archive

Why don’t we listen?

A new issue of Griffith Review is out. Joshua P. Booth (Houston): The Individual Mandate as a Tool of Governance. Did Cervantes invent "truthiness"? William Egginton on how the 17th-century master's multilayered world mirrors the realities and absurdities of our modern age. A review of Before Forgiveness: The Origins of a Moral Idea by David Konstan. The first chapter from Slavery and the Culture of Taste by Simon Gikandi. The unmerited origins of wealth: Policy researcher Lew Daly explains why the self-made man is a myth. From Evolutionary Psychology, a review of Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan and Caclida Jetha; and a review of Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life by Douglas T. Kenrick. From Commentary, Joseph Epstein on the work of American literary critic Alfred Kazin. Splendide Mendax: A review essay on Wikileaks (and more at Bookforum). The God Clause and the Reinsurance Industry: The risk business can tell us a lot about catastrophes — why don't we listen? In Afghanistan, the U.S. military disposes of garbage — computers, motorbikes, TVs, shoes, even human feces — in open burn pits; are toxic clouds from these sites making everyone sick? In Winston Churchill's fanciful alternative history, Lee wins at Gettysburg, and Jeb Stuart prevents World War I. In a world where each disabled person is taken as a representative of the whole and the voice of the least inconvenient disabled person is believed to be the best authority, the "supercrip" has very real and very dangerous consequences, writes S.E. Smith. The introduction to An Anthropology of Images: Picture, Medium, Body by Hans Belting. The giants among us: The patent world is undergoing a change of seismic proportions. A look at 8 ridiculous products for sale on Amazon (for one penny).