Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

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This issue sponsored by University of Chicago Press

This week on nybooks.com: In a rare scoop for the Review, Christian Caryl tracks down the man accused of brainwashing the Boston bomber, James Gleick investigates bias and categorization in Wikipedia, Caspar Henderson looks at the octopus, Mary Beard sifts through the facts and fantasy about Spartacus, Elizabeth Drew debunks the myth of presidential “arm-twisting,” Ian Johnson reviews a book of photographs of Sufi shrines in Xinjiang, J. Hoberman watches New York in slow motion, and we conclude our celebration of National Poetry Month with the work of Helen Vendler.
Wikipedia’s Women Problem James Gleick There is consternation at Wikipedia over the discovery that hundreds of novelists who happen to be female were being systematically removed from the category “American novelists” and assigned to the category “American women novelists.” The word that came to mind—and the Times used it for a headline—was sexism.
Obama and the Myth of Arm-Twisting Elizabeth Drew The nonsense about what it takes for a president to win a victory in Congress has reached ridiculous dimensions. The fact that Barack Obama failed to win legislation to place further curbs on the purchase of guns has made people who ought to know better decide that he’s not an “arm-twister.”
‘Misha’ Speaks: An Interview with the Alleged Bomber’s ‘Svengali’ Christian Caryl As the investigation of the Boston bombings continues, one of the more clouded aspects is the tale of “Misha,” a mysterious Islamist who has been accused of radicalizing Tamerlan Tsarnaev. These accusations set off a frenzied search for what some reports have called an Islamic Svengali. I was able to meet “Misha,” whose real name is Mikhail Allakhverdov.
China’s Sufis: The Shrines Behind the Dunes Ian Johnson Lisa Ross’s photographs of shrines in Xinjiang are unassuming and quiet; the objects she captures—stone on sand, cloth on stone, the skeleton of a dried animal—have an incandescent glow, as if lit by another sun.				Octopus: The Footed Void Caspar Henderson The closer you look at an octopus, the more you see. Consider its anatomy: the “head,” a sack resembling a human scrotum that can shift through the entire color spectrum; the three hearts pumping blood that contains copper rather than iron; the eyes so very like human ones and yet radically more elegant in design.
					New York in Slow Motion J. Hoberman James Nares’s Street, shot at eye-level and deliberately paced, is more investigation than judgment. There is much that can be gleaned from it regarding New York’s social structure but, far from condemning the metropolis, Street revels in its diverse types, feasting on the psychological conditions of modern urban existence.
Pinning Down Spartacus Mary Beard What were Spartacus’ aims once he had broken out of the gladiatorial camp? How was the command of the slaves organized? How many of them were there? It is in these gaps that the popular modern picture of Spartacus has grown up: part extrapolation, part projection of modern concerns, part fantasy.
Gravity and Grace The bottle cap has never looked more beautiful than it does in the art of El Anatsui, writes Francine Prose.		Piero della Francesca in America The seven paintings in the Frick’s exhibition exemplify much of Piero's achievement.		PEN World Voices Festival A panel of heavy-hitters discuss the impact of the digital age on the publishing business.		Sale Our 2013 pocket planner will help you stay on schedule. With week-at-a-glance and elastic closure, you’ll have all your vital information at your fingertips. Now 60% off.
Celebrating National Poetry Month To celebrate National Poetry Month, throughout April The New York Review has been featuring work from the archives by and about W.H. Auden, Joseph Brodsky, John Ashbery, and Wislawa Szymborska. We conclude today with several pieces by one of the most distinguished critics of poetry in the English-speaking world, Helen Vendler.