I Sit Half-Naked
Fencing: The Perfect COVID-19 Sport The Laughing Squid
The History Nobody Tells You
Morgan Jerkins wanted to know more about where her people came from: “I hated the fact that I didn’t know much about land. I didn’t know about harvest, high tide, low tide, the levees, the dikes. I didn’t know about herbal remedies. I didn’t know anything.” Learning was a journey far beyond what the author and editor thought she already knew or ever would know. – NPR
Morgan Jerkins wanted to know more about where her people came from: “I hated the fact that I didn’t know much about land. I didn’t know about harvest, high tide, low tide, the levees, the dikes. I didn’t know about herbal remedies. I didn’t know anything.” Learning was a journey far beyond what the author and editor thought she already knew or ever would know. – NPR
To Cull One’s Books During Quarantine, Or To Hold All Of Those Friends Even More Tightly?
Not surprisingly, different readers had passionate (and passionately differing) opinions about their book collections and an essay recreating a cull. “While it is fine to move so-so books along, books love us and whisper their thoughts to us, as we pass their covers. Can an ereader do that? Trying to find a favorite phrase or vignette in an ebook is a time-wasting fraud. My real books fall open to what I need.” – Washington Post
Our Collective Dreams Of Rome
So many legends, so much art, and yet … “Rubbish collects in gutters, litter spills from over-stuffed communal bins, pigeons scavenge among fallen, leaking garbage bags. People walk casually past the trash, a symptom of ineffectual politicians and waste plants straining for space. La grande bellezza is looking like shit.” Then the virus came. – The Guardian (UK)
Australia has one of the largest number of micronations in the world
"There are a lot of places in the world where if you tried to declare yourself as a separate nation, the government simply wouldn't allow it and you'd find yourself in quite a lot of trouble.
'Let bygones be bygones'
Love them or loathe them, if there's one thing both the legal fraternity and self-appointed monarchs can all agree on, it's that the very presence of micronations in Australia underscores the country's commitment to democratic freedoms.
In Australia, there is a sense of "let bygones be bygones", says Williams, and provided those who seek to declare sovereignty continue to "fulfil their normal responsibilities", authorities are more inclined to view the phenomenon as an "eccentric hobby
The English translation of Elena Ferrante’s latest novel, The Lying Life of Adults, is due out at the beginning of September and is available for preorder (Kindle). Here’s the synopsis:
Giovanna’s pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise? Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is.
Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. She moves from one to the other in search of the truth, but neither city seems to offer answers or escape.
The Guardian and the Washington Post have reviews of the Italian version of the book. And Netflix has already announced that they’re producing a TV series based on the novel; here’s a short teaser:
The series is being made by the same folks responsible for HBO’s My Brilliant Friend series (based on Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels), which has been outstanding in its two seasons so far.
Using colorful African textiles, Bisa Butler makes large quilted portraits of Black Americans. From a statement on her gallery’s website:
In my work, I am telling the story — this African American side — of the American life. History is the story of men and women, but the narrative is controlled by those who hold the pen.
My community has been marginalized for hundreds of years. While we have been right beside our white counterparts experiencing and creating history, our contributions and perspectives have been ignored, unrecorded, and lost. It is only a few years ago that it was acknowledged that the White House was built by slaves. Right there in the seat of power of our country African Americans were creating and contributing while their names were lost to history.