certitude

A conductor known for his intense warmth in general and his rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth in particular, Honeck brought the comfort of certitude to works composed in the shadow of doubt.

The blistering attacks on Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, showcased Democrats’ certitude that he was a liability for swing-district Republicans and a boon for Democrats’ quest to retake the House majority in 2024.

While also cautioning that “I have no certitude,” the French military intelligence official said: “We don’t see at all that a rocket that size could have produced 471 dead. It is not possible.”

Today’s legal culture and our polarized politics, however, demand certitude.

Many of his recurring motifs — of alienation, of queerness, of distrusting certitudes, of a life shaped in the margins — still feel startlingly modern, 90 years after his death, in 1933.