Political Power And Banned Books
On Political Power
Henrik Karlsson | Escaping Flatland | 28th January 2026 | U
Thoughts after reading the first volume of Robert Caro's Lyndon B. Johnson biography. Political power is not, as the writer had thought, endowed by jobs or institutions. Real political operatives understand that it "is something you frack, something you force out of the stone by pumping fluid into the cracks". Every drop adds up. Johnson saw the world this way, and had done since he was a toddler (2,700 words)
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Iran's Ultimate Banned Book
Amir Ahmadi Arian | Dial | 15th January 2026 | U
No text captures Iran's contradictions as well as the 1936 novella The Blind Owl. Sadegh Hedayat's book holds the distinction of having been banned both before and after the 1979 revolution. Its ambiguous, symbol-laden narrative follows a mediocre painter through his obsession with a beautiful woman, whom he kills, and then his awakening as "the old, Quran-reciting man he most despises" (3,700 words)