If only communist regimes were not led by monsters like Stalin or Mao, they might have done better. There is no doubt communist governments had more than their share of cruel and even sociopathic leaders
When sociopathic big brother’s words uttered by a Communist apparatchik determine whether you live or die, you spend your life trying to unravel all the what-ifs. What if I had not been born in Soviet’s Czechoslovakia During Cold War period? What if those five words had not been said? What if I had grown up in a safe, democratic environment, with freedom to travel?’
Things have a strange way of bubbling into the public consciousness. In 2022 even Stan gives former Cold War spies space in its series
THE FOX (“Die Fuchsin”) Film Review
One of the reasons a work becomes a classic is its timelessness, its continued relevance to each period in which it is read. This is certainly why many of George Orwell’s works are seen as classics. Scarily, there is nothing more relevant now than his writing on the impact of totalitarianism – of which his 1946 essay, “The prevention of literature”, is one example.
“A Search Engine That Finds You Weird Old Books | by Clive Thompson – A Search Engine That Finds You Weird Old Books – To help ‘rewild your attention’ I built a book-finding app [Medium / paywall]
- CBC Radio interview with this site’s creator. The interview is here (starts at 47:00) [h/t r/history]
- Link to Weird Old Book Finder [No Paywall]
“Everything new is old again — rumor-mongering, disinformation campaigns, religious bigotry — in Robert J. Lloyd’s nifty murder mystery loosely based on real events in Restoration England … One of this month’s best thrillers and mysteries.”
—The Washington Post on The Bloodless Boy
“Breathless distraction, omnipresent dread and sudden! glorious! joy! This is a work of far-flung imagination and simultaneously the most realistic novel of our times.”
—Daniel Handler on Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World
“A page-turner whose dense, fantastical atmosphere lingers long after the read.”
—Vulture on Strange Beasts of China
“Strange Beasts of China feels like a riddle and a parable and a dream, the kind of book you want to get lost in.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer on Strange Beasts of China
“The overall effect of Yan’s storytelling is dreamy and hypnotic, sometimes opaque but always captivating. These cryptic but well-told tales offer much to chew on.”
—Publisher’s Weekly onStrange Beasts of China
“A stunning work of narrative reportage… With profound empathy and a novelistic eye for detail, Vijayan shows us the forgotten people and places in the borderlands and brings us face-to-face with the legacy of colonialism and the stain of extreme violence and corruption. The result is the granular portrait of modern India we’ve been missing.”
—British Muslim Magazine on Midnight’s Borders
”An ideal guide for your journey into the depths of the rabbit hole that is QAnon. It even shows you a glimmer of light at the exit.”
— Cullen Hoback, director of HBO’s Q: Into the Storm, on The Storm is Upon Us
”Full of double- and triple-crosses… ’Northern Heist’s’ deeds and details seem as real as a smashed kneecap, while its stopwatch tension, heightened by present-tense voice, is reminiscent of such classic caper films as ’Rififi’ and ’The Asphalt Jungle’.”
—The Wall Street Journalon Northern Heist
”Moving and magical, Strange Beasts of China is stunningly alive and unsettling in all the best ways. I am in awe of its bold imagination, endless depth, and philosophical weight. Every page of this book is magnetic.”
—K-Ming Chang, author of Bestiary, on Strange Beasts of China
“A powerful cri de coeur for technological liberation that merits the attention of every consumer of digital services.”
—Kirkus Reviews on Privacy is Power
“An essential guide to one of the most pressing modern issues.”
—Hannah Fry, author of Hello World, on Privacy is Power
“Josh Greenberg is my kind of nature writer.”
—The Wall Street Journal onTrout Water
“[A]n illuminating portrait of a troubled and secretive country.”
—Publishers Weekly on Until the World Shatters
When The Art Connoisseur Is A Robot
Super Bowl Half-Time Dancers Aren’t OK With Rehearsing And Performing For Exposure
A new study suggests that regular cash payments to parents can speed up brain activity in infants."
Seven technologies to watch in 2022. They're almost all biological/genetic: targeted genetic therapies, precise genome manipulation, CRISPR-based diagnostics, etc.