A worried reflection on the draconic enforcement of copyright protection where it should not apply. Continue reading “7 Digital paranoia”
Commentary
435 Rembrandtbashing 1
A triple feature: Andries Pels’s weaponization of Rembrandt to gut his fellow playwrights; a possible source for the phrase Nil Volentibus Arduum; and praise for a new book on Dirck van Hoogstraten.
434 A word of solace
With all that is wrong about him, Donald Trump, in his first presidency, took fewer lives through warfare than any president in nearly a century. If he does it again, it would be something to be thankful for. Continue reading “434 A word of solace”
421 Fleishig and Altstad in the news
With a helping of author’s vanity, Schwartz claims to have foreseen, in two passages from his novel Bets and scams, some things from today’s news. Below the line, he wrestles with his reactions to the ongoing tragedy in Israel and Gaza.
89: Cosmopolitans and other border-crossers
Nexus is a remarkable institution, based first in Tilburg University and since 2017 the VU University in Amsterdam, while claiming to fulfill a function that universities have largely forsaken. That function is the preservation and promulgation of high European culture. Nexus publishes a journal and holds conferences at which leading intellectuals speak and exchange opinions. Schwartz reflects on the conference of 1999. Continue reading “89: Cosmopolitans and other border-crossers”
177 Amateurs and professionals
Professional astronomers, ornithologists, entomologists and other scientists have a symbiotic relationship with amateurs, who do the boring fieldwork for which they have no time. Schwartz was able, as a publisher, to foster a bond of that kind in the study of Dutch still-life painters.
383 A victim of police murder I knew
The murder of George Floyd kindles Schwartz’s nightmarish memory of the killing of a person he knew who died at the hands of the police. In all their differences, both are dramatic instances of lethal abuse by a US policeman against an unarmed victim. With shocking images.
376 Article 50
A little over half a year into the Brexit Show, the author of the famous Article 50 that enabled it to happen talked to the Dutch journalist Melle Garschagen, for a piece that appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 4 January 2017. It led me to write to this distinguished diplomat and peer, whose reply to me is the provisional highpoint in my interaction with the powers that be.
195 Toward a theory of conspiracy
The inspiration to put this column of 2003 on the Schwartzlist in 2019 came from the excellent column on conspiracies by Ross Douthat in The New York Times, 13 August 2019. Continue reading “195 Toward a theory of conspiracy”
“Here’s not looking at you, kid: some literary uses of Vermeer”
Schwartz uncovers misappropriations of the great Dutch artist by a raft of writers and an artist. Is he sorry he didn’t write a novel about Vermeer? Maybe.
March 2001 Art in America pp. 104-07 (can be enlarged with CTRL+ for legibility)
Last paragraph and notes (all numbered i – you can link them to their place in the text if you really want to)