"Life Stories: profiles from the New Yorker"

[fiefoe]

The Duke in His Domain (Marlon Brando) / Truman Capote (1957)

    Brando was a young man on a 'sugary perch' back then. His stardom was second only (but still!) to William Holden. Interestingly enough, what I got most out of this piece was Capote's observations about the Duke's domain, not the man himself.

• Japanese penchant for an ostentatious barrenness
• The most fervent of movie-star fans are the people who themselves work in the film industry.
• Logan .. is a man balanced on enthusiasm, as a bird is balanced on air. A creative person's need to believe in the value of what he is creating is axiomatic; Logan's belief in (his) project approaches euphoric faith, protecting him... from the nibbling nuisance of self-doubt.
• a pride of hostesses (in Kyoto bars)
• a solution limbering his smile
• the Japanese genius for hypnotizing nature into unnatural behavior
• But at two in the morning these exquisite grotesques are gone,... only cats remained to keep me company, and drunks and red-light ladies, the inevitable old beggar-bundles in the doorways...
  

This is perhaps time to mention The New Yorker's love affair with the dieresis.

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Heard on NPR: 'The smell inside a new Mercedes is ... like the embrace of a rich man.'
From my computer screen:  Ctrl C has happened.