See What Can Be Done

When in 1999 I began writing for The New York Review of Books my stance became that of the ingenuous Martian who had just landed on a gorgeous alien planet. Montaigne's que sais-je. A little light, a little wonder, some skepticism, some awe, some squinting, some je ne sais quoi. Pick a thing up, study it, shake it, skip it across a still surface to see how much felt and lively life got baked into it. Does it sail? Observe. See what can be done.