Longreads Best of 2017: Arts & Culture Writing

We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们要求作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here is the best in arts and culture writing.

这是最好的艺术和文化写作。

Kyle ChaykaWriter whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Curbed, Racked, and many others.

凯尔·柴卡（Kyle Chayka）作家，其作品曾出现在《纽约时报》、《新共和》、《Curbed》、《Racked》等许多其他杂志上。

## Julian Eastman’s Guerrilla Minimalism (Alex Ross, The New Yorker)

## 朱利安·伊士曼的游击极简主义（亚历克斯·罗斯，《纽约客》）

How does one write about culture when culture seems to be ending?

当文化似乎正在终结时，如何书写文化？

The question plagued 2017, when each day brought its own small apocalypse.

这个问题一直困扰着 2017 年，每一天都会带来小小的灾难。

What I appreciated most this year was cultural criticism that turned into acts of construction rather than deconstruction, helping us to better understand our collective predicament.

今年我最欣赏的是文化批评，它转化为建设行为而不是解构行为，帮助我们更好地理解我们的集体困境。

A line from John Kelsey’s “Halftime Vibes” in Texte zur Kunst stuck in my head: “Strange new forms are being tested every minute as news and advertising metabolize the very image of global precarity.” (Evan Osnos’s New Yorker feature “Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich” uncovered some of the aesthetics of this forever-incipient apocalypse.)

约翰·凯尔西 (John Kelsey) 在《艺术文本》(Texte zur Kunst) 中的《半场氛围》(Halftime Vibes) 中的一句话深深地印在我的脑海中：“随着新闻和广告代谢全球不稳定的形象，奇怪的新形式每时每刻都在接受考验。” （埃文·奥斯诺斯的《纽约客》专题文章《超级富豪的末日准备》揭示了这个永远处于萌芽状态的世界末日的一些美学。）

But my favorite feature was an act of rediscovery.

但我最喜欢的功能是重新发现的行为。

Alex Ross’s New Yorker essay on the almost-lost Minimalist composer Julius Eastman was revelatory.

亚历克斯·罗斯（Alex Ross）在《纽约客》上发表的关于几乎失传的极简主义作曲家朱利叶斯·伊士曼（Julius Eastman）的文章很有启发性。

Eastman was a gay, African-American musician in the all-white halls of the iconic Minimalists.

伊士曼是一位同性恋、非裔美国音乐家，在标志性极简主义者的全白色大厅里工作。

His life and art were messy and unresolved; his work was clashing and autobiographical.

他的生活和艺术都是混乱且悬而未决的。他的作品具有冲突性和自传性。

What better figure for our time of reclamation?

对于我们的开垦时代来说，还有什么更好的数字呢？

Eastman’s “Stay On It” is a repeated slamming on a disco-like hook, poppy and addictive until it becomes sinister: a portrait of America’s violent ambivalence as potent now as 1973.

伊士曼的《Stay On It》是对迪斯科般的钩子的反复猛烈撞击，罂粟般的、令人上瘾的，直到变得险恶：描绘了美国暴力矛盾心理的写照，其影响力与 1973 年一样强烈。

Rachel SymeWriter and cultural critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic and elsewhere.

雷切尔·赛姆 (Rachel Syme) 作家和文化评论家，其作品曾发表在《纽约时报》、《纽约客》、《新共和》等刊物上。

## Female Gaze: Lana Del Rey, I Love Dick, and the Love Witch (Meaghan Garvey, MTV News)

## 女性凝视：Lana Del Rey、I Love Dick 和 Love Witch（Meaghan Garvey、MTV 新闻）

So many outlets for beautiful longform writing went under this year, not the least of which was the most recent incarnation of MTV News, which in its short blaze of glory published some of the most exciting cultural criticism on the internet.

今年，许多精彩长篇写作的媒体都倒闭了，其中最重要的是 MTV News 的最新版本，它在短暂的辉煌时期在互联网上发表了一些最激动人心的文化批评。

Perhaps my favorite essay on the site was Meghan Garvey’s “The Female Gaze,” which weaves together three threads — the new Lana Del Rey record, the novel I Love Dick and the Amazon show that grew out of it, and Anna Biller’s campy, retro-inspired indie flick The Love Witch — as a way to talk about women who stare into the void and address what they see.

也许我在该网站上最喜欢的文章是梅根·加维（Meghan Garvey）的《女性凝视》（The Female Gaze），它把三个线索编织在一起——拉娜·德尔·雷（Lana Del Rey）的新唱片、小说《我爱迪克》（I Love Dick）和由此衍生的亚马逊节目，以及安娜·比勒（Anna Biller）的做作的、复古风格的独立电影《爱情女巫》（The Love Witch）——以此来谈论那些凝视虚空并表达所见的女性。

Garvey effortlessly slides back and forth between these topics, jamming in about 100 other cultural references, from Hamlet to Eve Babitz to Laura Mulvey , and in doing so, creates a mesmerizing piece of criticism that I keep returning to over and over at the end of the year.

加维毫不费力地在这些主题之间来回滑动，插入了大约 100 个其他文化参考资料，从《哈姆雷特》到《伊芙·巴比茨》再到《劳拉·穆尔维》，并以此创造了一篇令人着迷的批评，我在年底不断地一遍又一遍地回顾它。

## What Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Depiction of Mental Illness Has Meant to Me This Season (Angelica Jade Bastién, New York Magazine)

## 本季疯狂前女友对精神疾病的描述对我意味着什么（Angelica Jade Bastién，纽约杂志）

I wanted to pick something that Angelica Jade Bastién wrote this year, as she has been one of the most exciting new critical voices of 2017.

我想挑选 Angelica Jade Bastién 今年写的一些东西，因为她是 2017 年最令人兴奋的新批评声音之一。

I vacillated between selecting her incisive piece on race and The Handmaid’s Tale, or her sharp deconstruction of The Beguiled, or her essay on how dystopian fiction rarely tackles racial prejudice.

我在选择她关于种族和《使女的故事》的深刻文章，或者她对《牡丹花下》的尖锐解构，或者她关于反乌托邦小说如何很少解决种族偏见的文章之间犹豫不决。

But right at the end of the year she wrote this essay on mental illness and television that really knocked me out.

但就在今年年底，她写了一篇关于精神疾病和电视的文章，这确实让我震惊。

She manages to seamlessly interweave the personal (her own struggles with depression and hospitalization) with the cultural (an examination of Rachel Bloom’s musical comedy about a manic-depressive who is herself struggling to get a handle on her mental health), and it combines to form one of the more poignant pieces of writing I have read this year.

她成功地将个人（她自己与抑郁症和住院治疗的斗争）与文化（对雷切尔·布鲁姆（Rachel Bloom）的音乐喜剧的审视，讲述了一个躁狂抑郁症患者本人也在努力控制自己的心理健康）无缝地交织在一起，它结合在一起形成了我今年读过的最令人心酸的作品之一。

What I love so much in Bastien’s work is that she is undeniably a rigorous critic — her writing on classic films like Now, Voyager reveal her deep background — but she also is unafraid to draw on her own experiences to flesh out and heighten the understanding of the art.

我非常喜欢巴斯蒂安的作品，因为她无可否认是一位严格的评论家——她对《现在，航行者》等经典电影的写作揭示了她深厚的背景——但她也不怕利用自己的经历来充实和提高对艺术的理解。

In a time when the personal has never been more political, I am really inspired by her work.

在个人从未如此政治化的时代，我真的受到她的作品的启发。

Tess ThackaraSenior editor, Artsy

Tess ThackaraArtsy 高级编辑

## Censorship, Not the Painting, Must Go: On Dana Schutz’s Image of Emmett Till (Coco Fusco, Hyperallergic)

## 必须取消审查制度，而不是绘画：论达纳·舒茨 (Dana Schutz) 的埃米特·蒂尔 (Coco Fusco，Hyperallergic) 形象

In a year where we’ve seen tension over who gets to speak for whom, Coco Fusco’s essay on the controversy around Dana Schutz’s painting of Emmett Till at the Whitney Biennial brought welcome context, history, and measure to the discussion.

在这一年，我们看到了谁代表谁发言的紧张局势，可可·福斯科（Coco Fusco）关于惠特尼双年展上达纳·舒茨（Dana Schutz）的埃米特·蒂尔（Emmett Till）画作引发的争议的文章为讨论带来了受欢迎的背景、历史和衡量标准。

She argues not that the painting shouldn’t be critiqued, protested, and debated fiercely, but that—whatever one might feel about the degree of care (or lack thereof) that Schutz took with a painful, charged image—those who called for its censorship, even its destruction, were walking us towards a slippery slope that better suited to the tactics of the far right than the political left.

她并不是说这幅画不应该受到激烈的批评、抗议和争论，而是说——无论人们对舒茨对一幅痛苦而充满电的图像的关心程度（或缺乏关心）有什么感觉——那些呼吁对它进行审查，甚至摧毁它的人，正在把我们引向一个滑坡，这种滑坡更适合极右翼而不是政治左翼的策略。

## How the Sandwich Consumed Britain (Sam Knight, The Guardian)

## 三明治如何吞噬英国（萨姆·奈特，《卫报》）

It’s hard to imagine anything more British than this hilarious and brilliant tour through the history of the sandwich and its market dominance.

很难想象还有什么比这趟三明治历史及其市场主导地位的搞笑而精彩的旅程更具有英国特色了。

Knight delights in the simple excellence of this innovation, which could only really have taken off in Thatcherite Britain — the traditional triangular tea sandwich is somehow droll, buttoned up, and expedient like the Iron Lady.

奈特对这项创新的简单卓越感到高兴，这种创新只有在撒切尔统治下的英国才能真正起飞——传统的三角形茶三明治不知何故滑稽、扣紧、权宜之计，就像铁娘子一样。

He also enjoys the absurdity of corporate strategy and jargon when it finds its way into something as seemingly inconsequential as two slices of bread, a few prawns, and some mayo.

他还喜欢公司战略和行话的荒谬性，当它们出现在像两片面包、几只虾和一些蛋黄酱这样看似无关紧要的东西中时。

In this time of global doom and gloom, it’s a relief to consider the humble sandwich.

在这个全球经济前景黯淡的时代，考虑一下简陋的三明治是一种解脱。

Jason FaragoArt critic for The New York Times and editor of Even

杰森·法拉戈 (Jason Farago) 《纽约时报》艺术评论家兼 Even 编辑

## Get Real (Susanne von Falkenhausen, Frieze)

## 变得真实（Susanne von Falkenhausen，弗里兹）

Once every decade Europe’s two most important exhibitions of contemporary art coincide: the Venice Biennale and Documenta.

欧洲最重要的两个当代艺术展览每十年都会重合一次：威尼斯双年展和卡塞尔文献展。

Years that end in 7, therefore, often end up serving as mileposts in art history.

因此，以 7 结尾的年份往往成为艺术史上的里程碑。

But Venice this year was a bland, hippieish nonevent, while Documenta descended into a self-righteous muddle.

但今年的威尼斯却平淡无奇，充满嬉皮士气，而卡塞尔文献展却陷入了自以为是的混乱之中。

No one did a better job this year diagnosing what went wrong than German art historian Susanne von Falkenhausen, who unpacked how these European shows had used the praiseworthy aims of thinking globally and acting politically to smuggle in regressive aesthetic principles.

今年，没有人比德国艺术史学家苏珊娜·冯·法尔肯豪森（Susanne von Falkenhausen）在诊断问题上做得更好，她揭示了这些欧洲展览如何利用全球思考和政治行动这一值得赞扬的目标来偷偷带入倒退的美学原则。

All across the world of contemporary art, she notes the disturbing comeback of cultural and ethnic “authenticity,” a vogue for mythmaking and magic, and an embrace of anti-rational discourse as a supposed technique of “resistance.”

她注意到在当代艺术世界中，文化和种族的“真实性”令人不安地卷土重来，神话和魔法的流行，以及将反理性话语视为一种所谓的“抵抗”技术的流行。

Once you read van Falkhenhausen, it’s hard not to see Documenta and other major recent exhibitions as cases of the rich world afraid to look life in the face, outsourcing higher forms of aesthetic engagement to a racialized other.

一旦你读过范·法尔肯豪森的作品，你很难不把卡塞尔文献展和其他近期的大型展览视为富裕世界害怕正视生活、将更高形式的审美参与外包给种族化他人的例子。

The western art world has been here before: This is the birth of modernism all over again.

西方艺术界曾经来过：这是现代主义的再次诞生。

“I wonder,” von Falkenhausen writes: “is what was called ‘primitive art’ for too long — teaching the Western avant-garde around 1900 new ways of seeing —now serving as a reservoir of the spiritual for the Western world?”

“我想知道，”冯·法尔肯豪森写道：“长期以来所谓的‘原始艺术’——在 1900 左右向西方先锋派传授新的观看方式——现在却成为西方世界的精神宝库？”

Josephine LivingstoneCulture staff writer, The New Republic

约瑟芬·利文斯通《新共和文化》特约撰稿人

## The Two Voices of Whitney Houston (Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker)

## 惠特尼·休斯顿的两种声音（多琳·圣费利克斯，《纽约客》）

Doreen St. Félix’s review essay on the speech patterns of the Greatest American Celebrity thrilled me.

多琳·圣费利克斯 (Doreen St. Félix) 关于美国最伟大名人的言语模式的评论文章令我兴奋不已。

She traces the practiced debutante Whitney, the “Bobby!”-screeching Whitney, the angelic singing voice.

她追踪了训练有素的初次亮相的惠特尼，即“鲍比！”尖叫的惠特尼，天使般的歌声。

Together, St. Félix shows, these voices sing a polyphonous (and discordantly raced) public identity.

圣费利克斯表明，这些声音一起唱出了一个复调的（并且不和谐的种族）公共身份。

Part of the joy of this piece is its formalism.

这件作品的部分乐趣在于它的形式主义。

St Félix takes one cultural artifact — the documentary Can I Be Me?

圣菲利克斯拿走了一件文化艺术品——纪录片《我可以成为我吗？》

— and one aspect of Whitney — the voice — and does something very unexpected with both.

——还有惠特尼的一个方面——声音——并且对两者做了一些非常出乎意料的事情。

The observations (“Her evident pain made her eccentric”) build gradually until St Félix hits an earned, solid summary: “Houston code-switched: between black vernacular and white English, palatable pop and searching R.

这些观察结果（“她明显的疼痛使她变得古怪”）逐渐积累起来，直到 St Félix 得出了一个可靠的、可靠的总结：“休斯顿语码转换：在黑人白话和白人英语之间，可口的流行音乐和搜索 R 语言之间。

& B., between producer’s plaything and autonomous composer, between haughty grace and extreme vulnerability, between alertness and breakdowns—and she did so tremendously, tragically.” A perfect piece.

& B.，在制作人的玩物和自主作曲家之间，在傲慢的优雅和极度的脆弱之间，在警觉和崩溃之间——她做得非常悲惨。”完美的作品。

Aaron GilbreathContributing editor, Longreads

亚伦·吉尔布雷斯 (Aaron Gilbreath) 特约编辑，Longreads

## The Most Hated Poet in Portland (Laura Yan, The Outline)

## 波特兰最讨厌的诗人（Laura Yan，The Outline）

A story is rarely an objective narrative, readers bring something to it that shapes our experience.

故事很少是客观的叙述，读者会带来一些塑造我们体验的东西。

Laura Yan’s story found me sleep-deprived from raising an infant, and my outlook on life darkened by the toxic newsfeed.

劳拉·严（Laura Yan）的故事让我因抚养婴儿而睡眠不足，有毒的新闻使我的人生观变得黯淡。

Yan tells the story of Collin Andrew Yost, a white, tattooed, and bearded poet who posts his poems on Instagram in a typeset font decorated with cigarettes.

严讲述了科林·安德鲁·约斯特 (Collin Andrew Yost) 的故事，他是一位纹身、留着胡须的白人诗人，他在 Instagram 上以香烟装饰的排版字体发布自己的诗歌。

This is a story of how artists use social media to promote ourselves, and how the internet provides enough anonymity to encourage trolling and hostility toward people we don’t like.

这是一个关于艺术家如何利用社交媒体来宣传自己，以及互联网如何提供足够的匿名性来鼓励对我们不喜欢的人进行恶意攻击和敌意的故事。

A lot of people didn’t like Yost’s poet persona, myself included.

很多人不喜欢约斯特的诗人形象，包括我自己。

But Yan’s feature is also about the author herself, how she initially mocked the poet but quit when she decided to try to understand him more fully.

但颜的故事也是关于作者本人的，她最初是如何嘲笑诗人的，但当她决定尝试更全面地理解他时就放弃了。

Whether or not you like the Yost’s writing or a persona composed of clichés, you can appreciate the author’s examination of empathy and tolerance, which are things we can all benefit from now, in a country scarred by deep divisions, and helmed by a heartless narcissist bent on hurting everyone but himself.

无论你是否喜欢约斯特的写作，还是喜欢由陈词滥调组成的人物形象，你都可以欣赏作者对同理心和宽容的审视，在一个饱受深刻分歧的国家，在一个一心伤害除他自己之外的所有人的无情自恋者领导下，这些都是我们现在都可以从中受益的东西。

Michelle LegroSenior editor, Longreads

Michelle LegroLongreads 高级编辑

## Of Women, Men, and Ballet in the 21st Century (Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times)

## 21 世纪的女性、男性和芭蕾舞（阿拉斯泰尔·麦考利，《纽约时报》）

This piece came out in the early weeks of 2017, and it’s worth revisiting now, after a year of so many reckonings.

这篇文章于 2017 年初发表，经过一年的多次清算，现在值得重新审视。

“Can ballet express a modern view of the sexes?” Macaulay begins his essay with a question that goes round and round.

“芭蕾能否表达现代的性别观？”麦考利以一个绕了又绕的问题开始他的文章。

If it can’t, then what does it express?

如果不能，那它表达什么呢？

And what does any partnering express in dance?

舞蹈中的搭档表达什么？

Ballet is largely about the male gaze, and many roles cannot be reversed, “We inhabit a world where many women are enslaved, demeaned, abused.

芭蕾主要是关于男性的凝视，许多角色无法颠倒，“我们生活在一个许多女性被奴役、贬低、虐待的世界。

Should ballet be an art that reflects only their glorification?” Macaulay’s essay is one of the most masterful discussions of power and gender in dance in the 21st century, and a reminder of how important it is to ask these questions of culture, especially in a space where tradition holds sway.

芭蕾舞应该是一门只反映对他们的赞美的艺术吗？”麦考利的文章是 21 世纪舞蹈中权力和性别最精彩的讨论之一，它提醒人们提出这些文化问题是多么重要，尤其是在传统占主导地位的空间中。