From the Asia-Pacific Journal, Tawada Yoko on The Letter as Literature's Political and Poetic Body. From n+1, perhaps Hamsun's Street in Norway should include a sign that says, "Knut Hamsun: Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1920. Traitor to his Nation, 1940-1945". From TLS, a review of The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction by John Sutherland; and was Arnold Bennett a modernist? The novelist is out of fashion — yet his interests and his late experiments belie his reputation. From The Nation, a review of Between Fire and Sleep: Essays on Modern Polish Poetry and Prose by Jaroslaw Anders. Tractatus Franco-Arabicus: Reading Sonallah Ibrahim's last two books, Youssef Rakha suggests an early Wittgenstein-style formulation of the kind of literary problem Bonaparte's Campaign to Egypt might present. A series of fables about Anastasia, a young beauty who dwells in the forest, has sold 11 million copies in Russia and has inspired thousands to live an eco-friendly life. From The Walrus, Jack Kerouac, Quebecois: The Americas Society divvies up a literary icon (and more on Kerouac by David Ulin at Bookforum). Germany's current bestseller list is dominated by international crime fiction, from Simon Beckett to Stieg Larsson; why do German readers love their thrillers so much?

An excerpt from Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary. Tales of Persia’s Wondrous Past: The Shahnameh mourns the loss of Iran’s pre-Islamic civilization and all that falls prey to time. Francis Fukuyama on Iran, Islam and the rule of law: Islamic political movements have been one form of revolt against arbitrary government. All (Muslim) politics is local: A review of Beyond Terror and Martyrdom: The Future of the Middle East by Gilles Kepel and The Crisis of Islamic Civilization by Ali Allawi. A review of The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics by Faisal Devji (and more at Bookforum). Mute Muslims: Why doesn't the Islamic world speak up about the Uighurs? A review of Islam and Violent Separatism. From WPR, is the long-predicted decline of political Islam about to occur? From The Economist, in an ideological contest between radicals, populists and moderates, speaking out can still carry a heavy personal cost; we should love heretics, not kill them, says unconventional scholar Abdullahi an-Na’im; and wanted: Islam’s Voltaire, where freedom is still at stake. The erasure of Islam: Ziauddin Sardar on the shadow cast over Islamic culture by the Enlightenment. A review of From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy by Kenan Malik.

Hsuan Hsu (UC-Davis) and Martha Lincoln (CUNY): Health Media and Global Inequalities. Der Spiegel goes inside a creepy global body parts business. From Harvard Magazine, a cover story on Atul Gawande, “slightly bewildered” surgeon and health-policy scholar — and a literary voice of medicine. No waiting: Here's a simple prescription that could dramatically improve hospitals — and American health care. From Slate, an article on the GOP's health care solution: It's Republicans, not Democrats, who are trying to kill the elderly; you thought the health care battle was ugly — just wait for the climate fight; and is TARP profitable? The filibuster begins: Gregory Koger on the fundamentals of filibustering — but is it constitutional, and well, how did we get here? A look at the rise of the 60-vote Senate. The case for busting the filibuster: It's time to abolish this undemocratic holdover from the days of slavery and segregation. A Clash of Camelots: Within months of J.F.K.’s death, the president’s widow asked William Manchester to write the authorized account of the assassination; Sam Kashner chronicles the toll the 1967 best-seller, The Death of a President, exacted before it all but disappeared. Torchlight Parades for the Television Age: David Greenberg on the presidential debates as political ritual.

Was Robert Capa's famous Civil War photo a fake? Even if he acted from the best of motives, what Capa did now seems indefensible (and more, and here's a history of photo fakery). William T. Vollmann on the ethics of photography. An article on Helen Levitt's idiosyncratic photographs. An article on Phil Stern, chronicler of cool. An interview with Howard Bingham on Black Panthers 1968. On a whim, a young couple went to the legendary rock festival Woodstock, only to be captured in a memorable image by Burk Uzzle (and more). A look at the spectacular financial collapse of Annie Leibovitz, one of the world’s most spectacular photographers. Photoshop is praised for making people look their best and dissed for setting the bar too high. Eirik Johnson's theatrical photographs of former boomtowns built on salmon and timber carry the sense of a way of life and work that is on the cusp of slipping away. Lazy journalists love pictures of abandoned stuff. The Impossible Project is trying to reinvent analogue instant film made so popular by Polaroid in the 1960s and 70s (and more). Just as vinyl records are making a comeback with hipsters everywhere, so too is analog photography. Here are 10 photography pet peeves to throw down a black hole.