ffortsa breezes through 2022
Talk Magazines!!!!! New Yorker, Science, Atlantic, Mad......
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1ffortsa
Having discarded all the unread years of New Yorkers in my storage locker, I of course began accumulating them this year. So I've decided to breeze through them, and other magazines I come across on my coffee table, picking out one or two items of interest, rather than attempting to read all the print all the time. If I can get through 2022, that would be great. Otherwise, I will start from scratch in the new year.
2ffortsa
I had January and February issues around somewhere, but they've gone into hiding.
March 7:
Two articles caught my eye, one from 'department of science', one a review of a new biography of Charles Dickens. (more to come)
James Somers - The Final Frontier: Penetrating the mysteries of the cell
A fascinating article about what is actually in our cells, which is a lot more than I ever learned. They are crowded and active places where all sorts of chemical chains move around, and biologists are just now figuring out what they all are and what they do.
Louis Menand - A new biography of Charles Dickens, by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, titled 'The Turning Point', that focuses on a single year, 1851, when Dickens began to write 'Bleak House'. Menand compliments the author on setting Dickens in all the social, political and literary activity of the year, and notes that Dickens' work after this time, is more sociologically pointed. Here's a quote from 'Domby and Son', written earlier:
It might be worthwhile, sometimes, to inquire what Nature is, and how men work to cange her, and whether, in the enforced distortions so produced, it is not natural to be unnatural.
I haven't read 'Domby', or most of Dickens. I found the article most interesting.
March 7:
Two articles caught my eye, one from 'department of science', one a review of a new biography of Charles Dickens. (more to come)
James Somers - The Final Frontier: Penetrating the mysteries of the cell
A fascinating article about what is actually in our cells, which is a lot more than I ever learned. They are crowded and active places where all sorts of chemical chains move around, and biologists are just now figuring out what they all are and what they do.
Louis Menand - A new biography of Charles Dickens, by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, titled 'The Turning Point', that focuses on a single year, 1851, when Dickens began to write 'Bleak House'. Menand compliments the author on setting Dickens in all the social, political and literary activity of the year, and notes that Dickens' work after this time, is more sociologically pointed. Here's a quote from 'Domby and Son', written earlier:
It might be worthwhile, sometimes, to inquire what Nature is, and how men work to cange her, and whether, in the enforced distortions so produced, it is not natural to be unnatural.
I haven't read 'Domby', or most of Dickens. I found the article most interesting.
3ffortsa
Scientific American October issue.
A surprisingly interesting article on the significance of Icelandic weaving over the last 900 years. Both cultural and climate related significance are discussed
A surprisingly interesting article on the significance of Icelandic weaving over the last 900 years. Both cultural and climate related significance are discussed
4rocketjk
Hey there! Just to let you know that I'm looking forward to monitoring your magazine reading thread. You never know what you're going to learn. Cheers!
5ffortsa
>4 rocketjk: great! glad to have a reader.
6AnnieMod
>5 ffortsa: You have more than one - even if this one here does not post ;)
7ffortsa
>6 AnnieMod: delighted to make your acquaintance!
8ffortsa
ah, back to magazines. These articles are from the March 21, 2022 issue.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus wrote a profile of Franklin Tao, a research chemical engineer who got tangled up in the Department of Justice China Initiative, which Trump tasked with investigating scientists in the U.S. who had ties to communist China. There was little evidence except for some association with Chinese universities, which was not always acknowledged to the U.S. universities where the scientists were employed. But the DofJ was not averse to making things up, interpreting things in the worst possible light, and breaking careers.
Tao was eventually exonerated for all but one minor charge, and when I looked him up he was still listed as a professor at the University of Kansas. He had been on unpaid leave for over two years, and under very tight house arrest, until the case was resolved.
The article does not make him out as entirely lacking in culpability; he was ambitious and thought that international relationships would look good to a more prestigious employer. But the work he might have shared with the Chinese was such basic research that no one, not even here in the U.S., could imagine it was useful for defense, offense, or even industry at this time. It's very deep fundamental science. And it was all documented freely in scientific journals anyway; he really had nothing of that nature to give. But he was involved with one of the Chinese university programs. The DofJ had no one on the case who could evaluate the science or the connection. So instead they wrecked his life, and disrupted a number of other careers in the process.
The China Initiative seems to have been more concerned with commercial than military competition. China might catch up to us in science and engineering, and the DofJ and Trump and quite a few other people see that as a threat. The program has been ended, at least under that name, but the hunt for potential spies for China is not over. Meanwhile France steals more data than China, but no one in the DofJ is looking at French scientists in the U.S. Sigh.
In a (short) piece, Ruth Franklin dissects Peter Handke's fiction, for which he won a Nobel which scandalized a lot of people, mainly because of his support of Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic against the Bosnians in Srebrenica. I've never read his work, and it sounds very dense and challenging.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus wrote a profile of Franklin Tao, a research chemical engineer who got tangled up in the Department of Justice China Initiative, which Trump tasked with investigating scientists in the U.S. who had ties to communist China. There was little evidence except for some association with Chinese universities, which was not always acknowledged to the U.S. universities where the scientists were employed. But the DofJ was not averse to making things up, interpreting things in the worst possible light, and breaking careers.
Tao was eventually exonerated for all but one minor charge, and when I looked him up he was still listed as a professor at the University of Kansas. He had been on unpaid leave for over two years, and under very tight house arrest, until the case was resolved.
The article does not make him out as entirely lacking in culpability; he was ambitious and thought that international relationships would look good to a more prestigious employer. But the work he might have shared with the Chinese was such basic research that no one, not even here in the U.S., could imagine it was useful for defense, offense, or even industry at this time. It's very deep fundamental science. And it was all documented freely in scientific journals anyway; he really had nothing of that nature to give. But he was involved with one of the Chinese university programs. The DofJ had no one on the case who could evaluate the science or the connection. So instead they wrecked his life, and disrupted a number of other careers in the process.
The China Initiative seems to have been more concerned with commercial than military competition. China might catch up to us in science and engineering, and the DofJ and Trump and quite a few other people see that as a threat. The program has been ended, at least under that name, but the hunt for potential spies for China is not over. Meanwhile France steals more data than China, but no one in the DofJ is looking at French scientists in the U.S. Sigh.
In a (short) piece, Ruth Franklin dissects Peter Handke's fiction, for which he won a Nobel which scandalized a lot of people, mainly because of his support of Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic against the Bosnians in Srebrenica. I've never read his work, and it sounds very dense and challenging.
9ffortsa
There's an article in the March 18th, 2022 issue that I didn't think would interest me, and then I couldn't stop reading it. It's '5 O'Clock Everywhere: Retirement the Margaritaville Way', a report from Nick Paumgarten of the lifestyle of - well - Margaritaville in Florida. There are several now - the one he visited was in Daytona Beach - and the people living there don't want the seriousness and political overtones of The Villages, they just want to drink with their buddies and have fun. This seems to satisfy a lot of people who just want to hang out with people like them, tooling around in golf carts but not playing golf, living in flip-flops and t-shirts and shorts. I am amazed at how people can be happy doing nothing but this, but they can. Maybe the fault is mine.
10AnnieMod
>9 ffortsa: Always happens to me as well - I don’t see anything that looks really interesting when I look at the contents and flip through the magazine to see what will catch my eye and before I know it, I’ve read a whole article or 3 and found a lot of unexpectedly good things. :) I’ve learned that I am very likely to enjoy articles that look uninteresting when initially looked at - especially in magazines where I like the editorial style.
11ffortsa
>10 AnnieMod: Thanks for stopping by. It happened to me again today, in the April 4, 2022 edition of the New Yorker (and people ask me why I get backed up on them!).
Sam Knight wrote a Profile, 'Spirit of the Age', about director Robert Eggers' approach to historical films. The one in question is this year's "The Vikings", which sounds weird and interesting enough to watch if it's streaming. Eggers is obsessed with historical accuracy, in language, costume, structure, and the story itself, and goes to great lengths to make sure of it. It seems "The Vikings" uses the original Scandinavian legend that became Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; the actors in it, among them Willem Dafoe, talked about how the director story boarded everything, explained where the camera would be, and exactly what he wanted to see. The motivations, emotions, and all the other components of what we call acting were left to the actors to fit into his vision. Yet it sounds thrilling, if rather gory.
Rachel Aviv, as 'A Reporter At Large', tells, in "The Price of Admission", the story of a young woman who claims child abuse at the hands of her affluent, educated mother and her mother's boyfriend, ends up at the University of Pennsylvania, and meets more disbelief than support. It's very unnerving, as there is no way to know if she has lied or told the truth. Certainly she had injuries, but how were they created? Those in charge, from judges to lawyers to school administrators, have varying opinions and beliefs. A totally messed up situation caused by something - but who to believe?
The British Empire is the subject of a revisionist history by Caroline Elkins titled "Legacy of Violence", which puts the methods of the British in a very different context from the usual patronizing spread of modern technology and order. Sunil Khilnani does the New Yorker's usual review embedded in history, and Elkins comes in for both praise and doubt. I don't know much of the details of British Imperialist behavior, and the episodes and methods cited are definitely gruesome and abusive. It's only when Elkins gets to the story of the end of empire that Khilnani points out her own patronizing bias, as she plays down the indigenous protests and pressures in favor of a sort of 'enlightenment' liberalism among the British themselves. We know too much about Gandhi, the Mau Mau, and other local rebellions to think the Brits let their empire go out of the goodness of their woke hearts. But the history itself is very interesting.
And then there is a short review of Harry Crews' memoir "A Childhood" by Casey Cep. I've never read any Crews, and what Cep says about his novels makes me think they would be hard to read these days, and his memories of poverty, rural life, the poverty of Southern rural life in the thirties and forties sound very compelling. Another one for the endless list. There's also a biography that goes well past his childhood to reveal a damaged and somewhat luckless talent, no longer very much read.
Sam Knight wrote a Profile, 'Spirit of the Age', about director Robert Eggers' approach to historical films. The one in question is this year's "The Vikings", which sounds weird and interesting enough to watch if it's streaming. Eggers is obsessed with historical accuracy, in language, costume, structure, and the story itself, and goes to great lengths to make sure of it. It seems "The Vikings" uses the original Scandinavian legend that became Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; the actors in it, among them Willem Dafoe, talked about how the director story boarded everything, explained where the camera would be, and exactly what he wanted to see. The motivations, emotions, and all the other components of what we call acting were left to the actors to fit into his vision. Yet it sounds thrilling, if rather gory.
Rachel Aviv, as 'A Reporter At Large', tells, in "The Price of Admission", the story of a young woman who claims child abuse at the hands of her affluent, educated mother and her mother's boyfriend, ends up at the University of Pennsylvania, and meets more disbelief than support. It's very unnerving, as there is no way to know if she has lied or told the truth. Certainly she had injuries, but how were they created? Those in charge, from judges to lawyers to school administrators, have varying opinions and beliefs. A totally messed up situation caused by something - but who to believe?
The British Empire is the subject of a revisionist history by Caroline Elkins titled "Legacy of Violence", which puts the methods of the British in a very different context from the usual patronizing spread of modern technology and order. Sunil Khilnani does the New Yorker's usual review embedded in history, and Elkins comes in for both praise and doubt. I don't know much of the details of British Imperialist behavior, and the episodes and methods cited are definitely gruesome and abusive. It's only when Elkins gets to the story of the end of empire that Khilnani points out her own patronizing bias, as she plays down the indigenous protests and pressures in favor of a sort of 'enlightenment' liberalism among the British themselves. We know too much about Gandhi, the Mau Mau, and other local rebellions to think the Brits let their empire go out of the goodness of their woke hearts. But the history itself is very interesting.
And then there is a short review of Harry Crews' memoir "A Childhood" by Casey Cep. I've never read any Crews, and what Cep says about his novels makes me think they would be hard to read these days, and his memories of poverty, rural life, the poverty of Southern rural life in the thirties and forties sound very compelling. Another one for the endless list. There's also a biography that goes well past his childhood to reveal a damaged and somewhat luckless talent, no longer very much read.
12ffortsa
April 11, 2022
A few odd (not happy) items. One is about the rise in youth suicide, very sad. No consensus on the reasons except a dreadful lack of mental health awareness among people who should be able to see when children are in trouble. This article is by Andrew Solomon, who has experienced and documented his own depression.
Lauren Collins wrote of Stephane Bourgoin's fraudulent career as a serial killer specialist. HIs self-mythologizing reminded me of the book In the Darkroom.
Zoe Heller reviewed Noreena Hertz's book The Lonely Century, in which the economist describes what she sees as a terrible rate of social isolation, not necessarily caused (but certainly exacerbated by) the pandemic, smartphones, architecture, the loss of small community stores, etc. She also includes Laura Kipnis's Love in the time of Contagion, in which Kipnis discusses not only the obvious, but the curious impact of the #MeToo movement as it represents (and castigates men), and various conflicts among women who realize, for instance, that they are sexually attracted to male power, and feel it is a betrayal of the movement. Desire, Kipnis says, is by nature transgressive, and we have to acknowledge our needs as well as our desires.
And to top it off, she reviews a forthcoming book Relationships 5.0 by Elyakim Kislev, who describes a future with robots to relieve our loneliness. All of which is a definite downer.
On the other hand, James Wood reviews Fintan O'Toole's book We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, which catalogues the theocratic rules that represssed Irish life and especially Irish women for so long, and the wonder of Ireland at last throwing off the rule of religion and coming in to the modern world of choice and respect. Light amid the darkness. As O'Toole says, "Ireland became normal".
A few odd (not happy) items. One is about the rise in youth suicide, very sad. No consensus on the reasons except a dreadful lack of mental health awareness among people who should be able to see when children are in trouble. This article is by Andrew Solomon, who has experienced and documented his own depression.
Lauren Collins wrote of Stephane Bourgoin's fraudulent career as a serial killer specialist. HIs self-mythologizing reminded me of the book In the Darkroom.
Zoe Heller reviewed Noreena Hertz's book The Lonely Century, in which the economist describes what she sees as a terrible rate of social isolation, not necessarily caused (but certainly exacerbated by) the pandemic, smartphones, architecture, the loss of small community stores, etc. She also includes Laura Kipnis's Love in the time of Contagion, in which Kipnis discusses not only the obvious, but the curious impact of the #MeToo movement as it represents (and castigates men), and various conflicts among women who realize, for instance, that they are sexually attracted to male power, and feel it is a betrayal of the movement. Desire, Kipnis says, is by nature transgressive, and we have to acknowledge our needs as well as our desires.
And to top it off, she reviews a forthcoming book Relationships 5.0 by Elyakim Kislev, who describes a future with robots to relieve our loneliness. All of which is a definite downer.
On the other hand, James Wood reviews Fintan O'Toole's book We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, which catalogues the theocratic rules that represssed Irish life and especially Irish women for so long, and the wonder of Ireland at last throwing off the rule of religion and coming in to the modern world of choice and respect. Light amid the darkness. As O'Toole says, "Ireland became normal".
13ffortsa
Ah, I found my March 14th issue under something or other. One article is worth a lot of thinking:
Nathan Heller, in Annals of Education, writes about the Lowell High School in San Francisco, which recently changed its admissions policy from merit to lottery. I'm always interested in these stories, as many studies have shown that expectation is a great determinant of learning, and of course elementary school and middle school are in turn determinants of that. I myself went to 'tracked' middle and high schools, where similarly ranked students were grouped together. This was mostly an advantage to the 'advanced' track, although the least advanced students did get a crack at more of a trade oriented curriculum. Was I privileged by this arrangement, or just a naturally good, compliant student?
Alas, the experiment didn't have enough time for support, and I will look for other articles on how the budget cuts affected this school, which now needed more support for students who had to catch up or otherwise discover how to thrive when more was demanded of them. Educators have gone back and forth over this debate for years, with race, poverty and ethnicity thrown in. Maybe we will get to see how this plays out.
Nathan Heller, in Annals of Education, writes about the Lowell High School in San Francisco, which recently changed its admissions policy from merit to lottery. I'm always interested in these stories, as many studies have shown that expectation is a great determinant of learning, and of course elementary school and middle school are in turn determinants of that. I myself went to 'tracked' middle and high schools, where similarly ranked students were grouped together. This was mostly an advantage to the 'advanced' track, although the least advanced students did get a crack at more of a trade oriented curriculum. Was I privileged by this arrangement, or just a naturally good, compliant student?
Alas, the experiment didn't have enough time for support, and I will look for other articles on how the budget cuts affected this school, which now needed more support for students who had to catch up or otherwise discover how to thrive when more was demanded of them. Educators have gone back and forth over this debate for years, with race, poverty and ethnicity thrown in. Maybe we will get to see how this plays out.
14ffortsa
Scientific American's August issue is all about life in the sea, often the deep sea. The story that caught me most was the one about vertical migration, the daily rhythms of various kinds of plankton from their rich (but dark) lower range to the nutrient-poor (but light-filled) upper range, carting nutrients up to the sun, and then retreating at night to start again. Everyone is on the move in the ocean, often in opposite directions. Zooplankton eat phytoplankton, which prevents the latter from releasing carbon dioxide used for metabolism, and piling up carbon on the ocean floor as a result. So much we don't yet understand.
15ffortsa
Well, of course I was unable to 'breeze through' 2022, and I have to give myself permission to toss the New Yorkers without trying to catch up. They are all online if I want to reference them, after all.
But I have read the November/December issue of the Smithsonian, and it's a corker.
The lead story was about dates - not the ones in your calendar, the ones you eat - and how influential and varied they are in the half of the world that knows them. Matti Friedman goes through the varieties, history, and sources of this versatile fruit, its reference as the honey in 'land of milk and honey', the stacked supplies at Masada, the methods of assisted pollination today, the archaeological finds, the hardiness of the trees and seeds - and the recent deadly infestation that threatens them.
There's a piece by Jo Marchant about new scientific research in collecting proteins from ancient objects, proteins that may help fill out the picture of the people who touched them.
Latria Graham writes of the resurgence of indigo as a crop. Indigo was largely displaced as a dye by modern chemical dyes using petroleum, but it is being grown again in the southeastern United States. To do this, the history of indigo cultivation as a slave-dependent crop must also be faced.
There also articles on blues great Mississippi John Hurt, how salt marshes protect coastlines and the effect on them of climate change and rising seas, and a photo essay of monumental and strangely impermanent scuptures by Anselm Kiefer.
And that's not even mentioning the short pieces on Crazy Horse and Stradivarius violins.
But I have read the November/December issue of the Smithsonian, and it's a corker.
The lead story was about dates - not the ones in your calendar, the ones you eat - and how influential and varied they are in the half of the world that knows them. Matti Friedman goes through the varieties, history, and sources of this versatile fruit, its reference as the honey in 'land of milk and honey', the stacked supplies at Masada, the methods of assisted pollination today, the archaeological finds, the hardiness of the trees and seeds - and the recent deadly infestation that threatens them.
There's a piece by Jo Marchant about new scientific research in collecting proteins from ancient objects, proteins that may help fill out the picture of the people who touched them.
Latria Graham writes of the resurgence of indigo as a crop. Indigo was largely displaced as a dye by modern chemical dyes using petroleum, but it is being grown again in the southeastern United States. To do this, the history of indigo cultivation as a slave-dependent crop must also be faced.
There also articles on blues great Mississippi John Hurt, how salt marshes protect coastlines and the effect on them of climate change and rising seas, and a photo essay of monumental and strangely impermanent scuptures by Anselm Kiefer.
And that's not even mentioning the short pieces on Crazy Horse and Stradivarius violins.
16ffortsa
The New Yorker issue from October 3, 2022, was well worth preserving until I could get to it.
Anthony Lane wrote a substantial article on the centenary of "The Waste Land" which told me much more about the poem. I have to capture some references from it, but anyone interested in this astonishing work should look up the issue.
Nikhil Krishnan gave us a review of "Magnificent Rebels", about the early Romantics. It seems the idea of the individual can be traced to intellectuals in Jenna, among them Johann Gottlieb Ficht, who preached that "a person should be self-determined, never letting himself be defined by anything external". I can't help thinking that this cult of the individual has done at least as much harm as good, regardless of the artistic flowering. The review is aptly titled 'Ego Trip'.
And Peter Schjeldahl reviewed "Piet Mondrian: A Life" by Hans Janssen, and in the process talked about Mondrian's art in such a way that I would love to go to the Netherlands just to see his work. All I know of Mondrian is his late period of straight lines and "Broadway Boogie Woogie". It seems there's a lot more.
Anthony Lane wrote a substantial article on the centenary of "The Waste Land" which told me much more about the poem. I have to capture some references from it, but anyone interested in this astonishing work should look up the issue.
Nikhil Krishnan gave us a review of "Magnificent Rebels", about the early Romantics. It seems the idea of the individual can be traced to intellectuals in Jenna, among them Johann Gottlieb Ficht, who preached that "a person should be self-determined, never letting himself be defined by anything external". I can't help thinking that this cult of the individual has done at least as much harm as good, regardless of the artistic flowering. The review is aptly titled 'Ego Trip'.
And Peter Schjeldahl reviewed "Piet Mondrian: A Life" by Hans Janssen, and in the process talked about Mondrian's art in such a way that I would love to go to the Netherlands just to see his work. All I know of Mondrian is his late period of straight lines and "Broadway Boogie Woogie". It seems there's a lot more.
