TransAtlantic | The Atlantic Online | http://www.theatlantic.com

March 30, 2001

+ In ATLANTIC UNBOUND, The Atlantic's online journal ...

Crosscurrents
MAUS CULTURE
by Peter Swanson
Mar 29 | "It seems there's a movement afoot to class-up comic books -- both
adult comics, by moving them out of the ghetto of specialty stores and
sci-fi racks, and kids comics, by giving them a significant place in our
pop-culture canon. I do not doubt for a moment the artistic merits of many
of the books and writers in the comics field, adult or otherwise. What I
wonder about is this sudden bid for legitimacy. If some of these upstarts
find themselves lodged between the Styrons and the Tans on the big people
shelves, will they still talk to the superhero comics?" From DC and Marvel
to the latest wave of serious graphic novels, the comic book has come of
age. Peter Swanson surveys the scene, and waxes just a bit nostalgic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/crosscurrents/cc2001-03-29.htm

Interviews
A. L. KENNEDY: SPASMS OF GRACE
by Julia Livshin
Mar 29 | "There's no bloodlust. And even with a very good matador and a
very good bull, the nature of the thing is that it isn't seamless and it
can't be entirely graceful. There will be spasms of grace. It's a very odd,
ramshackle thing. There are all kinds of strange pauses and clumsy bits,
and patches of costume drama, and then patches of this very odd, sometimes
beautiful communication." A conversation with the Scottish novelist A. L.
Kennedy, whose new book, *On Bullfighting*, describes the "death,
transcendence, immortality, joy, pain, isolation and fear" that is the
Spanish corrida.
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2001-03-29.htm

Unbound Fiction
POINTS OF INTEREST
by Robert Cohen
Mar 21 | "And then, I don't know, there was something about the way they
looked that made me think: remember this. The light, the bees humming in
the grass, the lazy inconsequential flow of the afternoon, and your
daughter, your irritable knock-kneed eight-and-a-half year old daughter,
who will never be just this way again, just this tanned and skinny and
unselfconscious, this careless, careless.... I didn't think about it after
that. It was all reflex."
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/fiction/2001-03cohen.htm

Interviews
KAREN ARMSTRONG: DIVINE RETICENCE
by Harvey Blume
Mar 21 | "When I first began the study of religion, I found it difficult to
get a handle on Buddhism. It didn't have any of the things I considered
essential to religion, like a supernatural God, a sense of sin, authority
figures, doctrines. But the more I got into religious studies, the more I
began to think that this approach, this reticence about the divine, had a
good deal to recommend it." Harvey Blume talks with the author of *Buddha*,
the biography of a world-historical figure about whom nothing is truly
known.
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2001-03-21.htm

Sage, Ink
Mar 30 | JUST A BILL
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/sage/ss2001-03-30.htm
Mar 23 | BAAANISHED
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/sage/ss2001-03-23.htm
Cartoons by Sage Stossel.

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+ In D.C. DISPATCH | from National Journal

Legal Affairs
REAL CAMPAIGN REFORM -- FLOORS, NOT CEILINGS
by Stuart Taylor Jr.
Mar 29 | The best approach would be to provide free airtime, mailing
privileges, and other subsidies to eligible candidates.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/taylor2001-03-29.htm

Media
WARMED-OVER TRUTH
by William Powers
Mar 29 | Almost nobody is undecided about global warming (or, if you
prefer, alleged global warming).
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/rauch2001-03-29.htm

Political Pulse
HOW McCAIN-FEINGOLD WOULD CONSTRICT SPEECH
by William Schneider
Mar 29 | Each new step down this road of restricting political spending and
speech creates new problems and new inequities.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/schneider2001-03-29.htm

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+ In POST & RIPOSTE | Forum Highlights

"The Next Ruling Class?"
Has David Brooks drawn an accurate portrait of the meritocracy's next
generation? Join us for a special forum on the April cover story.
http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee6f6b3

"Race and Genetic Research"
What are the risks of exploring human genetic diversity? What are the
potential rewards? Join a conversation on Steve Olson's article in the
April Atlantic.
http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee6f6af

Marvell's "Coy Mistress"
Readers take up Linda Gregerson's provocative Atlantic Unbound essay on
Andrew Marvell's classic seduction poem.
http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee6f550

... and much more.
http://www.theatlantic.com/pr/

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