For decades art was made to shock. Now people are turning to art for its ability to soothe. Especially popular in e-mails and chat rooms in recent days is W.H. Auden’s poem “September 1, 1939” (“The unmentionable odour of death/Offends the September night”), written as World War II began. TIME asked artists and writers what they were turning to.
JHUMPA LAHIRI, Pulitzer prizewinning author: “I’ve reread Franny and Zooey. There is something reassuring about Salinger, and I also wanted to read a novel set in New York City. Though it is a dark story, Salinger’s New York family survives their difficulties with humor and grace.”
HAROLD BLOOM, literary critic and author of How to Read and Why: “Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, particularly the passage, ‘Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’/We are not now that strength which in old days/Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.'”
MARK MORRIS, choreographer: “I’m not a religious person, but I find Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ, arrangement for string quartet and vocal quartet, profoundly troubling and serene. And if anything is divine, it’s Bach’s Mass in B Minor.”
TIME.com To hear or read more from the works suggested by the artists and writers above, go to time.com/notebook
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Introducing the 2025 Closers
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- Why, Exactly, Is Alcohol So Bad for You?
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- 11 New Books to Read in February
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Column: Trump’s Trans Military Ban Betrays Our Troops
Contact us at letters@time.com