About
I decided to start a blog for three reasons:
1) People felt that there should be a part of the Threepenny website that was available only online, not in the printed magazine.
2) Some of the things I wanted to write about seemed as if they would benefit from a slightly more timely response than our usual quarterly publication permitted.
3) I was seeing and hearing so much interesting art — especially in the areas of dance and music, though also in literature, theater, and the visual arts — that I couldn't fit everything I wanted to say into The Threepenny Review without taking over the whole publication. And if you are not Diderot or Karl Kraus (and I am certainly neither), it is never a good idea to write the whole magazine yourself. But I figured the rules of blogs would allow me to monopolize one of those.
I struggled to come up with a good title for the blog and at first resisted using my own name, feeling (as those named Lesser are bound to feel) that diminishment is not necessarily a selling point. But then I figured that if people named Grudge or Drudge can use their names on websites, I should certainly not be abashed at calling this The Lesser Blog. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it.
Wendy Lesser
Editor, The Threepenny Review-
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Category Archives: The Lesser Blog
Touting My Berlin Book
It’s embarrassing but unavoidable, since the world of modern publishing has now assigned to authors the job of being their own publicists. Anyway, here I go: In just over two weeks, on September 8, a book that I’ve been working … Continue reading
New York Roundup
I’ve just had a week in New York doing exactly what I wanted to do every day. In the evenings, that meant attending Mark Morris performances (always a deep pleasure) and having dinner with friends (ditto). In the daytimes, I … Continue reading
Beethoven’s Ninth
It was like medicine. After all the horrible headlines and other political realities of our time, the symphony itself felt like something else: a message from a better world, a clue that there was hope after all. And if the … Continue reading
The Director Designate
The atmosphere was intense—like a high-stakes football game, I couldn’t help thinking (except I’ve never actually been to a football game, so I was going by what I’ve seen in movies and on TV). Every seat in Davies Hall was … Continue reading
Tetzlaff!
Sometime in the first few months of 2025, Christian Tetzlaff announced that he would no longer be touring in the United States, as he avoids performing under authoritarian regimes. I heartily endorsed his position on a political level and greatly … Continue reading
Vikingur Olafsson
You could have heard a pin drop. (At least, up until the near-final moments, when a few rogue cellphones rang out and then were quickly, embarrassedly silenced.) For over ninety minutes last night, Vikingur Olafsson held his Carnegie Hall audience … Continue reading
My Paul Krugman Addiction
For years I read his columns in the New York Times, and always liked and admired them. But things have reached a whole new level of dependence since Trump was elected and Paul Krugman departed the Times for Substack—events which, … Continue reading
Winter Reading
Even in California, the winter months feel like a good time to start on a big fat novel. I am currently about halfway through Benito Pérez Galdós’s Fortunata and Jacinta, and no matter what happens in the next 400 pages, … Continue reading