Your symphony of selves

+ a year-end quiz US Edition - Today's top story: Richard Avedon, Truman Capote and the brutality of photography [View in browser]( US Edition | 22 December 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Some of my favorite art is voyeuristic – an entry into different worlds to see someone or something anew. A few of the Arts and Culture section’s best articles from the past year took readers on a similar journey. Rebecca Senf, the chief curator at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography, explored the relationship between portrait photographer Richard Avedon and one of his subjects, writer Truman Capote. How would Avedon’s brutal eye handle a writer whose famous prose style gradually became overshadowed by caustic barbs and voluminous amounts of vodka? Senf [zeroes in on two Avedon portraits of Capote](: one of a vulnerable, budding literary star – “a pure and guileless figure,” Senf writes. The second portrait, taken nearly 20 years later, depicts a grim, bulldog of a man, his face bloated from years of heavy drinking. Both cast a light onto different sides of the same person – different chapters of a single life. What happens, though, when one aspect of a person seems like it overwhelms everything else? “The Whale” tells the story of a grief-stricken 600-pound man, Charlie, whose partner has died. Confined to his apartment, he copes with his loss by eating. And eating. And eating more. Some critics hammered the film for depicting fatness as something despicable, to be avoided at all costs. Drake University English professor Beth Younger [saw a mirror being held up to herself](. “As I left the theater,” Younger writes, “I found myself hyperaware of my own fat body moving through the parking lot, and I started to feel the way I often do when I see a reflection of myself in a mirror: monstrous.” Younger grapples with what she eventually determines is a horror movie, one in which the monster of fatness subsumes a person – a tragic allegory, perhaps, for the ways in which our culture sees someone’s fatness as their defining quality. That thinking is, of course, lazy: People always contain a symphony of selves. As do buildings, which contain the resplendent histories of those who have inhabited them. While visiting a former orphanage for girls in Venice, Italy, Penn State musicologist Marica S. Tacconi noticed a song painted directly onto the walls of the music room. Curiosity piqued, she started researching the music and the orphanage. Soon, [an entire world came into focus](: a devoted music teacher, orphans who cherished their music lessons, an institution beset by financial struggles, and a series of performances to raise money. The lyrics of that song written on the wall – “Against quivering destiny, we shall battle together” – all of a sudden assumed new power and meaning. For the young girls, those words “may well served as a rallying cry,” Tacconi writes, as they battled “to preserve their splendid music conservatory.” In this newsletter, I’ve also included three of the Arts and Culture section’s most popular stories from the past year: how the confluence of English and Spanish led to the emergence of [a new dialect in South Florida](, [why some Americans are painting their lawns green]( to create the illusion of perfect turf, and Kurt’s Vonnegut’s [words of advice for young people](. Nick Lehr Arts + Culture Editor Readers' picks Though Richard Avedon started his career as a fashion photographer, he later became known for his unflinching eye. Jack Mitchell/Getty Images [Richard Avedon, Truman Capote and the brutality of photography]( Rebecca Senf, University of Arizona In a 1959 essay, Capote noted how Avedon seemed to capture ‘every hard-earned crow’s foot’ in his subjects – perhaps not realizing that he would one day be photographed by that same unvarnished gaze. Over the course of ‘The Whale,’ Charlie’s body gradually breaks down. A24 [‘The Whale’ is a horror film that taps into our fear of fatness]( Beth Younger, Drake University In a thin-obsessed culture, fatness has become its own kind of monster. The music room of the Ospedaletto is known for its remarkable acoustics. Marica S. Tacconi [Music painted on the wall of a Venetian orphanage will be heard again nearly 250 years later]( Marica S. Tacconi, Penn State On the wall of an orphanage in Venice, a musicologist encountered a fresco featuring an aria written for an opera. She’s since embarked on a project to bring this forgotten music back. Editor's Picks Travel to Miami, and you might hear people say ‘get down from the car’ instead of ‘get out of the car.’ Miami Herald/Getty Images [Linguists have identified a new English dialect that’s emerging in South Florida]( Phillip M. Carter, Florida International University It came about through sustained contact with native Spanish speakers who directly translated phrases from Spanish into English, a form of linguistic borrowing called ‘calques.’ Americans – especially those living in areas affected by drought – are turning to paint to give their grass that perfect green sheen. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images [Why more and more Americans are painting their lawns]( Ted Steinberg, Case Western Reserve University The ideal of perfect turf – a weed-free, supergreen monoculture – is a relatively recent phenomenon. A generation told not to trust anyone over 30 nevertheless adored Vonnegut. Ulf Andersen/Getty Images [Why Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to college graduates still matters today]( Susan Farrell, College of Charleston A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. But he also insisted that young people cherish those fleeting moments of joy. The Conversation Quiz 🧠- [The Conversation U.S. year-end news quiz]( Fritz Holznagel, The Conversation Here’s the first question of [this week’s edition:]( In an April speech at Liberty University, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared, “We have made Florida the state where [blank] goes to die." What filled in the blank? - A. Mickey Mouse - B. Logic - C. Woke - D. 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