Sudan, Shootings, Nancy Drew, Bernie Sanders, India
The Doctor
James Verini | Atavist | 1st October 2015
Catholic ex-football player from New York runs the only functional hospital within 3,000 square miles in Southern Sudan. He treats victims of the bombing campaign by president Omar al-Bashir against his own citizens (ignored by the international media). He refused to evacuate when bombing began because he saw it as a claim that his "life is worth more than these people here." Beautifully presented with photos and videos (10,600 words)
Who’s The Alpha Male Now, Bitches?
Andrew O'Hagan | London Review Of Books | 22nd October 2015
Lone wolf gunmen who shoot up schools, universities or cinemas often leave behind a ‘manifesto’. They reveal feelings of paranoia and inferiority, citing imagined wrongs against them and wanting to take revenge on a society that slighted them: “the step from beta boy to Ubermensch seems natural.” Some spend years preparing texts, poems and videos to express their frustration and justify their eventual actions (4,830 words)
Who Is Nancy Drew, Really?
Isabel Ortiz | Paris Review Daily | 14th October 2015
The girl detective was created by a 1930s publishing tycoon and a "cross-country network of ghostwriters," helping explain her constantly shifting character (and looks). One writer "described the Nancy Drew novels as sonnets, or “endless variations on an inflexible form.”" There was even a 16 book series which "lifted entire plots and settings" from Drew but replaced her with actresses like Shirley Temple or Judy Garland (1,590 words)
Slow Burn: Bernie Sanders Ignites A Populist Movement
Rick Perlstein | Washington Spectator | 8th October 2015
Supportive view of Bernie Sanders, selling his appeal to conservative working-class Americans. "When upwards of 60 percent of voters consistently agree that rich people should have their taxes raised, a candidate who promises to do so might be identified as what he actually is: middle of the road." But pollsters ignore people who were previously unengaged in politics, or who don't fall into expected categories (2,600 words)
Outside The Whale
Salman Rushdie | Granta | 1st March 1984
Salman Rushdie writing 30 years ago about British TV and movie depictions of the Raj (such as Attenborough's Gandhi). "Indians get walk-ons, but remain, for the most part, bit-players in their own history... It scarcely matters that individual, fictional Brits get unsympathetic treatment from their author. The form insists that they are the ones whose stories matter." With a critique of George Orwell's essay Inside the Whale (5,660 words)
Video of the day: Timelapse Hot Air Balloons
What to expect: At Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (2'42")
Thought for the day
Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so
Lord Chesterfield