“Infamously … Goethe dismissed the younger writer as diseased.”
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My Body Is Not a Temple
All the good habits and self-optimization in the world don’t give you real control over your body. Back away from the bread starter.
This Week in Books: Several Nihilistic Frenchmen
This week critics have looked to Huysmans, Camus and Jean-Philippe Toussaint for COVID-era inspiration.
Performance Art: On Sharing Culture
With physical distancing the order of the day as COVID-19 spreads, cultural locales — sites for communal experiences, like museums and theaters — are emptying out. What are we sharing if we’re not sharing these spaces? And were we really sharing them to begin with?
Marmalade: A Very British Obsession
Captain Scott took jars to the Antarctic with him, and Edmund Hillary took one up Everest. Marmalade is part of the British national myth. Livvy Potts wants to know why.
Editor’s Roundtable: Smiles, Lies, and Promise (Podcast)
Longreads editors discuss stories in Gay Magazine, The New Yorker, and Topic.
On the Hotness of Not Getting Any
Edging, or extending the time leading up to an orgasm, is almost a character of its own in Normal People, Run, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It also has a lot to teach us about sexuality and consent.
This Week In Books: A ‘Melancholia’ or ‘Take Shelter’ Situation
I will become power-mad and lock my boyfriend inside forever!
Fear of Suffering Alone
After separating from her husband and entering quarantine, Anne Liu Kellor faces her ongoing desire for a partner and the necessity of loving herself.
8 Longreads by Will Storr on the Science of Storytelling
Eight must-read stories that investigate science, belief, and the human impulse to tell stories.
