Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Iconoclastic Views of Current Events

On Michael Jackson:

“I often thought of a veal calf when I saw him – he had been raised to perform under extreme pressure before he had any idea of what life could be beyond performing for others. Then he spent decades trying to build a life without ever having seen one. He had the best ear in the world but he had no aparent idea of how to experience everyday comfort, or even boredom."

- Sasha Frere Jones – New Yorker.com

On Bernard Madoff:

“Madoff and those he defrauded were co-dependent, the one offering a cover of devine paternalism and the other buying into the act...but to call Madoff a sociopath isn't really to explain our failure to pick up on his scam.”

– Daphne Merkin, New York Times Magazine