“From the ancient Nordic forest fairies and the 15th-Century Mélusine legend to Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, faerie folklore is full of deception and seduction.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
The “Disney Adult” Industrial Complex
“The grown-up Disney superfan has become a much-mocked phenomenon online. But creating these consumers was always part of the corporation’s plan.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Edifice Complex
“Restoring the term “burnout” to its roots in landlord arson puts the dispossession of poor city dwellers at its center.”
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Six Stories About a Complex Cuisine and Our Top 5
“Migration patterns, together with demographic trends and climate change, mean that the cuisine must adapt. Italian food—so rooted in tradition and adamant in its authenticity—will have to change.” In previous reading lists, Longreads contributor Clare Egan has explored a range of topics: Ireland, queer ecology, and the decision to have a child. This week, Egan dives […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Rise of the Scented-Candle Industrial Complex
“Why is everyone waxing on about Diptyque?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Salacious Middle Ages
“Medieval people feared death by celibacy as much as venereal disease, and practiced complex sexual health regimens.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Did Something Happen to Mom When She Was Young?’
“The hidden history of the Cold War adoption complex.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside LA’s Homeless Industrial Complex
Just 7 percent of the people in Los Angeles’s Echo Park encampment found permanent housing after it was cleared. Almost half are missing. Seven are dead. That’s not a failure of homelessness policy; it’s an example of the system working exactly as intended: Officers wielded batons, launched foam bullets at point-blank range, tackled members of […]
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The Strange Power of Laughter
“An anthropologist explores laughter as a far more complex phenomenon than simple delight—reflecting on its surprising power to disturb and disrupt.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Scammer Next Door
“In India, an era of glaring inequality is also a golden age of fraud.”
