Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

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This issue sponsored by Duke University Press

This week on nybooks.com: Garry Wills on the next pope, Alma Guillermoprieto on the last caudillo, Ingrid Rowland on arson in Naples, Francine Prose on dreams and literature, Sue Halpern on dogs, Kenneth Roth on controlling drone attacks, and a podcast with Joan Didion and John Banville.
The Conclave Does the Pope Matter? Garry Wills The next pope should be increasingly irrelevant, like the last two. The farther he floats up, away from the real religious life of Catholics, the more he will confirm his historical status as a monarch in a time when monarchs are no longer believable.
Dreams Chasing the White Rabbit Francine Prose Literature is full of dreams that we remember more clearly than our own. The dreams in Shakespeare’s plays range as widely as our own, and the evil are often punished in their sleep before they pay for their crimes in life. Kafka never tells us what Gregor Samsa was dreaming when he awakens as a giant insect, except that the dreams were “uneasy.” Likely they were not as uneasy as the morning he wakes into.
Corruption Italy’s Future in Flames? Ingrid D. Rowland Just north of Naples, a smoldering ruin is all that remains of the museum called the City of Science. It was deliberately set it on fire during the night between March 4 and 5, and it is not hard to read the message behind its destruction.
Hugo Chávez The Last Caudillo Alma Guillermoprieto During the thirteen years, ten months, and six days that he cavorted on the world’s television screens, it remained impossible to know what to make of Hugo Chávez. Dancing, laughing, chattering, threatening, singing, bullying, always in your face, the comandante has mostly left behind a void.
					Podcast Readings and Reflections from Town Hall Joan Didion reads from her 1991 essay “New York: Sentimental Journeys,” on the Central Park jogger case, and John Banville reflects on celebrity, literary reputation, and the work of a great, unfashionable writer.
Art Tiepolo in Udine Two shows of the painter’s work, through April 7.		Conversation Nathaniel Rich and Slavoj Žižek On our fear of the future, and the future of fear.		Architecture Henri Labrouste Ravishing Beaux-Arts watercolors and marvelous building models.		More Events The Rite of Spring at 100, the future of literary journalism, the “luminous pentimento” of Thomas Nozkowski, Renata Adler and David Shields, the photographs of Allen Ginsberg, Werner Schroeter's most visionary movies, and more, in our calendar.
Best Friends What Makes Dogs Dogs Sue Halpern The human–canine bond is inherently unequal. Like it or not, it is a power relationship. Yet at the same time, we love our dogs. We believe we can count on them to be absolutely loyal companions, something we may not be able to say about most people we know.
Human Rights and the Law What Rules Should Govern US Drone Attacks? Kenneth Roth Should the administration really have the right to attack anyone it might characterize as a combatant against the United States? The executive branch cannot even secure a wiretap without court oversight, so why should it be allowed to select drone targets unilaterally?