Links tagged with “lrb”
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Collective Joy « LRB blog
Also on the opening ceremony: “It was love as sentiment, a nostalgic cry for what has been lost. And it is lost. There is no party of the left with a different attitude towards the economy, privatisation and cuts in benefits and the NHS.”
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Elif Batuman · Diary: Pamuk’s Museum · LRB 7 June 2012
I hadn’t heard of this. Orhan Pamuk made a museum of objects belonging to characters from his novel ‘The Museum of Innocence’, which he’d originally intended to be written as a museum catalogue. Now he’s writing the catalogue for this museum.
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John Lanchester · Marx at 193 · LRB 5 April 2012
Just realised I never Pinboarded this at the time, only wrote about it. For completion’s sake.
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Jacqueline Rose · A Rumbling of Things Unknown: Marilyn Monroe · LRB 26 April 2012
I know very little about Monroe but she sounds brilliant, sadness aside. This is a great, long article about how she was always reading and learning and trying to do things the right way.
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Mohammed el Gorani and Jérôme Tubiana · Diary: Guantánamo · LRB 15 December 2011
This month it’s ten years since Guantanamo opened. People are still held there indefinitely. This is one former detainee’s account. Yay America! You must all be so proud.
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Michael Neill reviews ‘Medicinal Cannibalism…’ … and ‘Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires’ … · LRB 1 December 2011
About “mummy”, the processed remains of humans that was considered a valuable medicine as recently as the 19th century. (Subscribers only)
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James Meek · It’s already happened: The NHS Goes Private · LRB 22 September 2011
Long, good, interesting, righteous-anger-inducing article about the ongoing privatisation of the NHS, and how the service compares to other options. I am struggling not to swear.
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James Lasdun · Diary: Police procedurals · LRB 8 September 2011
Really interesting account by a curious writer of using a (US) police department’s Firearms Training Simulator. (Subscribers only)
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Stefan Collini · From Robbins to McKinsey: The Dismantling of the Universities · LRB 25 August 2011
On the higher education White Paper: The gradual movement of responsibility for higher education within government towards business departments; the tortuous attempts to balance a free market and a command economy; the odd language (“the mission-statement present”, “the dogmatic future tense”); that studying something often isn’t wholly enjoyable; that choosing a university “cannot primarily be price-sensitive, adaptive, feedback-governed consumer behaviour”; the 1963 Robbins Report’s emphasis on intellectual inquiry rather than “meeting the needs of employers.”
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LRB · Daniel Soar · Short Cuts
Fascinating, brief, look at the US government’s interest in analysing metaphors in foreign languages for security purposes. Well worth a read if you write, talk or think.
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LRB · Howard Hotson · Short Cuts
The new BPP University in the UK is owned by the Apollo Group, whose biggest US institution, the University of Phoenix, sounds very dodgy.
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LRB · Christopher Tayler · Short Cuts
Mainly for this phrase about the School of Life: “My friend said that it was like watching people marooned on a desert island doing their best to re-create Radio 4.”
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LRB · Donald MacKenzie · How to Make Money in Microseconds
A look at algorithms used in stock market trading, their effects, and including an explanation of why the market fell by 6 per cent in five minutes in May 2010.
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LRB · Howard Hotson · Don’t Look to the Ivy League
A good account of why the US’s market-based university system (admired by Tories) harms the public system and isn’t as good as a first glance at league tables suggests.
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LRB · Stephen Sedley · Plimsoll’s Story
Some interesting bits about the development of laws and reforms in 19th century England.
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LRB · Will Self · The Frowniest Spot on Earth
A critical look at the “breathless,” airport-centered vision of how we’ll live in the future, according to the book ‘Aerotropolis’.
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LRB · James Meek · In the Sorting Office
A long, interesting look at the problems facing the Royal Mail and how the privatised Dutch and German postal services are managing.
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LRB · Richard J. Evans · The Wonderfulness of Us
I’m finding this discussion (the article and many letters below it) about how history should be taught in British schools interesting, although I’ve lost track of exactly who thinks what.
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LRB · Jeremy Harding · Where the Jihadis Are
Interesting review of a book that interviews Muslim suicide bombers around the world, and those in the West trying to stop them (Congress, CIA, NATO, etc). Fascinating, but subscribers only.
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LRB · Benjamin Kunkel · How Much Is Too Much?
“Harvey observes these contradictions sharpening over time, as finance capital becomes ever more mobile while beds of infrastructure grow increasingly Procrustean: ‘The disjunction of the quest for hypermobility and an increasingly sclerotic built environment (think of the huge amount of fixed capital embedded in Tokyo or New York City) becomes ever more dramatic.’”
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LRB · Vol. 33 No. 4 · 17 February 2011 · letters
My second letter in the LRB, this time quoting Yoz.
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LRB · Iain Sinclair · The Raging Peloton
He has a nice turn of phrase but Iain Sinclair is a gloomy, misanthropic reactionary who thinks the only people who can ride bikes authentically are the 1950s working class and eccentric poets. One wonders why he still lives in London.
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LRB · job
Now that’s a job advert. No faffing. “The ‘London Review of Books’ is looking for an editor, preferably one with an interest in politics and history. Would suit a young, disaffected academic.”
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LRB · Vol. 33 No. 1 · 6 January 2011 · letters
I must have missed the government’s embarrassment and apologies over its peaceful citizens being treated like this by the police in the student protests.
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LRB · David Runciman · Look…
For this: “a new divide in British public life: between the people who say ‘Look…’ and the people who say ‘So…’”
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LRB · John Lanchester · Let Us Pay
On the future of the newspaper industry. Many good nuggets, including: “New York Times, if it stopped printing a physical edition of the paper, could afford to give every subscriber a free Kindle. Not the bog-standard Kindle, but the one with free global data access. And not just one Kindle, but four Kindles. And not just once, but every year.”
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LRB · August Kleinzahler · Diary
I really enjoyed this description of a road trip in the American West, although it’s for subscribers only.
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LRB · David Simpson · Because We Could
Interesting look at why soldiers torture prisoners. Lays much of the blame at (a) the normalisation of torture as a technique in films/TV watched by troops and (b) the training soldiers go through that prepares them for being tortured themselves. (Subscribers only.)
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LRB · Ross McKibbin · Nothing to do with the economy
On the cuts. The bigger the cuts, the more it makes the economy seem in more trouble than it is, and this in turn makes the previous Labour government look more incompetent. Also, the Liberals as a friendly fig leaf hiding the Tories’ extreme ideas. Fuckers.
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LRB · Terry Castle · Adieu, madame
A good account of just how huge an international star Sarah Bernhardt was. Also, the fedora was originally a hat worn by women. (Subscribers only unfortunately.)
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LRB · Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen · Which came first, the condition or the drug?
Interesting article about Bipolar Disorder and how the definition of the condition has changed over the decades. (Subscribers only, again, grr.)
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LRB · Carl Elliott · The Mild Torture Economy
Fascinating article about medical trials, how the market for patients willing to take part for small amounts of cash has shifted around the world, and how very dodgy they are. (Subscribers only)
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LRB · James Davidson · Flat-Nose, Stocky and Beautugly
This article, about the changes in names given to children over the years was fascinating, at least (for me) until it gets round to the main subject, ancient Greek names.
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LRB · Glen Newey · Is it really so wrong?
This article, on the nature of evil, was apparently really good, as I turned the corner on it, but it was two weeks ago and I remember nothing about it now. (Subscribers only)
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The Unsorting Office
Leaving aside the making-my-blood-boil mess of the Royal Mail, that bit at the end about recording all the knowledge of posties about short-cuts, hills, gates, etc is interesting.
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LRB · Rebecca Solnit · Diary
If you’re feeling too happy, well worth a read. “A bayou redneck told him: ‘Osama fuckin’ bin Laden could not have imagined, planned or executed more devastation than BP has.’”
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LRB · Jenny Diski · Toxic Lozenges
About how common arsenic poisoning (both murder and accidental) was, mainly in the 19th century. Fascinating.
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LRB · Stephen Sedley · Enemies of All Mankind
For the bit about pirates, the old fashioned kind, and their equitable pay scales.
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LRB · Alex de Waal · Dollarised
Interesting article about the place of patronage, bribery, etc in non-“Western” countries and why simply trying to circumvent it, or stamp it out, isn’t a good route to reform.
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LRB · R.W. Johnson · Sudanitis
On a Victorian exploration into Africa which required more than 2000 people.
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LRB · Cathy Gere · Dying and Not Dying
About Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951, but whose cells, named HeLa, are still being used today.
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LRB · Rosemary Hill · Keep Calm
From 2007, an article that keeps coming back to me, about the Co-operative Correspondence Club, a distributed newsletter for women that lasted most of the twentieth century.
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LRB · Christopher Turner · Missionary Work
On Henry Wellcome’s amazingly vast collection of stuff from around the world, most of which was sold off in the mid-20th century. Huge.
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LRB · Charles Nicholl · ‘A Naughty House’
Entertaining account of some early 17th century people and places around Whitecross Street, St John Street, Barbican.
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LRB · Keith Thomas · Diary
About taking notes from books, keeping commonplace books, etc. Interesting to read about his laborious technique.
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House of Compliance « LRB blog
Edward Pearce on the nonsense of the government consulting “The People” about everything. “The People are not stupid, but by and large, they are wonderfully under-informed. And as sure as hell, they are not very interested.”
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LRB · Gareth Peirce · America’s Non-Compliance
Good description of quite how scary America is in terms of lack of civil rights for those accused of crimes (never mind convicted), whether in America or not.
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Mr Brown Goes to the Palace « London Review Blog
John Lanchester’s started posting daily about the general election (if you click his name, that page also has an RSS feed just for him).
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LRB · John Lanchester · The Great British Economy Disaster
Another must-read. “This is a direct transfer of wealth from the taxpayer to the banks, and the only difference between it and an actual, physical licence to print money is that the banks don’t have a piece of paper with the words ‘Official Licence to Print Money’ written across the top.”
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LRB · August Kleinzahler · Diary
I really liked this piece, in which Kleinzahler sells the home he grew up in, and his parents have lived in for decades.