wealthy streamlining their closets
in pursuit of spiritual clarity when
many people survive with much less.
Minimalism, it would seem, is only
a design aesthetic for those able to
choose it.
Linni Kral
Brooklyn, N.Y.
1
POLE VAULTINGCharles Bethea, in his piece about the
controversy over Colin O’Brady’s sta-
tus as the first to cross Antarctica alone
and unassisted, astutely observes that
the feats of modern polar explorers are
generally just “a little bit different and
a little bit harder than the many very,
very hard things that have been done
before” (“The Polar Explorer Colin
O’Brady and the Problem with ‘Firsts,’ ”
newyorker.com/bethea-on-antarctica,
February 14th). Although this is gen-
erally true, it is not, as Bethea men-
tions, the issue at the heart of the de-
bate over O’Brady, whom the world’s
preëminent polar explorers have ac-
cused of misrepresenting the signifi-
cance of his accomplishment. No one
had previously skied O’Brady’s route
not because it was impossible but be-
cause, as the explorer Eric Larsen has
put it, “no one thought it was worth-
while, in the sense of being anything
record-breaking”: the final three hun-
dred and sixty-six miles of O’Brady’s
route followed a frozen road used to
haul supplies to the research base at the
South Pole—a road that is regularly
groomed by snowcats and marked every
quarter of a mile with flagged posts.
The use of this road, Larsen correctly
states, makes any claim that O’Brady
made an unassisted solo crossing “an
outright lie.”
Jon Krakauer
Boulder, Colo.FIFTY SHADES OF GAY
Masha Gessen, in an explanation of
why some say that Pete Buttigieg is “not
gay enough,” mirrors the regressive
positions Gessen usually rails against
(“The Queer Opposition to Pete But-
tigieg, Explained,” newyorker.com/
gessen-on-buttigieg, February 12th). As
a temperamentally conservative white
Christian man, Buttigieg is as palat-
able as gay people get—a fact that
makes this moment in queer history
anticlimactic for the nonwhite, non-
cisgender, non-male individuals who
don’t relate to the queerness that Amer-
ica is most comfortable with. But the
milquetoast quality of Buttigieg’s gay
identity, and the way he emphasizes
his blandness in exchange for politi-
cal acceptance, shouldn’t make him a
target of accusations that he’s not gay
in the way that people would like him
to be. Gessen blames him for project-
ing an image that panders to skittish
heterosexuals, instead of criticizing our
political system, which is so concerned
with the emotional equilibrium of the
white cis-het majority that such pan-
dering has become a prerequisite. The
Time magazine cover photo of But-
tigieg and his husband is disturbing
not because of what Gessen calls their
“awkwardly minimal touching,” but
because such obsequious posturing is
still necessary for maintaining one’s
safety in America.
Anna Morrissey
Marlboro, Vt.
1
THE COST OF TIDYING UP
I was excited to read Jia Tolentino’s
analysis of the new literature of min-
imalist decluttering, but I would have
liked to know more about where
all the unwanted objects should go
(Books, February 3rd). More often
than not, the trash bags we’re in-
structed to tote triumphantly out of
our homes end up in a landfill; thrift
stores send a large proportion of their
donations to the dump. And it’s diffi-
cult to stomach literature about the
•
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PHOTO: LOUISE LEBLANC / QUEBEC OPERA
WAGNER
The Flying DutchmanMARCH 2–Der FliegendeHolländer“One of [the Met’s] most important
productions of the year”
—The New York Times
Valery Gergiev conducts François
Girard’s gripping new production of
Wagner’s stirring ghost story, with
Evgeny Nikitin in the title role and
Anja Kampe in her highly anticipated
Met debut as Senta.metopera.org 212.362.
Tickets start at $