“I learned about the data center as soon as the scrappy sign was erected. I was thrilled to see something new; my drive hasn’t changed much in three years. I was less thrilled for Pine Island, which has, like many rural Midwestern towns, become an unlikely microcosm of the AI debate.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Nights and Days
“Maybe anybody who can become transparent to experience and articulate it truthfully and without distortion is a poet. Even if the facts are scary or horrible, what comes out, if true, might be beautiful.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Recurring Screens
“A screen saver periodically smokes the locusts out, thereby saving the screen from the disfigurement of monotony.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Tickling of the Bulls: A Rodeo at Madison Square Garden
“It’s an especially American paradox: a ruthlessly meritocratic system where men nonetheless live to pull each other up by their bootstraps.”
Posted inReading List
‘Actually Really Sacred’: A George Saunders Reading List
Nine essays and interviews from literature’s favorite laureate of compassion.
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: the appeal of the surreal, decoding AI dreck, goop relations, learning to think, and pigeon racing pitfalls
Posted inEditor's Pick
Rabelaisian Enumerations: On Lists
“What sort of collection should a library hold? How should books be classified? What is the function of lists?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Against Rereading
“For those who do not reread, a book is like a little life. When it ends, it dies—or it lives on, imperfectly and embellished, in your memories.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Six Handbags
“I’ve been looking for a bag that can fit my life. I should be looking for a life that can fit into my bag. I do not need to read, to go to the gym. I need only what will fit inside the portal.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Scrabble, Anonymous
“Somehow, doing it with other people took the stain away, made it feel fun instead of abject.”
