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We’ve had a few ques­tions about the title of the New York­er arti­cle on Gov­er­nors Island that came out this week. The arti­cle was titled ​“Use­less Beau­ty,” but the arti­cle doesn’ t quite pick up on that theme. Depend­ing on how you spent your time in col­lege, it is the title of a short sto­ry by pop­u­lar 19^th cen­tu­ry French writer Hen­ri René Albert Guy de Mau­pas­sant OR the title of an Elvis Costel­lo song on a 1996 album by the same name. The Elvis Costel­lo song con­tains the lyric: ​“What shall we do, what shall we do with all this use­less beauty?” 

[cap­tion id=“attachment_1996” align=“aligncenter” width=“209” caption=“Guy de Mau­pas­sant, father of the mod­ern short sto­ry. Elvis Costel­lo also has facial hair. ”][/​caption]