences, social media, social networks, Success, synchronicities, Theseus, university press, writers, writing
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“Fighting the Good Fight”
“Fighting the Good Fight” Sometimes, you just can’t. A woman I knew ran a beauty salon in New York City. She had an only son, the light of her life, who got involved with drugs. He became a dealer, offended … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, male power, masculinity, master, motherhood, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, twentieth century, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "beautiful souls", 1948 election, abandoned wives, academic politics, allies, beauty salon, big city corruption, bootleg liquor, bribed cops, bribed judges, coercion, collegial relations, conscience, crime, crime fighters, defenseless women, detective work, dirty cops, drug dealing, ethical glory, gang, Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, Great Depression, guilty verdicts, houses of prostitution, ideology and terror, informants, integrity, jury foreman, jury trial, Lucky Luciano, mob violence, New York City, only son, outlaws, personal identity, Prohibition, prostitutes, resistance, Richard Norton Smith's Thomas E. Dewey and His Times, single mothers, special prosecutor, tenure, Terror, the good fight, the mob, threats, Tom Dewey, Truman v Dewey, victims
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“Being Brave”
“Being Brave” Nobody wants to think of herself as a whining, sniveling, cowering coward. At the same time, one of the advantages of the female sex is that (forgive me, sisterhood!) we are not expected to wear such courage as … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contradictions, cool, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, mind control, non-violence, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, violence, war, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The War Has Taken Place", assault, authority, bad guys, blaming victims, bravery, breaking under torture, consensus, conventions, courage, courage under fire, coward, cowardice, criminals, extreme situation, extreme tests, freedom, gender roles, genocide, German occupation of France, grace under pressure, Holocaust, honor, Jewish prayer, judging victims, martial arts, masculinity and femininity, massacre of Armenians, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, nazis, New York City, pain, pain threshold, pain tolerance, prayer, risk-taking, self-defense, social construction, socially constructed identity, Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage", subway crime, subway mugger, tests of valor, torture, training in courage, urban crime, victim's conduct, victim's courage, World War II
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“Worldliness”
“Worldliness” My father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal, was the antithesis of a worldly man. “He never made a useful friend,” as someone said who was well placed to know. Speaking at his memorial service, a college classmate recalled, “We … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, modernism, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, theism, time, twentieth century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The World of Yesterday", academic politics, accepting praise, accolades, American studies, betrayal, career, careerism, celebrity, clique, collegiality, Columbia class of 1925, cosmopolitanism, David and Jonathan, dishonesty, esteem, ex-friends, friendship, friendships of utility, genius, Germany in the 1930s, happiness, Henry M. Rosenthal, Holocaust, honesty, honor, honors, integrity, intrigue, Lionel Trilling, literary "in" group, literary critic, literary culture, living a lie, male friendship, mundanity, nazis, New York City, philosophers, philosophy, praise, professional sabotage, renown, reputation, savoir faire, sincerity and authenticity, Stefan Zweig, Success, tastemaker, therapeutic riding, truth unvarnished, uncompromised life, Vienna, witness, worldliness
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“Blue Jeans”
“Blue Jeans” I may be wrong, but it’s my sincere belief that I was the first woman north of Greenwich Village to put on blue jeans for daily wear in Manhattan. At least, when I began the practice, it was … Continue reading
Posted in class, cool, culture, fashion, femininity, gender balance, history, psychology, roles, social conventions
Tagged America, autonomy, beauty salon, blue jeans, California, canvas cloth, ceremony, Civil War, Civilization: The West and the Rest, clothes, democratic values, designer jeans, economics, formality, freedom, gender performance, gold rush, Greenwich Village, high fashion, informality, jacob Davis, jeans, Levi Strauss, Manhattan, New York City, Niall Ferguson, sari, sex appeal, Soviet regime, status, strolling, The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, Union, urban protocol, USSR, work pants, young Russians
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“The Coat”
“The Coat” The other day, I could not find my coat. I’d sat through one edifying lecture too many, during which I’d had trouble not falling to the floor from sheer fatigue. Afterward, famished, I’d stopped at my café for … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, fashion, femininity, philosophy, the problematic of woman
Tagged boutique, coat, coffee, Degas, demi-saison, fashion, French fashion, garments, loss, love, meaning of life, New York City, philosophy, style, Women
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