Feel Free: Essays Read online

  The Tattered Ruins of the Map: On Sarah Sze’s Centrifuge

  (first published in the catalogue accompanying the work Centrifuge by Sarah Sze, a site-specific installation commissioned by Haus der Kunst in Munich for the 2017 edition of Der Öffentlichkeit—von den Freunden Haus der Kunst)

  Getting In and Out

  (Harper’s, July 2017)

  “Theme for English B” from Collected Poems by Langston Hughes (1994)

  I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin and Raoul Peck (2016)

  Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (1957)

  Part IV: On the Bookshelf

  Crash by J. G. Ballard

  (first published as an introduction to the reissue of Crash, 4th Estate, 2014)

  Crash by J. G. Ballard (1973)

  Manifesto of Futurism by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1909)

  The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

  (first published as an introduction to The Buddha of Suburbia, Faber and Faber Ltd, 2015)

  The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi (1990)

  Notes on NW

  (Guardian, 1 August 2013)

  The Harper’s Columns

  (Harper’s, March‒August 2011)

  “On Harlem, Hatred and Javier”

  Harlem Is Nowhere by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (2011)

  My Prizes by Thomas Bernhard (2011)

  While the Women Are Sleeping by Javier Marías (2010)

  “Of Death and Duchesses”

  The Immortalization Commission by John Gray (2011)

  Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought by H. G. Wells (1901)

  Wait for Me! by Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (2010)

  “Édouard Levé and Peter Stamm”

  Autoportrait by Édouard Levé and Lorin Stein (2012)

  Suicide by Édouard Levé (2008)

  Seven Years by Peter Stamm (2010)

  “Paula Fox and Geoff Dyer”

  News from the World by Paula Fox (2011)

  A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (1908)

  Otherwise Known as the Human Condition by Geoff Dyer (2011)

  “In Time of War” by W. H. Auden, from Journey to a War by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood (1939)

  “Two Legs Bad, Six Legs Good—Sontag Worse!”

  Am I a Redundant Human Being? by Mela Hartwig, trans. Kerri A. Pierce (2010)

  Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love and Language from the Insect World by Marlene Zuk (2011)

  “A St. Aubyn Summer”

  At Last by Edward St. Aubyn (2011)

  “Island Life and Mother Love,” reviewing The Dead Yard: A Story of Modern Jamaica by Ian Thomson

  “On Wild Girls, Cruel Birds—and Rimbaud!”

  The Wild Girls by Ursula K. Le Guin (2011)

  Three to See the King (2001) and A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In (2011) by Magnus Mills

  A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud (1873)

  Rimbaud in Java by Jamie James (2011)

  The Inaugural Newark Lecture: “The I Who Is Not Me”

  (Zadie Smith, 2017; inaugural Philip Roth Lecture at the Newark Public Library, 27 October 2016)

  Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov (1951)

  “The Choice” by W. B. Yeats, from The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (2000)

  Part V: Feel Free

  Life-Writing

  (Rookie Magazine, 2 June 2015)

  The Bathroom

  (Zadie Smith, 2017)

  Man Versus Corpse

  (New York Review of Books, 5 December 2013)

  The Return of the Real by Hal Foster (1996)

  Meet Justin Bieber!

  (Zadie Smith, 2017)

  Love in the Gardens

  (New York Review of Books, 7 November 2013)

  A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (1908)

  “Music to Watch Girls By” by Tony Velona (1966)

  The Shadow of Ideas

  (Zadie Smith, 2017)

  Find Your Beach

  (New York Review of Books, 23 October 2014)

  Joy

  (New York Review of Books, 10 January 2013)

  De Umbris Idearum by Giordano Bruno (1582)

  INDEX

  The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.

  Page references in italic indicate illustrations.

  Amis, Kingsley 288–9, 302–3

  Amis, Martin 16–17, 69, 286

  Anomalisa (Kaufman film) 119–35

  Aristotle 297, 298

  Astaire, Fred 137–9, 140, 147

  Atencio, Peter 84–5, 97

  attunement

  Kierkegaard 110–12

  and the music of Joni Mitchell 100–116

  to rhythm of commercial film 154

  Auden, W. H. 289, 376

  Austen, Jane 144, 324

  austerity 31

  Baldwin, James 252–3, 254–5

  I Am Not Your Negro 216

  Ballard, J(ames) G(raham) 227–8, 229, 234–5, 312

  Crash 228–35

  Barnes, Julian 435

  Bartlett, Bonnie 82–3

  Baryshnikov, Mikhail 146–7

  bathrooms 359–61

  Baudrillard, Jean: Simulacres et simulation 206

  Beckett, Samuel 138

  Beckwith, Naomi 195, 199

  Bee Movie 297

  Being John Malkovich 119–20

  Bell, Vanessa 192, 193

  Bellow, Sam 242, 247, 339

  Belsen concentration camp 39–40

  Berger, John 173, 175, 176–7, 286, 287

  Ways of Seeing 175, 177

  Bernhard, Thomas 291

  My Prizes 255–7

  Bernini, Gian Lorenzo 402, 413

  Beyoncé 143–4

  Bieber, Justin 381–93

  “Boyfriend” 389

  Biggie (Christopher Wallace) 65, 66

  Binoche, Juliette 156

  Black, Hannah 218–19, 220–21

  Black Lives Matter 186

  Blaise, Cynthia 92–3, 94

  Bleek, Memphis (Malik Cox) 66

  Boboli Gardens, Florence 397–9

  boredom 47, 61, 122, 126–7, 133, 158, 284, 288, 378, 394, 408

  Borges, Jorge Luis 206

  Borghese Gardens/Villa Borghese, Rome 399–405

  Bowie, David 145

  Bradford, Mark 185–6

  Niagara 181, 184–5

  Brexit 22–34

  Bridges, Jeff 157

  Brooks, Elkie (Elaine Bookbinder) 101

  Brooks, Rebekah 8

  Brown, James 141

  Bruno, Giordano 408–9, 410–11, 415

  Bryant, Carolyn 221

  Buber, Martin 382–5, 387–90, 391, 392

  I and Thou 383–5, 386–8, 390–91

  Burnham, Andy 26

  Burtynsky, Edward 287–8

  Bush, George W. 70

  Butler, Octavia 144

  Byrne, David 145

  C. K., Louis 380

  Calverley, Charles Stuart 297

  Cameron, David 23, 32

  camp 181–6, 182

  Carter, Shawn see Jay-Z

  Caulfield, Holden 237

  Chanticleer, Raven 254

  Charisse, Cyd 137–8

  Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor 179, 180

  Cheever, John 347

  child-rearing 357–60, 362–4

  Christie, Linford
93

  class 28–30, 31, 243, 266

  classlessness 285, 286

  English middle class 355–8

  climate change 14–19, 24

  Clock, The (Marclay film) 152–9

  Coetzee, J. M. 288

  compassion 124, 130, 131–2, 134–5

  Condo, George 195

  Conservative Party 23

  Corbyn, Jeremy 32

  corpses/corpsification 367, 368–80

  Crawford, Joan 156

  Cyrus, Miley 380

  dancing/dancers 136–47

  Darwinism 259–61, 263

  Davis, Bette 156

  Davis, Sammy, Jr 140

  Dawkins, Richard 262, 263

  de Sica, Vittorio: It Happened in the Park 401–2

  death 132, 134, 256, 261, 262, 314, 370, 371–2

  drive 230

  and immortality 258–63

  and spectacle 230–31

  see also corpses/corpsification

  Delibes, Léo: Lakmé 133

  “flower duet” 127–8, 133n

  DeLillo, Don 278

  democracy 24

  Denner, Balthasar: Alte Frau 173–5, 176–80

  despair 35, 39–40

  Devonshire, Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of 264–7

  Wait for Me! 264–6

  diary-writing 351–3

  Didion, Joan 144

  Donaghy, Jack 423

  Dostoevsky, Fyodor 105, 146

  Dragset, Ingar 415–16, 419

  Drysdale, Rebecca 81, 90

  Dyer, Geoff 283–9

  education 33, 40

  multicultural 22

  schools see schools

  system 33, 40

  Eisenberg, Jesse 47–8

  Eliot, George 320

  Elmgreen, Michael 415–16, 419

  Eminem (born Marshall Mathers III) 66, 67

  environment

  climate change 14–19, 24

  environmental consciousness 16

  and religion 16

  EU referendum 23–6, 30–31, 32

  see also Brexit

  Facebook

  Connect 54

  Generation 45–63

  Open Graph 57

  and The Social Network 46–52

  Zuckerberg and the “Why?” of 52, 59, 62

  Fanon, Frantz 215

  Farage, Nigel 24, 33

  Fincher, David

  Fight Club 49

  The Social Network 46–52, 57, 62–3

  Fischl, Eric: A Visit to/A Visit from/ the Island 221

  Florence 396–9

  Forster, E. M. 282

  Foster, Hal 373–4

  Fox, Liam 33

  Fox, Paul Hervey 279

  Fox, Paula 277–83, 285

  Commentary 280

  Desperate Characters 278

  “Grace” 282–3

  News from the World 279

  “The Tender Night” 281

  Franklin, Ben 297

  Franzen, Jonathan

  Freedom 276

  “Perchance to Dream” 278

  Freedland, Jonathan 32n

  Freud, Lucian 189, 200

  Fritsch, Gerhard 255

  Fuller, Hoyt 282

  Garfield, Andrew 48

  Gedney, William 284, 285–6

  Generation Facebook 45–63

  Gervais, Ricky 77

  Get Out (Peele film) 212–16, 217, 222–3

  Gibson, William 95

  Gomes, Carolyn 314–15

  Gomez, Selena 393

  Gove, Michael 23–4, 32

  Graham, Martha 136

  Grand Tour 395–6

  Granger, Farley 156

  Grant, Duncan 192–3

  Grau, Donatien: “The Meaning of Restraint” 199

  Gray, John: The Immortalization Commission 258–63

  Greenberg, Clement 190, 196

  greenhouse gases 17

  Gross, Terry 82

  Gumby, Alexander 254

  gun control 24

  Hamilton, Sheila 315

  Hammer, Armie 49

  Harlem 251–5

  Harris, Lyle Ashton 221

  Hartman, Phil 89

  Hartwig, Mela 289–95

  Am I a Redundant Human Being? 289, 290–95

  Das Weib ist ein Nichts (The Woman is a Nothing) 290

  health care 31, 33, 40

  Hemingway, Ernest Miller 278–9, 287

  Hemon, Aleksandar 34

  Herr, Carrie 93

  hip hop 64–73, 92, 108, 186, 200, 316–17, 335

  Hitler, Adolf 211, 265

  Holiday, Billie (Eleanora Fagan) 164–72

  Hova see Jay-Z (Shawn Carter)

  Hunt, Jeremy 8, 25

  Hurston, Zora Neale 242, 247

  Huxley, Aldous 105–6

  identity, in writing novels 333–47

  impossible identities 333–42

  the reality effect 342–7

  immigration 22, 24n, 25–6, 31, 33–4

  inequality 28–30

  Internet 10, 54–5, 59, 243, 288

  Facebook see Facebook

  Web 2.0 57–8, 60

  Jackson, Janet 143–4

  Jackson, Michael 141, 142–3, 381

  Jamaica 17, 311–18, 360–61

  James, Jamie: Rimbaud in Java 330–32

  Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) 64–73

  “22 Twos” 67

  “44 Fours” 68

  Decoded 65, 66, 68

  “Friend or Foe” 67

  Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation 72

  Watch the Throne (with Kanye West) 69–71

  Johansson, Scarlett 423

  Johnson, Boris 23, 26, 32

  Johnson, Duke 121

  joy 40, 105, 427–35

  Joyce, James 242

  Judt, Tony 10

  Kafka, Franz 325, 330

  Kapuściński, Ryszard 287

  Kastelic, Caroline 121

  Kaufman, Charlie 119–20, 131

  Anomalisa 119–35

  Keats, John 143, 334

  Keener, Catherine 119–20

  Kehlmann, Daniel 256

  Kelly, Gene 137–9

  Kensal Rise Library 7, 12

  Key, Keegan-Michael 75, 77–8, 79, 80, 82–3, 84, 86–7, 91, 92–4

  Peele partnership see Key & Peele

  Key, Michael 92

  Key & Peele 74–96, 97–9

  wigs 74–5, 86

  Kierkegaard, Søren: Fear and Trembling 110–12

  Kilburn Library 11

  Kimmel, Jimmy 83

  Knausgård, Karl Ove 344, 345, 347, 377–80

  Kureishi, Hanif: The Buddha of Suburbia 236–47, 341

  Labour Party 26

  Langford, Mary 315

  Lanier, Jaron 55–8, 60, 61, 62

  Larkin, Philip 423–4

  Lauer, Matt 55

  Lawrence, D. H. 285, 287

  paintings 280

  Sons and Lovers 285

  Lawrence, Frieda 280, 285

  Lawson, Deana 221

  Le Guin, Ursula K. 321–4

  The Dispossesed 321, 324

  The Wild Girls 322–4

  Lebedev, Alexander 33

  Leigh, Jennifer Jason 129, 131

  Leighton, Frederick Lord: Flaming June 161–3

  Lemon, Liz 423

  Levé, Édouard 267–71

  Amérique 267

  Autoportrait 268–9, 270–71

  Homonymes 267

  Jeune femme de Paris 267–8 />
  Pêcheur de Bagdad 267

  Suicide 267, 269–70, 271

  Leveson Inquiry 8

  libraries 3, 4, 6, 7–8, 9–13

  Lin, Tao: Taipei 378–9

  literary prizes 35, 39, 255–7

  Lloyd, Harold 159

  Londoncentricism 26–7

  love-objects 381–2

  Lucy 423

  Lynch, David: Blue Velvet 229

  Madonna 143–4

  Mander, Karel van 178

  Manhattan 420–26

  Mantel, Hilary: An Experiment in Love 276–7

  Marclay, Christian 205

  The Clock 152–9

  Marías, Javier 257–8

  Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso: Manifesto of Futurism 232–3

  Marshall, Kerry James 193–4, 195

  Martel, Jay 97–8

  Martin, Trayvon 65

  McMurtry, Larry 332

  McQuillan-Key, Margaret 92

  meeting 381–93

  with an I-It attitude 383–4, 385, 389–90, 393

  with an I-Thou attitude 383–5, 386–8, 390–91, 393

  Miller, Alice 93

  Mills, Magnus 324–30

  A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In 326–30

  Explorers of the New Century 326

  The Scheme for Full Employment 326

  Three to See the King 325–6

  Miłosz, Czesław 346

  Mitchell, David 6

  Mitchell, Joni 101–3, 104–5, 106, 110, 112, 113, 114–16

  Blue 105, 110

  Mitford family 264–7

  Deborah Mitford see Devonshire, Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of

  Mobb Deep 68

  Monroe, Marilyn 181, 183, 184

  motherhood 318, 319–21

  multiculturalism 22, 27, 31, 35, 36, 41

  Murdoch, James 8

  Murdoch, Rupert 33

  Nabokov, Vladimir 138, 139, 217–18, 257, 258, 413

  Napoleon I 392

  Negro Digest 282

  Nelson, Patrick 192–3

  neoliberalism 25

  networking software 46, 52, 56–7, 60, 62

  New York Times, The 37

  Newman, Paul 154

  Niagara (Bradford film) 181, 184–5

  Nicholas Brothers (Harold and Fayard Nicholas) 140–41

  Nin, Anaïs 106

  Noonan, Tom 123, 131, 134

  Northern Ireland 23

  nostalgia 37, 39, 45, 60, 156, 158, 190, 211, 239

  Nunez, Sigrid: Sempre Susan 300

  Nureyev, Rudolf 146

  Obama, Barack 65–6, 88–9

  Odd Future 69, 73

  Ofili, Chris 191, 194

  Ofsted 20

  optimism 35, 39–41, 55

  Orton, Joe 351

  otherness

  “the demonic Thou” 392