LongReads Round-Up Volume Twenty Two

The continuing conversation about the cost of a degree in college, and new methods for giving credit to students
Http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/education/edlife/degrees-based-on-what-you-can-do-not-how-long-you-went.html?

Slate reviews the 130+ page interview of Susan Sontag from a 1978 issue of Rolling Stone.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/11/susan_sontag_s_complete_rolling_stone_interview_reviewed.html

An oral history of the revamping of Vanity Fair, complete with Truman Capote's histrionics.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/10/birth-modern-vanity-fair?

Real talk, I don't really care for the quality of Thought Catalog pieces, so it makes sense this is actually an aggregate of posts from Quora, about people's expectations of America and their actual experiences.
http://thoughtcatalog.com/michael-koh/2013/11/16-people-on-things-they-couldnt-believe-about-america-until-they-moved-here/

This story of the journey refugees make from the Middle East, through Indonesia to Australia, is heartbreaking. A life with no options is no life at all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/magazine/the-impossible-refugee-boat-lift-to-christmas-island.html?

Marvel announces that the new Ms Marvel will be a 16 year old Pakistinian-American girl.
www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/books-marvel-comics-introducing-a-muslim-girl-superhero.html

This OkCupid couple booked a trip across Europe with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs.
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/12/the_craziest_okcupid_date_ever/

A deep review of America's foreign policy in the Middle East.
http://www.thenation.com/article/177002/field-guide-losing-friends-influencing-no-one-and-alienating-middle-east#

This transcript of an interview between Nia King and Virgie Tovar from the podcast We Want the Airwaves covers body image, women in advanced degree programs, and how self presentation is part of personhood. http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/152485506#fullscreen

LongReads Round-Up Volume Thirteen (aka The One All About Girls)

#Crime

Is there a scientific cure to pedophilia? http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/14/130114fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all

#Development

Jared Diamond reviews Why Nations Fail, surveying economic policies, centralized governments, and natural resources along the way: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/what-makes-countries-rich-or-poor/?pagination=false

#Feminism #Literature

1993 article by Deborah Tannen about "marked" and "unmarked" in literature, in that to be female is to always be marked or derivative of the norm, which is male. Sadly, Tannen misses the mark (no pun intended) in how this also relates to intersectional forms of oppression such as race or sexualty. http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/nyt062093.htm

An argument that there is still a need and purpose for female-centric anthologies of literature, and other specially designated spaces: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/review/CR_532_Spahr_Young.pdf

#Health

Two part investigation into the troubling trend in labiaplasty and cashing in on physical insecurities:
http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/kirsten-oregan-labiaplasty-part-i/
http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/kirsten-oregan-labiaplasty-part-ii/

Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, on mental health and self help, and being disillusioned with life: http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/01/elizabeth-wurtzel-on-self-help.html

Obligatory "how can I relate this to Girls" response article: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/01/what-would-hannah-horvath-make-of-elizabeth-wurtzel.html

#Journalism

Catching up with former executive editor of GOOD on social media, and internet publications http://therumpus.net/2013/01/saturday-special-the-rumpus-catches-up-with-ann-friedman/

#Literature

This excellent interview with poet Megan Kaminski provokes a dialogue about women's place in the modern literary canon, and offers an abundance of further readings: http://www.themillions.com/2013/01/topographies-of-desire-the-millions-interviews-megan-kaminski.html

Ethics in reading literature in an ever-globalizing age: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1244&fulltext=1&media=#article-text-cutpoint

Interview with James Franco about his poetry chapbook and his literary endeavors in general: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1237&fulltext=1

Fan Girl interview with Margaret Atwood: http://therumpus.net/2013/01/the-sunday-rumpus-interview-margaret-atwood/

A series of links on New Narrative, modern female authors, and what is "women's literature," anyway:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/08/all-the-sad-young-literary-women/61821/

http://nplusonemag.com/female-trouble

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-semiautobiographers/

Hannah Horvath's bookshelf: http://www.themillions.com/2013/01/ten-books-to-read-now-that-hbos-girls-is-back.html

Celebrating the anniversary of literary theory text Exercises in Style, with a new edition:

http://therumpus.net/2013/01/exercises-in-style/ 

http://www.themillions.com/2011/09/staff-pick-exercises-in-style-by-raymond-queneau.html

Jeffrey Eugenide's advice to young writers, winners of the Whiting Award, and a response from The Millions:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/12/jeffrey-eugenides-advice-to-young-writers.html 

http://www.themillions.com/2013/01/jeffrey-eugenidess-killer-advice.html

#Obituary

A round up of links after young internet and free access activist Aaron Swartz's suicide last month:

http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21569674-aaron-swartz-computer-programmer-and-activist-committed-suicide-january-11th-aged-26-aaron

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/technology/aaron-swartz-internet-activist-dies-at-26.html?_r=0

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/01/20/the-tragedy-of-aaron-swartz.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-did-the-justice-system-target-aaron-swartz-20130123

http://www.infodocket.com/2013/01/12/tragic-news-internet-activist-and-developer-aaron-swartz-dead-at-26/

#Religion

How the internet is shaping (and dissolving) fundamentalist religions: http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/religion_may_not_survive_the_internet/

#Science

Rookie interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson, maintaing its position as coolest publication for girls in print or online:  http://rookiemag.com/2012/07/an-interview-with-neil-degrasse-tyson/ (I love when she asks, do you ever get really overwhelmed by the universe?)

#Sexuality

How the sexual revolution has developed since the 1980s: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1252

Growing up with Judy Blume: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1201&fulltext=1

#Technology

You've got a friend in the world wide web, the new hub of social activism, do-gooders, and Likers:  http://nymag.com/news/features/internet-nice-2012-11/index1.html

#Television

Girls is back, and so are all the articles about HBO's most talked about twenty minutes a week: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/lena-dunham-february-2013#_

Emily Nussbaum writing about Girls and the tradition of provocative young women in literature http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2013/02/11/130211crte_television_nussbaum?currentPage=all

Elaine Blair on the (oft non-titilating) portrayal of sex on Girls last season: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/loves-lena-dunham/?pagination=false

#Travel

Ploughshare winning essay on living in Jerusalem and attempting to understand Israel/Palestine issues as an American: https://www.pshares.org/read/article-detail.cfm?intArticleID=9725&src=longreads

Three essays from poets living in Gaza: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1205&fulltext=1

LongReads Round-Up Volume Seven

#Art

New Statesman provides an English translation of the tax evasion charges China is laying against artist Ai Weiwei as a means of suppressing his work: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2012/10/ai-weiwei-papers 

August interview with Ai Weiwei about censorship, China, and individual expression: http://www.realitysandwich.com/ai_weiwei_dj_spooky

#Comics

I’m not Tomine’s biggest fan, but I appreciated what he had to say about the evolving art of cartooning/comics/ illustrating. I’m also a sucker for his “Missed Connections” cover. http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/10/29/urban-renewal-an-interview-with-adrian-tomine/

#Education

New technological frontiers in learning a second language: http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/whats_the_secret_to_learning_a_second_lanuage/

#Environment

When is the human species going to hit its second inflection point? How our species’ success will destroy us. http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/7146 #recommended 

#Feminism

Looking at several new books that deal with gender, feminism, and sexuality (The End of Men, How to Be a Woman, Heroines, This is How You Lose Her) and where we are all losing out in the gender divide: http://therumpus.net/2012/10/how-we-all-lose/

Two interviews with the author of Heroines, Kate Zambreno (essay-memoir-history-lit-theory hybrid about female modernist authors)

http://believermag.tumblr.com/post/34763897153/why-dont-you-like-me-writers-tamara-faith-berger-andhttp://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/10/22/heroine-worship-talking-with-kate-zambreno/

Moore lived in Cambodia and taught university women how to make zines: http://therumpus.net/2012/10/the-sunday-rumpus-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore/

#Film

Nice completist review of the Coen Brothers’ body of work, from one auteur theory enthusiast to another: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_completist/2011/08/i_watched_every_coen_brothers_movie.single.html

The predicament of political filmmakers in China: http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/world-affairs/2012/10/hazards-independent-chinese-cinema #censorship

Following the Wachowski siblings’ passion for unique storytelling and the journey of filiming Cloud Atlas: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/10/120910fa_fact_hemon?currentPage=all

Puzzling out the complicated paths of characters in Cloud Atlas: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/10/27/cloud_atlas_meaning_what_does_the_wachowskis_movie_say_about_reincarnation.html

#Health

Treat yo’self: Weeks worth of massaging does a body good. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/my-multiday-massage-a-thon.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=all

A tiny island in Greece has one of the longest average lifespans in the world. In many ways the lifestyle reminds me of Indonesia, pre-processed food boom. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html?pagewanted=all #longevity

#International

Interview with civil rights activist in China who has fought forced family planning legislation and led class action suits against the Chinese government: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/human-rights/2012/10/chen-guangcheng-facts-have-blood-evidence 

What countries would be voting for Obama this month? http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/10/31/blue_planet?page=full

#Journalism

Specifically, the ethics of found-out plagiarizer and science journalist Jonah Lehrer, But on a grander scale, the state of branded journalism and pop science: http://nymag.com/news/features/jonah-lehrer-2012-11/#

Encounter was a cultural literary arts magazine published out of Britain and covertly funded by the CIA as part of the cold war agenda. http://www.newstatesman.com/node/135185

1960s article about the resignation of Encounter editor when he discovered the CIA was funding the publication. (You need a NYTimes subscription to access this article) http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70815FF3D5B107B93CAA9178ED85F438685F9

Censorship in China: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2012/10/virus-censorship

#Literature

Survey of HP Lovecraft’s body of work and how it has influenced culture, and how the internet made all that influence possible. http://www.themorningnews.org/article/h.p.-lovecraft-author-is-dead #obituary

Neil Gaiman created the holiday “All Hallows Eve,” a day to encourage children reading “scary” stories. The Millions has a list of recommended reads. http://www.themillions.com/2012/10/all-hallows-read-a-parents-guide-to-scary-books-for-young-readers.html #children’s lit #spooky

Excerpt from the new David Foster Wallace biography by DT Max (see next link)  http://www.themillions.com/2012/08/excerpt-the-opening-paragraphs-of-d-t-maxs-every-love-story-is-a-ghost-story-a-life-of-david-foster-wallace.html #biography #DFW

DT Max wrote this piece in 2009 after DFW’s suicide. Give yourself a good chunk of time to work through and process this thirteen page longread. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/09/090309fa_fact_max?currentPage=all #biography #DFW #obituary

Ongoing interest in articles dealing with parental aging http://www.vice.com/read/i-asked-my-dad-who-has-dementia-to-annotate-jonathan-franzens-how-to-be-alone- #photography #dementia

Certain literature is there in times of grieving, heartbreak, and disappointment—but what story can you turn to when you’re mourning the loss of a pet? http://www.themillions.com/2012/10/elegy-for-a-grey-cat-on-grief-books-and-his-dark-materials.html #grief

James Pogue works out some of his John Jeremiah Sullivan jealousy:  http://nplusonemag.com/the-son-shines-bright #SouthernLit

Series of essays by Rachel Yoder from her collection The Hard Problem: A Guide for the Intergalactic Writer Looking to Mate: http://therumpus.net/2012/11/three-short-essays-from-the-hard-problem-a-guide-for-the-intergalactic-writer-looking-to-mate/ #essay

#Music

THIS QUOTE: “As demure as she may be, this girl is also intense and out for blood — of Red’s title, Swift said, “All those emotions — spanning from intense love, intense frustration, jealousy, confusion, all of that — in my mind, all those emotions are red.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but in this she echoes another passionate artist constrained by traditional expectations of femininity: Sylvia Plath.”  http://thisrecording.com/today/2012/10/30/in-which-we-get-taylor-swift-alone.html

The tiny echelon of producers and top-liners pumping out all our Top 40 hooks: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/03/26/120326fa_fact_seabrook?currentPage=all

#Photography

The Atlantic has been busting fake photos of Hurrican Sandy damage: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/10/instasnopes-sorting-the-real-sandy-photos-from-the-fakes/264243/ #sandy

Series of photos and quotes from four young Chinese photographers: http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/world-affairs/2012/10/generation-next-photo-essay

#Relationships

Worries and joys while dating a 500 pound man: http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/it-happened-to-me-i-fell-in-love-with-a-500-pound-man #essay

#Travel

Coming to terms with death during the Running of the Bulls: http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-bull-passes-through

A tiny span of the Massachusetts coast seems to be a magnet for everything spooky and strange:  http://www.themorningnews.org/article/cape-fear

A recent visit to post-Fidel Cuba, tentatively developing: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/new-cuba/gorney-text #international