LongReads Round-Up Volume Seventeen

"Gone Home: A Brilliant Example of How Less Can Be More in Video Games," by Leigh Alexander for The Atlantic. A new, quiet paced computer game is garnering critical acclaim. The small budget, narrative based game is being hailed as a step in a new frontier of popular gaming, focused on story telling and world building instead of extensive graphics or action. "Many developers have longed to incorporate literary storytelling elements into video games for a while now—but they often stick to the formulas of commercial action thrillers anyway." http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/09/-em-gone-home-em-a-brilliant-example-of-how-less-can-be-more-in-video-games/279464/

"America's Most Popular Podcast: What the Internet Did to Welcome to Night Vale," by Adam Carlson for The Awl. The strangest little podcast on the web exploded in popularity thanks to fervent fans on Tumblr spreading the viral word. The creators of 'Welcome to Night Vale' talk about the rise to being the number one podcast on iTunes, and if it fills The Void. "The "Night Vale" fan community is, as Cecil once described the condition of life itself, both 'proud and terrified.'" http://www.theawl.com/2013/07/americas-most-popular-podcast-what-the-internet-did-to-welcome-to-night-vale

"Anti-Rape Activist Group FORCE Was Behind the Fake Playboy Party List," by Tyler Kingkade for The Huffington Post. FORCE is doing modern age grassroot activism right. Last year they were leaving Consent Panties in drawers at Victoria's Secret and making a fake VS Pink website, and earlier this year they used Kickstarter to fund a memorial quilt (to cover the National Mall) for rape survivors. Check out the fake Playboy website they hosted to spread the word about consensual sex on college campuses. "'The world is safe for bros to be feminists too,' wrote BroBible's Andy Moore after the hoax was uncovered."  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/force-anti-rape-playboy-party_n_3944751.html

"Eat, Pray, Love, Get Rich, Write a Novel No One Expects," by Steve Almond for The New York Times. Elizabeth Gilbert criticizes the "chick lit ghetto" mentality, proves how hard she's hustled for her position as one of the best known American writers of the day, and takes us gardening. While she has written novels in the past, Gilbert is navigating the transition from blockbuster memoirs to historical adventure fiction. "The challenge she faces now is how to sell the pleasures of old-fashioned storytelling to masses who hunger for more personal disclosure. Millions of readers love Elizabeth Gilbert. The question is: Will they love her imagination?" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/magazine/eat-pray-love-get-rich-write-a-novel-no-one-expects.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

"CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret," by Eric Robertson for Medium. CrossFit is not just an exercise and fitness regime, its also an ethos and lifestyle. Sometimes, trying to meet the "maxed out" exercise goals runs intense physical risks to trainers' health. A physical therapist reviews the dangers of rhabdomyolysis caused by excessive CrossFit activities. "Still entrenched in the CrossFit culture of deplete, endure, repeat, she quieted the alarms and stoically pressed on to go to work. It didn’t take long to realize she not only couldn’t bend her arms, they also had no strength." https://medium.com/health-fitness-1/97bcce70356d

"How Much Are They Paying You for This Shit," by Alice Hines for n + 1. Hines sits through Wal-Mart's annual Shareholders Meeting, where fourteen thousand employees of the corporation gather for a healthy dose of company indoctrination. She captures the heady loyalty the employees hold for the company, while illuminating some of the less savory aspects of the Wal-Mart culture. "Given the world outside their stores, it’s likely that associates aren’t so much brainwashed by Walmart as they are grateful to have any job, whether or not it includes a free vacation."  http://nplusonemag.com/how-much-are-they-paying-you-for-this-shit

"Sex trade victims struggle to reintegrate," by Maher Sattar for Al Jazeera. Truly heartbreaking, this brief article offers the difficulties so many child victims encounter trying to reenter normal life after escaping sex trafficking in South East Asia. The sad reality is that for many victims, sex trafficking is a vicious circle perpetuated by family members, poverty, and lack of resources to successfully rehabilitate and assist those most vulnerable."[Victims] face a massive struggle to reintegrate into a social structure that stigmatises them, and in many cases treats them like criminals and illegal immigrants." http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/09/2013918102223875988.html

"Angie the Revolutionary," by Paul Hockenos for Foreign Policy. Surveying Chancellor Angela Merkel's rise to power in Germany, and how she has shaped and steered the country into new frontiers. Her contributions to family and work policies are nothing short of revolutionary, especially coming from Germany's conservative party, while she has managed to insulate the country during a massive economic crash. Entering a third term on the wave of a rapidly mordernizing CDU party, Merkel is being observed around the world. " A woman in the chancellery, taking over from a daunting pantheon of ego-driven alpha males, was a coup of vast proportions and one that resonated positively with the German public -- especially women." http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/18/angie_the_revolutionary_germany_angela_merkel?page=full

"A Big Heart Open to God," by Antionio Spadaro for America. Pope Francis has been making headlines around the world with his open, progressive views of humanity. As the first Jesuit priest ever to be made Pope, he gave an exclusive interview to Jesuit publications, including America magazine. He speaks about the influence of the Jesuit Society in his theology, his thoughts on the future of the church, and mentions loving the films of Fellini and corresponding with Borges. "I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life... You can, you must try to seek God in every human life."  http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview 

Expanding Words Volume Five

Alembic (n) an apparatus consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, formerly used for distilling liquids.

Anchoritic (adj) characterized by ascetic solitude

Aposteme (n) an abscess; a swelling filled with purulent matter

Arteriosclerosis (n) the thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries, occurring typically in old age.

Ataxic (adj) lacking motor coordination

Bonze (n) Buddhist monk

Catafalque (n) a decorated wooden framework supporting the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral or while lying in state.

Cibation (n) the process or operation of feeding the contents of the crucible with fresh material in alchemy

Corium (n) dermis

Coterminous (adj) having the same boundaries or extent in space, time, or meaning.

Decumbiture (n) confinement to a sick bed, or time of taking to one's bed from sickness

Dorcus (n) stag beetle

Electuary (n) a medicinal substance mixed with honey or another sweet substance.

Eschatology (n) the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of  humankind

Fossorial (adj) adapted for or used in burrowing or digging

Fremescent (adj)  becoming murmurous, roaring

Fustian (n) 1. thick, durable twilled cloth with a short nap, usually dyed in dark colors. 2. pompous or pretentious speech or writing

Hagioscope (n) in architecture, an opening through the wall of a church in an oblique direction

Hebetude (n) the state of being dull or lethargic.

Helicoids (n) an object of spiral or helical shape.

Imbroccata (n) a thrust with the hand pronated

Imprimatur (n) an official license by the Roman Catholic Church to print an ecclesiastical or religious book.

Insalubrious (adj) Not promoting health; unwholesome

Internecine (adj) destructive to both sides in a conflict.

Lachrymose (adj) tearful or given to weeping.

Lambent (adj) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance.

Majolica (n) earthenware covered with an opaque tin glaze and decorated on the glaze before firing

Malaprop (n) the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one

Mystagogue (n) a teacher or propounder of mystical doctrines

Opprobrium (n) harsh criticism or censure

Parure (n) a set of jewels intended to be worn together.

Peripetia (n) a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances

Pluperfect (adj) more than perfect; supremely accomplished; ideal

Predicant (adj) of or relating to preaching

Prevaricate (v) speak or act in an evasive way.

Primogeniture (n) the firstborn child

Proboscidean (n) order of large mammals including the elephants and mastodons

Satrap (n) a provincial governor in the ancient Persian empire.

Self-abnegation (n) the denial or abasement of oneself.

Somatization (n) the production of recurrent and multiple medical symptoms with no discernible organic cause.

Sonorous (adj) imposingly deep and full.

Stultify (v) cause to lose enthusiasm and initiative, esp. as a result of a tedious or restrictive routine.

Suzerainty (n) occurs where a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which controls its foreign affairs

LongReads Round-Up, Sweet Sixteen

"This Man Moved to a Desert Island to Disappear. Here's What Happened," Kent Russell for New Republic. When escaping to a desert island, just what are you escaping from? Russell writes about Dave the one time multi millionaire who now lives beach side on a remote island. "All desert-island stories are in some sense about waiting." http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114549/dave-glasheen-lost-boy-restoration-island

"Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equality," by Jodi Kantor for The New York Times. After observing a vast, decades long discrepancy between the performance of the genders at HBS, administrators implemented a series of new programs to empower and promote success amongst female students. "Ms. Navab feared that seeming too ambitious could hurt what she half-jokingly called her “social cap,” referring to capitalization. 'I had no idea who, as a single woman, I was meant to be on campus.'" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender-equity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

"The Feminist Power of Female Ghosts," by Andi Ziesler for Bitch Media. Read (and listen to the Popaganda podcast) the survey of the terrifying power of female ghosts in film. From vengeance to unending obsessions, the female ghost is a reminder that there is no greater fury than a woman scorned. "[You]realize that not only are these women sympathetic characters, but they’re all the more terrifying because they have every bit of anger that makes living women sources of fear, but none of the societal restriction." http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-feminist-power-of-female-ghosts

"Shrinking Women," by Lily Myers at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. I've listened to this poem, about women and eating, and the power (or fear) to claim place, repeatedly. The text is included in the description of the video, but watching Myers perform and hearing the responses of the crowd is worth the three minutes. "I asked five questions in genetics class today and all of them started with the word 'sorry'." www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k#t=12

"23 Things Every Woman Should Stop Doing," by Emma Gray for The Huffington Post. Basically, a round up of all the social anxieties and concerns that are HOLDING US BACK, women! Every paragraph in this list had me "mmhm"ing and waving my hands, church lady style. "There is no easier way to discredit a woman’s opinion or feelings than to accuse her of being overly emotional."  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/23-things-every-woman-should-stop-doing_n_3908151.html

"Finding Molly: Drugs, dancing and death," by Shane Morris for Bro Jackson. Talking about the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) scene always seems to go hand in hand with drug use. Morris, a promoter and manager, writes specifically about the dangers of Molly and his own experiences using and dealing. "This was a real person, dying in the back of my Honda, on my friend Brandon’s lap." http://brojackson.com/long-reads/finding-molly-drugs-dancing-and-death?

"A Good Angle is Hard to Find," by Sarah Hepola for The Morning News. Charting the modern phenomena of the "selfie," fears of feminine narcissism, and personal documentation. I love The Selfie, and I love this article. Cheers to Emily Perper's Longreads post for sending me this way. "It gives you all the controls to the story you are telling."  http://www.themorningnews.org/article/a-good-angle-is-hard-to-find?

So You Want to Be a Peace Corps Volunteer? Essential Reading

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith. The most academic of the books on this list, and not for the faint of heart and stamina, Smith writes about methodology and research theory in terms of its abuse towards colonized peoples throughout history and the world. It is a work of Decolonization Theory, and confronts  how scientific, research, and academic communities have exploited and misrepresented indigenous peoples. Gaining perspective on the lives and experiences of those harmed by colonization, and understanding my privilege in the colonization process, is a difficult but worthwhile road to follow.

Getting Stoned with Savages and Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost. Troost’s travelogues of his experiences living in Vanuatu and Fiji are somehow simultaneously breezy and insightful to island life. Troost has proven himself to prefer digging in to local culture instead of living in an expat enclave, and the mishaps and misunderstandings that follow are reflective of Peace Corps service.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney. Essential for comprehending and critically viewing the effects of colonialism and subsequent aid and development work in the developing world. Again, having a critical understanding of Western impact on the nation you will serve will make you a better volunteer.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Ishmael is a young hopeful’s education and manifesto to cultural criticism, basic sociology, and thirst for social change. Presented as a surreal conversation between a man and a telepathic gorilla, Ishmael is an excellent primer for lessons in cultural history and social responsibility.

No god but God by Rezla Aslan. Chances are you’ll be serving in an area of the world with a strong Islamic presence. Understanding the religion’s history, evolution, and current climate was enlightening for me as a volunteer. Aslan writes with a multicultural, progressive bent, rich in resources and quoted material while remaining accessible. 

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. The Sparrow is a science fiction novel about a group of scientists, anthropologists, and Jesuit priests who are the first humans making contact with a new planet. Peace Corps in space? The confusion in language barriers, cultural differences, and progressing understanding of different vs worse/better mirrors Peace Corps experience.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. Fadiman’s work researching and documenting the experiences of the Hmong people as they resettle in America after long periods of transient life as refugees in South East Asia, and specifically the cultural barriers they face in dealing with the Western medical system is a brilliant illustration of social anthropology at work. Medical practitioners, social workers  and the parents of an epileptic Hmong girl tangle over treatments, and the cultural beliefs of illness and medicine differ wildly between each.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. Not everyone can travel this way, not even all Peace Corps Volunteers. But Potts offers some practical advice for how to travel purposefully, with an open mind and thirst for experience. If you want to get more counterculture, I suggest going deep with Ed Buryn’s Vagabonding in America and Vagabonding in Europe and Africa.

The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy. Conroy writes about his time teaching in an insular and impoverished South Carolina island community. He was motivated to take the job because of his interest in Peace Corps, and his both his struggles and joys over the year on "Yamacraw Island" mirror PCV experiences. From frustrations with infrastructure and institutionalized poverty, to the language barriers and cultural mishaps, its a reminder that America itself has plenty of need for development and service.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed. A memoir of travel and growth, Strayed is a powerful, emotionally transformative writer. At twenty six, she hiked the Pacific  Crest Trail alone and unprepared for how she would change. Just the opening prologue—Strayed stranded on the Trail, barefoot, feeling a dozen things at once—completely captivated me.

 And some of my favorite motivations and meditations:

Education is one key to the future of women around the world. They must become aware of their rights.

    Shirin Ebadi

If you can’t see that your own culture has its own set of interests, emotions, and biases, how can you expect to deal successfully with someone else’s culture?

    Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

    Buddha

He would grow accustomed to feeling inexpert and out of his depth. He became tolerant of the initial frustration of being unable to communicate with grace or speed or humor. He learned to quiet the cacophony of languages competing for dominance in his thoughts, to use pantomime and his own expressive features to overcome barriers.

    Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?

    Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own source of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.

    Elie Wiesel, The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code

How is it that indifference, which on its own does no apparent or immediate positive harm, ends by washing itself in the very horrors it means to have nothing to do with? Hoping to confer no help, indifference finally grows lethal; why is that?

    Cynthia Ozick, “Of Christian Heroism”

We are in this world mutual hosts to each other.

   Benjamin Franklin

…to travel is to brush up against the unfolding mystery of the cosmos and—if we dare—to trust it, to see where it takes us.

    Ben Brazil, “Serendipity” 

…become aware of having wandered into a subtle network of coincidence and serendipity that eludes explanation. On tiptoes, magic enters…You find that you do not feel endangered in the “chaos” beyond the patterns, on the contrary, you grow confident and exhilarated. The mystery of life enormously enlarges, but surprisingly, there is no fear. The mystery is suddenly understood to include you: this is the magic of vagabonding.

    Ed Buryn, Vagabonding in America

So you look at your life, and the two countries that hold it, and realize that you are now two distinct people. As much as your countries represent and fulfill different parts of you and what you enjoy about life, as much as you have formed unbreakable bonds with people you love in both places, as much as you feel truly at home in either one, so you are divided in two. For the rest of your life, or at least it feels this way, you will spend your time in one naggingly longing for the other, and waiting until you can get back at least for a few weeks and dive back into the person you were back there.

  Chelsea Fagan, “What Happens When You Live Abroad”

Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial that what divides us. 

   Sargent Shriver

[Let] go of your attachments: your attachment to being right, to having total control, or to living forever. This process of letting go is integral to the process of becoming whole.

   Judith Lasater, Thirty Essential Yoga Poses

LongReads Round-Up Volume Fifteen

What!? It's been nearly a month since my last update? How did this happen?

#Animals

Owls are so hot right now http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/science/long-cloaked-in-mystery-owls-start-coming-into-full-view.html?pagewanted=all

#Comedy

Louis CK and modern comedy http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/02/louis-ck-our-gogol.html

#Education

Indonesia has one of the worst education systems in the world www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2013/02/201321965257154992.html

Some Christian homeschoolers want to study evolution, don't believe Adam rode dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/old-earth-young-minds-evangelical-homeschoolers-embrace-evolution/273844/

#Feminism

Political commentator Zerlina Maxwell recently went on Sean Hannity's show to promote educating boys and men about consent and rape culture. Since then she has received death and rape threats from men and women who don't believe there is a need for educating men about stopping rape. Two pieces: a response to harassment on xoJane, and Maxwell's points on education on Ebony

http://www.xojane.com/issues/zerlina-maxwell-receives-rape-and-death-threats-hannity#

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/5-ways-we-can-teach-men-not-to-rape-456#

Margo St. James was a seventies pioneer in protecting the rights of sex workers and providing health care services to them. Her thoughts on minority criminalzation and feminism after forty years http://bitchmagazine.org/article/forty-years-in-the-hustle-sex-work-margo-st-james-interview-activism-coyote

#Film

Has the Hollywood machine squashed inventive storytelling in modern film? Short answer- yes http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/107212/has-hollywood-murdered-the-movies

#Health

Buying drugs on the internet: http://nplusonemag.com/i-m-waiting-for-my-ups-man

The pharmaceutical/insurance/medical complex is exploiting all of us www.healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/print

#In France

Gerard Depardieu, French icon, is changing citizenship to escape new super taxes http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/02/25/130225fa_fact_collins?currentPage=all

#Language

How language affects our concept of time and saving: http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/19/saving-for-a-rainy-day-keith-chen-on-language-that-forecasts-weather-and-behavior/

#Literature

Academic texts need to be as well written as entertainment pieces http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/02/15/on_writing_well

An account of a symposium on the works of Allen Ginsberg http://www.litkicks.com/Topics/NaropaReport.html

Making me very excited to read more George Saunders http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/magazine/george-saunders-just-wrote-the-best-book-youll-read-this-year.html?pagewanted=all

A new collection of fairy tales shows male characters getting the same kind of torments Sleeping Beauty and Snow White found themselves in http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/03/long-lost-fairy-tales.html

A hundred years of women writing about their feelings and being told they're frivolous http://therumpus.net/2013/03/the-ghost-of-mary-maclane

Two of Renata Adler's books are back in publication http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/03/welcome-back-renata-adler.html

Italian author Francesco Pacifico writing about sex, purity, and Catholicism in his new novel http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/03/12/underwear-life-an-interview-with-francesco-pacifico/

#Music

Nina Simone's activism through music http://www.good.is/posts/remembering-nina-simone-as-a-siren-and-powerful-civil-rights-activist

All Hail Queen Beyonce http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/02/her-highness.html

#National

Is Marco Rubio the answer for Republicans? http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/19/marco_rubio_not_ready_for_prime_time_republican_foreign_policy?page=full

About the (lack of) training a member of the Foreign Service receives: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/19/sink_or_swim_state_department_training?page=full

Ways Obama wants to model after Germany: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/president-obama-wants-america-to-be-like-germany-what-does-that-really-mean/273318/

#Photography

A woman documents scenes of spousal abuse and then is reamed in a misreported article: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/dont_blame_the_victim_or_the_photographer/

#Religion

The Pope's butler did it! http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201303/spy-in-the-house-of-lords-march-2013?printable=true

#Technology

Its possible that a big part of the Republican loss in the presidential campaign was due to out of date or totally absent social networking and tech base  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/can-the-republicans-be-saved-from-obsolescence.html

After reading this article, I had a nightmare about a teenage boy watching me through my webcam http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/rat-breeders-meet-the-men-who-spy-on-women-through-their-webcams/

Bring on the modified chicken blobs! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/dont-be-afraid-of-genetic-modification.html?_r=0

#Television

After mainlining two seasons of Homeland, I assuredly agree with this http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/tvs_most_islamophobic_show/

Are all the heroines of modern TV crazy? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/magazine/tvs-new-wave-of-women-smart-strong-borderline-insane.html and my response: http://sailorbaby.tumblr.com/post/45241524615/semi-serious-thoughts-on-television-response-to

#Travel

A skeptical trip to Disney World in the seventies: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1971/01/02/1971_01_02_052_TNY_CARDS_000299445?currentPage=all

#War on Terror

An early piece from The Atlantic about preemptive arrests and thought crime http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/10/prophetic-justice/305234/?single_page=true

On NDAA and domestic terrorism: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/201321710236780782.html

The CIA wrongly captured and tortured a man as a terror suspect http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/dec/13/cia-tortured-sodomised-terror-suspect

LongReads Round-Up Volume Fourteen: LongWeekend Edition

#Art

What its like to be an “art minion” working in the studio of a well known artist: http://theclustermag.com/blog/2013/01/making-someone-elses-art/

#Comedy

An interview from last year with Aziz Ansari http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-aziz-ansari-20120912,0,19600,full.story

#Education

A group of New York anarchists met and organized through a progressive adult education program: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/the-strange-story-of-new-yorks-anarchist-school/266224/

“Democratic schools,” where students of all ages intermingle and hold voting rights in school and administrative decisions, are examples of radical education communities: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/no-teachers-no-class-no-homework-would-you-send-your-kids-here/265354/

The democratic school in Britain, Summerhill http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/summerhill-inside-englands-most-controversial-private-school-772976.html

#Energy

The way people around the world relate to weather and temperature directly affects their use of energy and productivity: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/magazine/what-does-it-mean-to-be-comfortable.html?_r=1&

#Essay

Repetitive, short-lasting labor brings a state of meditative transcendence http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/the-beheld/the-impermanence-of-beauty-work/

100 Ways to Say I Love You: http://www.themorningnews.org/article/how-to-say-i-love-you

#Feminism

“If we're going to be honest with ourselves and our daughters, shouldn't we be teaching them early how utterly fucked the world still can be for women, instead of promising the moon and watching them hit the roof?” http://jezebel.com/5984059/you-cant-empower-girls-without-a-reality-check

#Film

Soderbergh on retiring from filmmaking, art, and Fancy Feast: http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/steven-soderbergh-in-conversation.html

“Kill Your Darlings” is all about the early years of the Beat poets: http://www.hitfix.com/awards-campaign/kill-your-darlings-director-on-the-fearless-daniel-radcliffe-and-ben-fosters-flaming-finger/  (see below article under #Literature)

#Health

Living with autoimmune diseases in an age that emphasizes capitalism and productivity http://theclustermag.com/blog/2013/01/how-to-be-a-person-in-the-age-of-autoimmunity/#

The ethical and economical weight that comes with “donating” eggs: http://www.salon.com/2013/02/03/selling_my_eggs_to_make_rent_partner/

It’s the fiftieth anniversary of Sylvia Plath’s death, and public stance and reaction to mental illness is still evolving: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/02/youll-love-her-shes-crazy.html

#Labor

Is it weird to include an article on the issues of unpaid internships under the tag I usually reserve for migrant workers and exploitation overseas? I don’t know. http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/unpaid-internships-are-a-rich-girl-problem-and-also-a-real-problem/273106/

#Literature

Murder, homosexual love triangles, and the Beat poet who never was, Lucien Carr. http://magazine.columbia.edu/print/1220  (felt really maudlin after the end quote, “a literary lion who never roared.”)

Is Junot Diaz confronting harmful masculinity in his literature, or perpetuating it? http://politic365.com/2012/11/24/junot-diaz-and-the-cult-of-revolutionary-machismo

One of my favorite poems, “Aristotle” by Billy Collins http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176050

Robert Bolano’s tips for writing short fiction: http://theparisreview.tumblr.com/post/42433729872/roberto-bolano-on-writing-short-stories-via

#Music

Tegan and Sara on their newest album and indie vs. pop music: http://www.spin.com/articles/tegan-sara-january-2013-cover-story-heartthrob?page=0

Maya Rudolph is in a Prince cover band called Princess: http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2013/02/princess-maya-rudolph-prince-tribute-band 

Rio’s funk music scene, once tangibly interwoven with community, has changed and dimmed since government intervention has “pacified” high risk neighborhoods: http://theclustermag.com/blog/2012/05/ta-tudo-errado-the-future-of-funk-in-a-pacified-rio/

Frank Ocean should have won every Album of the Year countdown, awards show, amateur music blog post round up, in my opinion: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/frank-ocean-can-fly.html  

The Postal Service has released a new track. Your one song to listen to this week. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-postal-service-releases-first-new-song-decade-20130211,0,6620089.story

#National

Forget political blogs and national printernet magazines, for the recap of the State of the Union address I’m sending you to Autostraddle: http://www.autostraddle.com/state-of-the-union-recap-heres-what-hope-change-look-like-in-obamas-second-term-156627/

This article on the struggling US postal system made me feel strangely patriotic: http://www.esquire.com/print-this/post-office-business-trouble-0213?page=all

TNR’s interview with President Obama as he begins his second term in office: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112190/obama-interview-2013-sit-down-president#

Reading is an act of humanization and shared experience. Teju Cole critiques President Obama’s drone warfare in light of his situation as a “man of books:” http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/02/a-readers-war.html

Examining the Department of Justice’s legal theory behind drone warfare: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/05/death_by_loophole?page=full

#Religion

Who is the pope now? I have no idea. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/02/good-riddance-to-pope-benedict-he-was-a-disaster.html

#Sexuality

Rape culture and sexual pressure is trickling down and affecting teens and children: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/9828589/Children-and-the-culture-of-pornography-Boys-will-ask-you-every-day-until-you-say-yes.html

#Technology

A new app allows for privacy of messaging and file sharing, disregarding government commands for “back door” access: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/02/silent_circle_s_latest_app_democratizes_encryption_governments_won_t_be.single.html

GoodReads book recommendation and ranking service is the new book club in the digital age: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/books/goodreadscom-is-growing-as-a-popular-book-site.html

Aziz Ansari talking about social media and texting effecting relationships: http://www.avclub.com/articles/aziz-ansari-candid-about-love-elusive-sadly-ephem,92476/

#Television

Connie Britton is in the prime of her acting career when most actresses are considered “aged out” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/connie-britton-is-a-late-bloomer.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=tw-nytmag&&pagewanted=all

I just really like an article all about Duck Tales http://www.avclub.com/articles/ducktales-invented-new-animated-wonderlandthat-qu,92324/

#Theater

Theaters repeatedly favor white (the unmarked) actors, even in cases where characters are designated to be people of color: http://jezebel.com/5980419/many-major-theaters-believe-in-color-blind-casting-except-when-it-comes-to-people-of-color

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