Interesting Times No. 7
Camel botox; 'on-demand' everything; the rights of an elephant; BEST BOOKS 2021!; horse-girl energy; abysses and folklore; cocktail lounges; Ghislaine Maxwell; Hobbiton
Hello! Welcome to Interesting Times. I’m here to recommend content from the World Wide Web that’s both new and old, highbrow (maybe?) and lowbrow - every fortnight. I hope you find things to enjoy.
JOURNALISM
‘Where Germans Make Peace with Their Dead. Through a practice that is part therapy and part séance, children of war come to terms with their history.’
‘The elephant who could be a person. The most important animal-rights case of the 21st century revolves around an unlikely subject […] A “person” is something of a legal fiction. Under U.S. law, a corporation can be a person. So can a ship. “So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air,” Justice William O. Douglas wrote in a dissenting Supreme Court opinion in 1972. Pro-life activists have argued that embryos and fetuses are persons. In 2019, the Yurok tribe in Northern California decreed that the Klamath River is a person. Some forms of artificial intelligence might one day become persons.’
‘Children’s charity Plan International UK and photographer Joyce Nicholls travelled across the UK talking to young women about the issues important to them in 2020.’
"Everyone, since the dawn of time, has eaten or they've perished," Sam says. "But that man is the best eater who has ever lived, in the history of the world." On competitive eating.
Some things in life are very mysterious: ‘In 2018, the Twitter zeitgeist clung to “horse girl energy” as a way to describe someone who is “blissfully clueless about the world”. There didn’t even need to be a horse involved; this was less about horses and more about who you were as a person […] The horse girl was a mythical figure who dared to say: “No! I will not shut up about the thing I love just because you say it is ‘cringe’”. And even while being bullied relentlessly for it, the horse girls stood their ground.’
‘Chasing Wolves in the American West. It is the wildest part of the American South-West and, in a way, its most beautiful.’
‘In many ways, social class can be defined by the chores you don’t do. The rich have personal assistants, butlers, cooks, drivers. The middle class largely do their own errands — with the occasional babysitter, pizza boy [am assuming this is an American phrase meaning ’person who delivers pizza’, as opposed to a boy who lives with you and cooks you pizza on demand], maybe a cleaner. The poor do their own chores, and the chores of other people.
Then came on-demand’s disruptive influence. The luxuries usually afforded to one-percenters now stretch to the urban upper-middle class, or so the technology industry cheers. But can you democratize the province of the rich without getting a new class acting, well, entitled? My parents made me put away the dishes not to “outsource” their workload — they could have done it faster. They did it so I wouldn’t turn out to be a brat.’ On our ‘new world of on-demand everything.’
‘Plenty of Lord of the Rings super fans visit Hobbiton. Some are more excited than others.’
‘Immune responses to viruses like SARS-CoV-2 may affect mental health, and vice versa. Doctors are uncovering exactly how.’
‘How Amazon turned a generation against labor. If late-capitalism had high holy days, Amazon Prime Day would surely count among them. Here at Harper’s Magazine, we’re getting into the spirit by taking a July feature, “Hard Bargain: How Amazon Turned a Generation Against Labor,” out from behind the paywall. This is to alert readers to the highly effective tactics that the company that “delivers smiles” uses to discourage its workers from unionizing, which include workplace surveillance, mandatory anti-union presentations, and text-message blasts.’ [Meanwhile, I order Christmas presents from Amazon/Book Depository for my brother and his family, who live in the US, because I’m a hypocrite, and because I can’t afford the $300 postage it would cost to send gifts to them bought locally here in NZ. Gahhhh.]
‘Where Do Species Come From? By studying crows, a German biologist has helped to solve a centuries-old mystery.’
Bring back the cocktail lounge and its trippy (sorry to say trippy) interior design! ‘In the days before email and indoor smoking bans, urban and suburban restaurant “cocktail lounges” were common sights across America, many springing up along the nation’s newly paved highways.
‘A Series of Rooms Occupied by Ghislaine Maxwell […] A wealthy woman charged with a sex crime seems like an anomaly. Maybe this is part of the reason why, in a world filled with sexual predators, Maxwell’s case has gained such enormous attention. And then of course there are the men, the princes and presidents closely linked to her case, who have made the story so sensational. Punishing Maxwell might be a way for us to punish all of the men involved, too – men who might go entirely unpunished.’
‘The week is the most artificial and recent of our time counts yet it’s impossible to imagine our shared lives without it.’
On abysses, and folklore. ‘There are countless holes in the ground. Some have water. Some are just open void and darkness. The most important thing one might ask about a hole is how deep it is. When we can’t readily discern the depth, the hole begets additional legendary characteristics.’
Two different perspectives on the issue of statues of people who’ve done wrong and whether or not they should remain standing. Mary Beard writes, ‘Today it’s “culture wars” – but from Caesar to Colston, public art has long been reviled and reinterpreted’, and Gary Younge has this to say, ‘Statues of historical figures are lazy, ugly and distort history. From Cecil Rhodes to Rosa Parks, let’s get rid of them all.’ Certainly not a comprehensive analysis of the issue, (both pieces are from The Guardian, for starters), but each provides an interesting perspective, I think.
DAILY MAIL HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
Gardener, 57, who repeatedly punched her neighbour’s girlfriend in the face and called her a ‘fat cow’ after she objected to her display of PLANT POTS outside her £400,000 bungalow is found guilty of assault.
Overall very, very good. House price stated, plus woman’s age. ‘Plant pots’ is in caps, the word ‘fat’ is mentioned, and the headline is long enough that you have to read it twice to make sure you properly understand what was said. 4.5/5
BOOKS
I love a good end-of-year books round-up. The Guardian’s one where authors recommend their favourites of the year is one I particularly enjoy - there are always lots of interesting titles, and so often ones I’ve never heard of, and would probably never have discovered. Wonderful. And, as always, so many great books, so little time!
More best books of the year! And more!
A publishing world drama! ‘For years, a mysterious figure has been stealing books before their release. Is it espionage? Revenge? Or a complete waste of time?’ (Quite niche, I’ll admit.)
‘I was ten years old, living an unremarkable life, in an unremarkable rented townhouse, in an unremarkable part of Toronto, when my mother, in her own way, showed me how reading could save my life.’
And finally, ‘50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century’. I can highly recommend Hidden Valley Road; Say Nothing; Ghettoside and Nothing to Envy which are included here, and will definitely be ordering many more from the list. Goody!
PODCASTS
‘Living with the Gods is a 30-part BBC Radio 4 series presented by Neil MacGregor, a former director of the British Museum. It explores human societies and what MacGregor describes as "the connections between structures of belief, and the structures of society". The series examines artefacts from the 40,000 year-old Lion-man sculpture to the contemporary Lampedusa cross created by Francisco Tuccio in response to the 2013 drowning of refugees off the island of Lampedusa.’
‘Staggering success, unexpected loss, over-the-top parties, shocking betrayals, and profound intimacy are woven together into a high-profile family-therapy session. The Just Enough Family follows the meteoric rise and staggering fall of the Steinbergs, once one of America’s richest families, through the eyes of Liz Lange— successful fashion designer, captivating storyteller, and niece of the infamous corporate raider Saul Steinberg. Host Ariel Levy (The New Yorker, The Rules do Not Apply), Liz’s friend, gets an inside look at what happened to the once seemingly invincible clan. New money, old secrets, and the fine line between success and excess.’
In The Nuclear Priesthood, 'poet Paul Farley considers how we might warn people three thousand generations from now about the radioactive waste we’ve left in geological disposal facilities deep underground. As he does so he explores the essence of communication and storytelling and the elements of our language, art and culture which are truly universal.
In countries across the world […] the hunt is on for underground sites which will survive shifting tectonic plates or passing ice ages and remain secure for tens of millennia […] until the radioactive waste they contain is no longer a danger. And once it’s buried, how do we leave a clear, unambiguous warning message - that this site is dangerous and should not be disturbed - for a society which may be utterly different from our own? […] Can we still use written language? Would pictures and symbols be more easily understood?
[…] There’s compelling evidence that oral traditions can carry memories of events not just for centuries but for thousands of years. Professor Patrick Nunn has been researching Indigenous Australian stories which appear to carry the folk memory of a time after the last ice age when sea levels were much lower – around ten thousand years. So could a story, a poem or a song be the answer?’
‘Sweet Bobby is a live, multi-part investigation in search of one of the world’s most sophisticated catfishers. It’s a story about who we are online, and how social media can be weaponised as a tool of abuse and coercion.’
Thanks for reading, listening, looking. See you next time, and a very happy Christmas to those who celebrate.
(And don’t forget to share, share, share with friends/family/anyone/pets who might be interested in the newsletter! Thanks so much.)
-Ellie