Friday Links
August 30, 2024
Julian Alden Weir Autumn Rain
Tessa Carmen reviews The Anxious Generation
Adam Sacks on the Esoteric Wokeness of ‘Ancient Aliens’
2024 Emerging Translator Residency
Autumn Poems
Inklings on the Move: Lee Oser in Law and Liberty
Tessa Carmen reviews The Anxious Generation
Wonderful to see this review from Tessa of an important book for all of us, not just parents:
I suspect Haidt’s book has been so successful thus far because it not only provides a compelling narrative of how we got here, but it gives us both hope and a clear path of what to do next. Haidt summons immense research and organization to explain howand why a radical decrease in unsupervised outdoor play and an increase in time spent on pocket computer portals—especially during the most vulnerable stages of childhood—wreaks havoc on mental health and overall happiness. Reversing the trend is rather simple: increasing unstructured outdoor play and decreasing time spent “alone together” by getting rid of the “streetlights” so that we can—slowly but steadily—not only notice the stars, but re-knit our communities.
The book is written to be as accessible, tight, and winsome as possible, with copious endnotes and every chapter ending with bullet-point summaries. It’s perfect for bringing to your school district or your church reading group (Haidt is an atheist who recognizes the benefits of the spiritual life); it’s accessible for normies, trads, and rads.
Adam Sacks on the Esoteric Wokeness of ‘Ancient Aliens’
The pseudo-archaeology informing the Ancient Aliens extended universe is driven by a systematic disregard for intellectual antecedents. Contrary to the consensus that civilization emerged across the globe at varying locales and occasions—supporting the idea that all humans everywhere share the same creative capacity for innovation—it posits an unnamed ancient civilization that created thousands of pyramids (some under the oceans and on Antarctica) between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago. The pyramids, real or imagined, are transformed in this account into a network of intergalactic waystations. The literal scheme of global pyramids has also fostered a figurative pyramid scheme for the mind: From Bali to Sedona, there is now an ancient-aliens pilgrimage trail, devoted to rituals of “akashic heart readings” and “regression and reincarnation therapy.”
2024 Emerging Translator Residency
Well, this sounds like an amazing opportunity . . . and you get to work with the wonderful Boris Dralyuk:
Over the past decade, Los Angeles Review of Books has celebrated the art of translation and fought for the visibility of its practitioners by reviewing and publishing translations from dozens of the world’s languages in our pages. In 2022, we decided to honor this legacy and strengthen our commitment to the translation community with the launch of the Los Angeles Review of Books + Yefe Nof Translation Residency.
The Translation Residency is open to emerging translators of prose from any language who have not yet published a book-length collection of work. The winning translator will have the opportunity to complete and polish their translation of a short story, in consultation with former LARB editor-in-chief and longtime literary translator Boris Dralyuk, during a two-week stay at Yefe Nof in Lake Arrowhead, California, from December 2 to December 16, 2024. The resident's piece will be published in the LARB Quarterly.
Autumn Poems
It’s a cool day here in Conshohocken and I can smell autumn’s approach and what better way to celebrate this glorious season than with some poetry. Here are a few I love: “The Beautiful Changes” by Richard Wilbur, “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” by James Wright, “To Autumn” by John Keats, “Autumn” by Rainer Maria Rilke, “After a Death” by Tomas Tranströmer. Why not drop your favorites in the comments section?
Inklings on the Move: Lee Oser in Law and Liberty
Less Oser reviews two new books: “Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography by Holly Ordway and C. S. Lewis’s Oxford by Simon Horobin. These authors differ considerably in their outlooks and their aims. What unites them is the high quality of their scholarship.”
