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Thinking Like A Mountain Science Pick of the day

Jedediah Purdy | n+1 | 19th October 2017
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On Nature writing. Having subdued the natural world, in part by destroying it, we are fascinated and frightened by what remains. “Academic trends are just the owl pellets of Minerva. Stronger evidence of a mood is the ambitious, often excellent, sometimes ridiculous writing, from essays and memoirs to popular science, that asks obsessively: What is looking back at us through other species’ eyes? Could we ever know the viewpoint of a hawk? Is there such a thing as thinking like a mountain?” (4,700 words)

In The Tonnara Life

Matthew Neill Null | Oxford American | 18th October 2017
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Eulogy to the bluefin tuna, caught now in Sicily much as it was by Arab conquerors there a thousand years ago. “The fish is sleek, shining, fast in the water, carving arcs beneath your boat—so fleet considering their massive bodies, which can reach a thousand pounds yet never seems bulky. They are so perfectly attuned to their environment. Their hearts are solid and maroon and drive the blood. Their flesh is packed and firm, as if by a strong mason’s trowel” (1,565 words)

In The Loop Culture

Jonathan Meades | TLS | 18th October 2017
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Discursive and entertaining after-dinner speech at the Royal Academy in London, taking in the seductions of high office, the transitory nature of art, Robert Hughes, Brexit, Duchamp, Anthony Burgess, slang, drink, Bilbao, and the financialisation of the art world. “Power throughout the art loop has been seized by a managerial caste which exercises patronage, commissions rather than creates, edits rather than makes, inflicts its off-the-peg taste, does deals and builds empires” (2,600 words)

Video of the Day: George Saunders On Story

Saunders argues that good stories get written when not even the author knows where the characters are heading (7’40”)
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A comedy depends on stopping the story at exactly the right moment

Siri Hustvedt
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