Category: words

The problem, writes Matthew Zapruder, is that “in school we are taught that poetry is inherently ‘difficult,’ and that by its very nature it somehow makes meaning by hiding meaning. … Good poets do not deliberately complicate something just to make it harder for a reader to understand. Unfortunately, young readers, and young poets too, are taught to think that this is exactly what poets do. This has, in turn, created certain habits in the writing of contemporary poetry. Bad information about poetry in, bad poetry out, a kind of poetic obscurity feedback loop.”

Akhil Sharma: “I read ‘If You Sing Like That for Me’ now and I find myself jumping out of my skin. After each paragraph, I have to get up from my desk and pace around. Talking about the story, my tone becomes contemptuous. It is strange to think that, to readers, this story means nothing like what it means to me.”

“Founded in 1982, the Kolkata-based company [Seeagull Books] publishes everything from literary fiction and poetry to philosophy and even cultural anthropology. But these books aren’t what you’d find on the catalogues of publishing giants such as HarperCollins or Penguin Random House. At Seagull Books, the focus is on translated writing from around the world, much of which has never before appeared in English, in India or anywhere else.”

Josh Walker, 26, traveled to Syrian Kurdistan to volunteer with the People’s Protection Units, a secular, social democratic group fighting ISIS. Upon returning to Britain, he was detained at the airport and later released without charge. Then police searched his apartment in Wales. “The authorities have not alleged that he was involved in any kind of terror plot; rather, they claim that because he obtained parts of the Cookbook – which is freely available in its entirety on the internet – he collected information ‘of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.'”

As Slate puts it, “John McWhorter explains why we love shrinkage.” (podcast)

“On one estimate, only 30-35 percent of the social dimensions of meaning, in our daily interactions with others, come from language, with up to a staggering 70 percent deriving from nonverbal cues. This includes visual cues such as the other person’s body language, facial expression, and gestures, as well as how close they stand to us—we’ve all experienced the discomfort of the individual who occupies too much of our personal space for comfort; our emotional response is, invariably, likely to be negative. We also respond to their physical appearance, their dress, and the environment in which we encounter them, which provides information about their occupation or mode of living.”

Emily Temple compiles not just a list, but four sublists as well. Granted, they don’t really cover all time (let alone every place) – she surveyed 20 anthologies published in the U.S. between 1983 and 2017, not counting the yearly Best American anthologies or any themed collections (say, Best Ghost Stories or Best Love Stories).

Says Federico Sboarina, who was elected in late June, “I am convinced that the family is composed [of a] mother and father, and I will defend this value in the education of children and young people.” Other local politicians are joining library and publishing organizations and gay advocates in pushing back against the policy.

“Waxing nostalgic about card catalogs or being an advocate for the importance of libraries is a mug’s game. You can practically feel people glancing up from their iPhones to smile tolerantly at your eccentricity. My response to this, after an initial burst of profanity, is to explain (again) why libraries are essential to narrowing the inequality gap, and why the Internet is not an adequate substitute for books or libraries.”

Denis Johnson, author of the story collection Jesus’ Son and the National Book Award-winning novel Tree of Smoke, did live long enough to learn that he won the prize: he was notified in March and passed away in May at age 67.