The Elegant Variation: DAVID LEVINE DIES

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December 29, 2009

DAVID LEVINE DIES

David Levine has died and it's hard to imagine the New York Review of Books without him. An era seems to be passing before our eyes.

“They were extraordinary drawings with extraordinary perception,” Jules Feiffer said in a recent interview about the work of Mr. Levine, who was his friend. He added: “In the second half of the 20th century he was the most important political caricaturist. When he began, there was very little political caricature, very little literary caricature. He revived the art.”

Also, a quibble:

Especially in his political work, his portraits betrayed the mind of an artist concerned, worriedly concerned, about the world in which he lived.

Setting aside that this sentence is one of those pseudo-profundities that, on closer examination, doesn't really say much at all, is it just me, or is "worriedly concerned" a shockingly ugly and redundant construction? Doesn't concern imply worry? Is there an editor in the house? Somewhere, Bob Silvers is shuddering.

Posted at 09:52 AM in Obit | Permalink

Comments

Yes, that is a stupid comment because it could apply equally well to the targets of Levine's satire, and so tells us nothing unique about Levine. Sometimes people just don't think.

Posted by: Niall | December 29, 2009 at 10:17 AM

David (who was my stepfather) has not drawn anything new for NYRB in three years. I believe they will continue to use the drawings he did do for them, more than 4500 since he began with NYRB in 1963.

Posted by: Nancy Rommelmann | December 30, 2009 at 11:41 AM

Is there a definitive book of Levine's work? Or possibly one forthcoming?

Posted by: Jacob Silverman | December 30, 2009 at 12:42 PM

That ridiculous comment is not much worse than the whole opening section of the NYT review of the Bauhaus book last Sunday, which I commend to you for bad examples. Almost at the level of: XXX is a land of many contrasts.

Levine was too good to do without. Let's hope SOMEBODY comes along. (Could they give Ralph Steadman a try?)

Posted by: John Shannon | December 31, 2009 at 03:37 PM

is there a book in the offing...or already out there that gives his drawings?

If not surely there will be....what great book that would be!!!!!!!!

Posted by: nja | January 03, 2010 at 11:11 PM

That's good picture to laugh even now. But I think that's what would Levine wanted.

odszkodowania w UK

Posted by: Tom | March 22, 2013 at 02:20 PM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

December 29, 2009

DAVID LEVINE DIES

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

December 29, 2009

DAVID LEVINE DIES

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism