The psychology behind America’s obsession with Hallmark Christmas movies.
loneliness
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Story, Writing
The Writer Alone
A woman out of her mind, locked in an apartment. This, I believed, was the optimal, and probably only, condition under which art could be made.
Posted inBusiness, Culture, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quotes
How Japan Deals with the Remains of Your Days
In Japan, business is booming for those who clean out apartments after people die.
Posted inBooks, Commentary
This Month in Books: ‘What Used To Be Me Before the World Buried It’
Everyone is feeling very alone in this month’s books newsletter.
Posted inBooks, Food, Story
Eating Alone
We’re eating alone more often than in any previous generation. But why should a meal on our own be uninspired? Why shouldn’t the French saying “life is too short to drink bad wine” still apply?
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Desperately Seeking Company: Male, Age 85, Up for Adoption
One elderly man’s attempt to combat crushing loneliness.
Posted inQuotes
Elderly Japanese Women Are Turning to Crime to Find Companionship in Prison
For some elderly women in Japan, prison offers companionship and a life free from worry.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
A Lonely Death: The Extreme Isolation of Japan’s Elderly
Many members of Japan’s rapidly aging population live isolated, solitary lives in massive apartment communities filled with people.
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Hundred
Beth Ann Fennelly suggests that to fully embrace the beauty of poetry, one must memorize it. Once committed to memory — a process that gets easier with practice — a poem forever becomes prophylactic against stressful days and lonely times: “We’ve all known solitary confinement. We’ve all inhabited isolation rooms. But the poems we know […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Loneliness of Donald Trump
“But the opposite of people who drag you down isn’t people who build you up and butter you up. It’s equals who are generous but keep you accountable, true mirrors who reflect back who you are and what you are doing.”