![](\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/greygardens.jpg\")
<\/a>Still from Grey Gardens<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
- \n
- \u201cI can\u2019t stand being in this house,\u201d Little Edie says in Grey Gardens<\/em>. \u201cIn the first place, it makes me terribly nervous. I\u2019m scared to death of doors, locks, people roaming around in the background, under the trees, in the bushes, I\u2019m absolutely terrified.\u201d And now, reader, you can own that house<\/em>\u2014for just twenty million dollars! Sally Quinn, the D.C. doyenne who restored the East Hampton home and threw many a lavish party there, is putting it on the market, with a glass menagerie of Little Edie\u2019s kitten figurines still intact. Katie Rogers writes, \u201cThe home was long ago restored to its old Hamptons charm, and cleared of all cat smells\u2014unless, Ms. Quinn said, you happen to stick your nose into a particular corner of the foyer after a rainstorm that lasts days<\/a>. The house is decorated in soft blues and floral wallpaper and is dotted with plenty of fat-leaf potted plants. It is vibrant even in winter \u2026 Whoever buys Grey Gardens will be taking on a home with a nearly mythic history. Completed in 1897, the home became infamous under the care (or lack thereof) of Little Edie and her mother, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, the first cousin and aunt of Mrs. Onassis. Their plight generated headlines when the Suffolk County health department raided the house in 1971; the authorities cited every known housing code violation \u2026 \u2018This home will not be attractive to a Russian oligarch,\u2019 Ms. Quinn said dryly.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Writing about other people is torture\u2014not for the writer, but for the written. Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re says to Wyatt Mason, \u201cTo write about others is an enormous problem<\/a>. The sincerity that you can exhibit with yourself, you have no right to inflict on anyone else \u2026 It makes me think of a sentence, something absolutely horrible \u2026 It was fifteen or twenty years ago, in an interview with General Massu of the French Army, who had been accused of torturing men in Algeria \u2026 In the interview, Massu said, of\u00a0la g\u00e9g\u00e8ne\u2014<\/em>torture with electric prods from a generator\u2014\u2018Listen. Don\u2019t exaggerate. The prods? I tried them on myself. It hurts, but not worse than that.\u2019 The nonsense of that statement! \u2026 I have used the generator on people other than myself. And that bothers me. I don\u2019t like that idea. I\u2019m not a good man, unfortunately. I would like to be a good man. I admire goodness and virtue most. But I am not very good.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
- \n
- Then again, goodness is overrated. Don\u2019t let anyone take away your right to be an asshole. Take it from this American billionaire, J. Tomilson Hill, who wants the world to know that it\u2019s totally kosher for him to reject a museum\u2019s \u00a330.7 million offer\u00a0for a rare painting he owns: \u201cHe said he warned the National Gallery and the Arts Council before they started fundraising that he \u2018would not accept a value for the picture lower than my cost.<\/a>\u2019 He added: \u2018They went ahead, despite the warning \u2026 Their argument that they wasted all this time and effort to raise the money, only to have the offer rejected, rings very hollow\u2019 \u2026 Hill purchased Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap<\/em> in 2015 for $48m (\u00a330.7m). The National Gallery raised the money, primarily from the Art Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Treasury. But Hill argued that, since the Brexit vote in June, the steep decline in sterling\u2019s value against the dollar meant\u00a0the offer would leave him short by $10m (\u00a38m). The work is one of only fifteen surviving portraits by the Florentine painter Pontormo, and one of the only examples of his work that resides outside his native Italy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Advice for utopians: don\u2019t underestimate the mileage you\u2019ll get out of a nice, functioning bureaucracy. As Alexa Clay writes, \u201cperhaps the irony is that many of the administrative and managerial forces that individuals are running away from within mainstream society are exactly the organizational tools that would make intentional communities more resilient<\/a>: that regardless of how much intentional communities with utopian aims seek to step to one side of worldly affairs, they succeed or fail for the very same pragmatic reasons that other human enterprises\u2014notably businesses and start-ups\u2014succeed or fail \u2026 Bronson Alcott (the father of Louisa May Alcott, the author of\u00a0Little Women<\/em>) was characterized by the essayist Thomas Carlyle as a \u2018man bent on saving the world by a return to acorns\u2019. In 1843, Alcott founded Fruitlands, an experimental community in Harvard, Massachusetts. An agrarian commune influenced by transcendentalist thought, and built on renouncing the \u2018civilized\u2019 world, Fruitlands abolished private property and cherished, yet struggled, with self-sufficiency, refusing to hire external labor or depend on external trade. Attracting a little\u00a0over a dozen\u00a0people, Fruitlands failed after seven months. Acorns, it seems, couldn\u2019t cut it.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- In which Daniel Wenger catches the Ellis Island ferry with Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter-cum-activist who wrote Milk<\/em> and, now, When We Rise<\/em>: \u201cWhen We Rise<\/a><\/em> depicts gay people as the country\u2019s midcentury migrants. In the first episode, the central characters are living closeted lives in Arizona, Togo, and Vietnam<\/a>. Each sees a 1971 issue of\u00a0Life\u00a0<\/em>with \u2018Gay Liberation\u2019 on the cover and a long article on \u2018Homosexuals in Revolt\u2019 inside. In time, they all make it to San Francisco, where liberation awaits, at least for a while \u2026 On the ferry, Black emerged from the restroom. \u2018This was a safe space for gays for generations,\u2019 he joked, referring to the long tradition of men\u2019s-room cruising. \u2018When We Rise\u2019 doesn\u2019t include much sex, but a couple of scenes do take place in a bathhouse. \u2018Anyone who watches it from that period is probably, like, That\u2019s a lot of towels,\u2019 he said. \u2018Originally, we were told that we could show the sides of butts, but then the broadcasting standards changed, and when we showed ABC they were, like, Hmm. So now there are some digital towels.\u2019 \u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In today\u2019s roundup: Grey Gardens is up for sale, and Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re thinks writing about other people is torture (for them).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2512],"tags":[14638,238,27639,3747,27640,846,27641,27635,25931,1179,27637,18423,27636,27638],"class_list":["post-108341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-the-shelf","tag-art-collectors","tag-billionaires","tag-dustin-lance-black","tag-east-hampton","tag-ellis-island","tag-emmanuel-carrere","tag-ferries","tag-grey-gardens","tag-intentional-communities","tag-real-estate","tag-rich-people","tag-sally-quinn","tag-the-hamptons","tag-utopias"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Got 20 Million Bucks? 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Move to Grey Gardens, Why Don\u2019t You","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/now-its-your-turn-to-live-in-grey-gardens-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/now-its-your-turn-to-live-in-grey-gardens-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/greygardens.jpg","datePublished":"2017-03-03T13:50:26+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-03T15:40:49+00:00","description":"In today\u2019s arts and culture news: Grey Gardens is up for sale, and Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re thinks writing about other people is torture (for them).","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/now-its-your-turn-to-live-in-grey-gardens-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/now-its-your-turn-to-live-in-grey-gardens-and-other-news\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/now-its-your-turn-to-live-in-grey-gardens-and-other-news\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/greygardens.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/greygardens.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/now-its-your-turn-to-live-in-grey-gardens-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Now It\u2019s Your Turn to Live Here, and Other News"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. 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- In which Daniel Wenger catches the Ellis Island ferry with Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter-cum-activist who wrote Milk<\/em> and, now, When We Rise<\/em>: \u201cWhen We Rise<\/a><\/em> depicts gay people as the country\u2019s midcentury migrants. In the first episode, the central characters are living closeted lives in Arizona, Togo, and Vietnam<\/a>. Each sees a 1971 issue of\u00a0Life\u00a0<\/em>with \u2018Gay Liberation\u2019 on the cover and a long article on \u2018Homosexuals in Revolt\u2019 inside. In time, they all make it to San Francisco, where liberation awaits, at least for a while \u2026 On the ferry, Black emerged from the restroom. \u2018This was a safe space for gays for generations,\u2019 he joked, referring to the long tradition of men\u2019s-room cruising. \u2018When We Rise\u2019 doesn\u2019t include much sex, but a couple of scenes do take place in a bathhouse. \u2018Anyone who watches it from that period is probably, like, That\u2019s a lot of towels,\u2019 he said. \u2018Originally, we were told that we could show the sides of butts, but then the broadcasting standards changed, and when we showed ABC they were, like, Hmm. So now there are some digital towels.\u2019 \u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
- Advice for utopians: don\u2019t underestimate the mileage you\u2019ll get out of a nice, functioning bureaucracy. As Alexa Clay writes, \u201cperhaps the irony is that many of the administrative and managerial forces that individuals are running away from within mainstream society are exactly the organizational tools that would make intentional communities more resilient<\/a>: that regardless of how much intentional communities with utopian aims seek to step to one side of worldly affairs, they succeed or fail for the very same pragmatic reasons that other human enterprises\u2014notably businesses and start-ups\u2014succeed or fail \u2026 Bronson Alcott (the father of Louisa May Alcott, the author of\u00a0Little Women<\/em>) was characterized by the essayist Thomas Carlyle as a \u2018man bent on saving the world by a return to acorns\u2019. In 1843, Alcott founded Fruitlands, an experimental community in Harvard, Massachusetts. An agrarian commune influenced by transcendentalist thought, and built on renouncing the \u2018civilized\u2019 world, Fruitlands abolished private property and cherished, yet struggled, with self-sufficiency, refusing to hire external labor or depend on external trade. Attracting a little\u00a0over a dozen\u00a0people, Fruitlands failed after seven months. Acorns, it seems, couldn\u2019t cut it.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Then again, goodness is overrated. Don\u2019t let anyone take away your right to be an asshole. Take it from this American billionaire, J. Tomilson Hill, who wants the world to know that it\u2019s totally kosher for him to reject a museum\u2019s \u00a330.7 million offer\u00a0for a rare painting he owns: \u201cHe said he warned the National Gallery and the Arts Council before they started fundraising that he \u2018would not accept a value for the picture lower than my cost.<\/a>\u2019 He added: \u2018They went ahead, despite the warning \u2026 Their argument that they wasted all this time and effort to raise the money, only to have the offer rejected, rings very hollow\u2019 \u2026 Hill purchased Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap<\/em> in 2015 for $48m (\u00a330.7m). The National Gallery raised the money, primarily from the Art Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Treasury. But Hill argued that, since the Brexit vote in June, the steep decline in sterling\u2019s value against the dollar meant\u00a0the offer would leave him short by $10m (\u00a38m). The work is one of only fifteen surviving portraits by the Florentine painter Pontormo, and one of the only examples of his work that resides outside his native Italy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Writing about other people is torture\u2014not for the writer, but for the written. Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re says to Wyatt Mason, \u201cTo write about others is an enormous problem<\/a>. The sincerity that you can exhibit with yourself, you have no right to inflict on anyone else \u2026 It makes me think of a sentence, something absolutely horrible \u2026 It was fifteen or twenty years ago, in an interview with General Massu of the French Army, who had been accused of torturing men in Algeria \u2026 In the interview, Massu said, of\u00a0la g\u00e9g\u00e8ne\u2014<\/em>torture with electric prods from a generator\u2014\u2018Listen. Don\u2019t exaggerate. The prods? I tried them on myself. It hurts, but not worse than that.\u2019 The nonsense of that statement! \u2026 I have used the generator on people other than myself. And that bothers me. I don\u2019t like that idea. I\u2019m not a good man, unfortunately. I would like to be a good man. I admire goodness and virtue most. But I am not very good.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n