The play “Giant” by Mark Rosenblatt , now running at the Music Box Theater in New York, combines a big-name writer as its subject (Roald Dahl), a weighty topic (antisemitism), and a brilliant star in the leading role (John Lithgow). It’s directed by the great Nicholas Hytner. It can’t miss – and it doesn’t. The man, the topic, and the star turn by Lithgow are all enthralling. 

Wittgenstein’s famous aphorism translates as follows: “Whereof one cannot speak, one must remain silent.” Or for those who prefer a less subtle approach: If you can’t say it, shut up. Wittgenstein was talking about philosophy; and it turns out that, contra Wittgenstein, you can still say a lot about philosophy without trespassing beyond coherence.

It’s fun to fool around with history. It’s sort of like playing with a slinky: you can bend it in any direction, twist it, contract or expand it, tie it in a knot, but it never loses its fundamental singularity, its linear metallic structure. There are many ways history could have happened (or so we presume) and many ways of viewing it, which we can never agree upon based on our different perspectives, values, and habits of mind.