Introduction

What is The New Yorker? I know it’s a great magazine and that it’s a tremendous source of pleasure in my life. But what exactly is it? This blog’s premise is that The New Yorker is a work of art, as worthy of comment and analysis as, say, Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Each week I review one or more aspects of the magazine’s latest issue. I suppose it’s possible to describe and analyze an entire issue, but I prefer to keep my reviews brief, and so I usually focus on just one or two pieces, to explore in each the signature style of its author. A piece by Nick Paumgarten is not like a piece by Jill Lepore, and neither is like a piece by Ian Frazier. One could not mistake Collins for Seabrook, or Bilger for Goldfield, or Mogelson for Kolbert. Each has found a style, and it is that style that I respond to as I read, and want to understand and describe.

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Francis Luta's "Alone Across the Arctic"
























I just finished watching Francis Luta’s Alone Across the Arctic on iTunes. It’s a documentary companion to Adam Shoalts’ terrific Beyond the Trees (2019). It’s not nearly as absorbing (or as detailed) as the book, but it gives a taste of Shoalts’ amazing 2017 trans-Arctic canoe journey. It’s certainly a tremendous testament to Shoalts’ skill, determination, and endurance. And it’s a great ad for that tough, gorgeous red Nova Craft canoe that he paddled, poled, sailed, and dragged over nearly four thousand kilometres, from his starting point on the mighty Mackenzie River to his endpoint at Baker Lake. I enjoyed the film immensely. Someday I’ll post my review of the book. It’s one of my favourite travelogues.
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