Link Loves: Volume V

A day late, but better late than never. I arrived home late Saturday night and yesterday was a full day so I haven’t had a chance to sit down and collate this week’s links.

I love reading about the real life inspiration of authors because it lets me delve into their fiction a bit further. Although a long read, this one behind my favourite F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night, in the New Yorker was a great read this week.

Although a review for a Zadie Smith book I’ve been meaning to read for a while, I appreciate the reflection the author presents in this LA Review piece.

I love Maurice Sendak, and his Where the Wild Things Are, was a childhood favourite of mine. I didn’t know it was actually a trilogy, as I found out in this NYT piece, and now I’m going to hunt down his books!

These two essays on populism, democracy and neo-fascism are particularly interesting to me, as I prefer more abstract discussions of politics than policies or strategies themselves. And philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy draws on nuances that make his argument particularly credible.

After all my antique book hunting in the UK and Europe in the past six months (not that I could actually buy any because I had no luggage space or weight), I loved this piece from The Public Domain Review.

The nexus between the internet and the art of reading always interests me, as I find myself spending more time on my phone when I could be reading, or reading and getting distracted by my phone more easily. So although I have not read The Gutenberg Elegies, it interests me all the same. As Bickerts writes, reading is ‘self-contained, a fulfillment’.

I read anything Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, but somehow this Atlantic piece on the case for reparations escaped me. It’s brilliant, in that wonderful, cohesive, persuasive manner that Coates speaks in. I’m reminded when I read Coates that words have power.

Oh Paris, I do miss you so. I’ve certainly explored its above grounds, but I didn’t have time for its catacombs, so for now, I will do so through this Lit Hub piece.

I study medieval/Renaissance history, so this was a funny news story in the Guardian on a nun faking her death to escape a convent, given more context on this blog.

This is important. For fiction writers, obviously, but for everyone else too. Race is something that affects everyone, whether you like it or not, and by the way, we don’t really have a choice in the matter. But it is incredibly important to get it right (see Prada and Gucci being accused of questionable fashion choices in the past couple of weeks, perhaps because of the lack of diversity in the industry). Literature is no exception. And this Lit Hub article shows why.

This (long!) article on the power of women on Instagram is an interesting take on recent arguments about how Instagram has changed in the past few years with the rise of the influencer (see last week’s links). It’s thoughtful, considered, and nuanced, and certainly makes me think about why certain assumptions exist when it comes to the influencer industry.

And on that note, I have been thinking about how the influencer industry is not necessarily all good for women, seeing as it appears to be striving for perfection, even as some appear to be selling authenticity and behind-the-scenes and keeping it real. So this is an interesting TED talk.

I miss the UK, where I spent the better part of the past six months. Of course, Brexit also interests me for its political implications, so this LARB podcast version of an event on Brexit and the end of empire was absolutely fascinating (I have more information on the exit polls from the US election). As is this article explaining British exceptionalism. Tracing the lines between immigration, income inequality (the UK has the biggest gap in Europe), and the British history of its empire and its long-lost riches is an important thing to see.

I’m not big on celebrity and fame, but I do love late night, particularly Colbert. So I saw Jeff Goldblum quoting this George Bernard Shaw, who happens to be probably my favourite British twentieth-century writer. And it is delectable: “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It ia a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the future generations.”

And with that, I’ll leave you to ponder til next week -nat ♥️🥀