Humor relies on the unexpected or at the very least incongruous, and once you’ve seen or heard something for the tenth time it’s usually no longer surprising.
Read MoreGrant Wood wanted to make art American. As with so many attempts to make things American, what this meant was distilling a particular region into the essence of the United States.
Read MoreThe Manhattan Project got its start—and its name—on the East Coast, in an office building on the lower stretches of Broadway, before moving on to the southwestern deserts and finally to Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the other side of the Pacific.
Read MoreThe stark distance between Black Chicago and the University suggested by Wright’s “out there” is not unidirectional: “out there”—with all the connotations of fear, phobia, and wilderness that it may bear—also captures the university’s stance toward its black neighbors, irrespective of its racially progressive agenda on campus.
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