Interesting Times No. 9
A wellness conundrum; Scrabble passion; 'public decency'; Viv Albertine; Judge Judy!; the show-dog world; the humane asylum; a literary take-down; Janet Fish
Hello! Welcome!
I hope you enjoy this week’s high(?) and low internet happenings.
JOURNALISM
‘How the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker became one of the world’s most contentious thinkers.’
‘Dostoevsky’s Favorite Murder. "The author of “Crime and Punishment” had a love-hate relationship with the true-crime obsessions of his era.’
‘Alex Casey spends a long weekend with the most passionate Scrabble players in the country, and learns more new words than you can shake a tile bag at. […] Almost everyone swears [Scrabble] has kept their brain in better shape as they aged. “Put it this way, I’ve never known anybody who plays Scrabble that has died of dementia or Alzheimer’s,” says Paul.
“Don’t get me wrong – they still die, but it’s always of good old-fashioned obesity or cancer. Those are my two rules for aging: never stand in those cracks on the footpath in case you fall, and play Scrabble until you die.”’
‘Should Māori trust the public health system? Haimona Gray looks to the past to understand the present.’
‘So rare is it to be charged with the common law offence of committing an act that outrages public decency that before [Australia’s] Victorian County Court could get to the issue of Richard Pusey’s guilt, in its hearings on March 31 and April 27 this year, it first had to ascertain whether such an offence existed.’ A piece by Sarah Krasnostein: ‘The Most Hated Man - On the sentencing of Richard Pusey for outraging public decency.’
‘As a society we are failing people with severe, persistent mental illness. It’s time to reimagine institutional care.‘ On ‘The Humane Asylum’.
‘The Dark Underside of the Show-Dog World. In the wake of the possible murder of a prized Irish setter, Mark Seal examines the impassioned personalities who devote their lives to dogs, and the tense rivalries that can become sinister.’
‘Sacrifice: An eccentric monk’s singular scrap cathedral reveals the chaos and genius of his mind.’
Judge Judy! (Edit: this piece is from 2019; since then Judge Judy has become Judy Justice. ‘After wrapping up a 25-year run with the syndicated Judge Judy, Judith Sheindlin is launching Judy Justice, a new court show.’)
‘Ricardo Bofill: The outsider architect who gave 60s Spain a sci-fi makeover.’
‘The Mark of the Beast.’ On ‘Georgian Britain’s Anti-Vaxxer Movement’.
‘On Whose Shoulders do We Stand? Far from being a fixed entity, the story of Greek science is a work in progress with its own meta-history. Dr. Patricia Fara explores the current story and factors that have influenced this narrative so far.’
‘“I don’t like the way the word ‘luxury’ is tossed around regarding things that should just be described as ‘plain’.” ‘Sally Davies’s portraits of larger than life characters in their equally colourful [NYC] homes offer a glimpse into the grit, elegance, poverty and humanity of an ever-changing city.’
‘Extinction day. New research is revealing exactly what happened the day the dinosaurs died.’
‘It’s Not the Other America. It’s Just America. Photographer Matt Black’s epic journey through the places that “don’t matter”. […] Civic failures are internalized as personal failures. [Black’s book] American Geography is a visual tour of the culture produced and lives altered in that process. Black points his car up into the Sierra foothills, and we’re given a spectacular view of the farms and towns we’d just driven through. “It’s amazing how you internalize all that,” he says. “It matters in terms of how the country functions, whether democracy can work or not work. The American Dream. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, people still buy into it. And that’s how it works. It works because somehow it’s your fault that you’re poor. It’s your fault that your community has got poisoned water, bad air, no jobs.”’
DNA evidence exonerated six convicted killers. So why do some of them recall the crime so clearly? On ‘Remembering the Crime You Didn’t Commit.’
‘Who runs the internet? Furries.’
‘From Hamilton to Harry Potter, critics keep misreading popular culture and writing off things that their audiences love. Why?’
‘In its heyday, Valentines was New Zealand’s leading chain of licensed buffet restaurants. But how does the once go-to birthday party venue hold up in 2022? Jihee Junn pays a visit, and talks to its new owners, to find out.’
BEST OF BRITISH GOOP:
BOOKS
‘Title Your Inspirational Memoir With Our Handy Chart. What’s your “Eat, Pray, Love?” We’ve made it easy to find out.’ (Mine’s ‘Eat, Pray, Drink’. Reminds me of the ‘is it wine o’clock yet?’ mums at my children’s primary school. Will not be looking to publish.)
‘Faith’, a short story by Sayaka Murata, author of ’Convenience Store Woman’.
A literary take-down! One of the most incredibly scathing pieces I’ve ever read on an author’s body of work. If you’ve read A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, then read this piece. It is searing! seething! vicious! I didn’t read much of A Little Life as the abuse described in it was too overwhelming; however I’ve read things about it over the years alluding to things that are covered in this piece.
I wanted to find an amazing interview with Viv Albertine, from the band The Slits. This is the best I could find, in terms of capturing at least some of her admirable spirit, and approach to being alive. She’s an amazing woman; she seemingly gives no shits, and appears to have miraculously shed so much of the accommodating, nurturing, always interested in others’ needs, making-room-for nonsense that almost all women are forced to acquire to some extent from pretty early on in life. She’s basically who I wish I could be, if only I were braver/a different person. Anyway, confessional aside, she’s very great and you should get involved. I don’t think you need to know her music, or 70’s/80's punk (I don’t) to enjoy who she is - if you enjoy the interview with her, then next up read her two memoirs, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys and To Throw Away Unopened. I can’t recommend them, and her, enough. And there ends the Viv Albertine endorsement section, which ended up in the Books section because it does involve some book recs, and there’s not a people endorsement section.
‘An interview with Peter Mitchell. Talking to the author of Imperial Nostalgia about the complex British relationship to class, culture war diversions, and toppling statues. […] We have a really, really complex relationship to class here. The map of class stratification between who reads The Times and The Daily Telegraph and who reads the Daily Mail and who below that reads The Sun and the Express is really complicated and really tiring to navigate[.]
PODCASTS
‘OurShelves is a place where writers from the legendary feminist publishing house Virago […] talk about their cultural worlds. Host Lucy Scholes [dives] into writers’ bookshelves, record collections and recollections to discover what inspires them.’
‘Steve Braunias, “New Zealand's most awarded journalist, [spent] three years on the road, learning about life in small-town New Zealand.” He interviewed an array of characters, and the interviews featured here formed the basis for Braunias’ magnificent, illuminating book, Civilisation - the book itself is described as “funny, moving, sometimes terrifying; our country reveals itself; people and places are never as they first appear. Full of astonishing phrases, insights, and provocations, Civilisation is like a series of great New Zealand novels bound up in one extraordinary book”’.
See you next time,
-Ellie