Noteworthy reads from the last week:
"Why this special treatment for twelve-step programs? Because all the other moral languages in which modern Americans are fluent, the languages that sound so inspiring and correct when talking about politics, turn useless in the face of addiction."
"One Wine, Two Wine, Red Wine, Blue Wine," Damion Searls
"The most well-known color-translation problem is Homer’s 'wine-dark sea'—the sea rarely being, of course, what we would call the color of wine of any color."
"A Place of Pasts," Joseph Mitchell
"In the fall of 1968, without at first realizing what was happening to me, I began living in the past. These days, when I reflect on this and add up the years that have gone by, I can hardly believe it: I have been living in the past for over twenty years—living mostly in the past, I should say, or living in the past as much as possible."
"Iammmmyookkraaanian," Peter Pomerantsev
"After decades in Moscow with its aestheticised cynicism and London with its apolitical resignation, Kiev’s uprush of utopias was refreshing, and occasionally disturbing. Soon I found myself sitting in cafés scribbling my own pet utopia: Ukraine as a Russia 2.0."
"A Clever Collection," Matthew Walther
"We hit astonished, indeed open-mouthed, upon the truth, namely that the teenaged Austen was already a prudent, wise, humble person trying to make sense of a world full of boorishness and stupidity."
"Your Snitching Gadgets," Jacob Silverman
"Always-on data collection, combined with porous privacy policies and insecure devices, are changing our expectations for security and privacy. What matters now is not just what our devices and apps collect but also why, for whom, when, and how."
"Why Max Weber Matters," Duncan Kelly
"For those who hold fixed ideas about Weber the political animal, Ghosh’s claims will be hard reading. But part of the problem with seeing him as a straightforward nationalist was that even incandescent rage about national shame was allied to a profound understanding of geopolitics and political responsibility."
Hedgehogs abroad:
"Cézanne and the Modern," Leann Davis Alspaugh
"Henry Pearlman liked to say that every time he saw his art collection, it gave him a lift. We should all be so lucky."