The guy playing Kropotkin really looks like him, too! Very soothing film, green and rustling

On the one hand, it's a marvel that AI can do tasks like "draw a face" or "write a paragraph" but humans can already do these things, without servers that require massive energy use and depletion of natural resources newrepublic.com/article/179538…

In class yesterday I asked my students to imagine what A.S. Hamrah would say about the Barbie movie: a bracing exercise. Now they can know for sure!

Sophie Pinkham (Sophie Pinkham) on Jennifer Croft’s The Extinction of Irena Rey go.nybooks.com/4arfxRd

Took a break from reading Emma Goldman's autobiography to read a NYer article about LA shoplifters. Weird feeling!

While teaching a class on revolutionary memoirs, came across Auden's poem in memory of Ernst Toller, playwright & six-day president of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The Cold Comfort Farm reference is odd until you read Toller's absurdist memoir (which reminds me of Hrabal).

This is a great, great novel.

I'm so excited to see this beautiful novel out in the world!

Eclipse in the 1091 Kyivan Rus’ chronicle: not long after, a serpent fell from the sky, the earth groaned, and a magician appeared. In Novgorod’s chronicles, a total eclipse is the *only* event recorded for the year 1124. Get your diaries ready! Watch out for heavenly serpents!

So glad to publish this excerpt from Gillian Linden's outstanding Negative Space, out next week from W. W. Norton & Company. A sly, funny, hyper-observant novel about teaching , parenting, and navigating hard choices at every scale. A truly great book. nplusonemag.com/online-only/on…

New online: an excerpt from Gillian Linden’s novel Negative Space, out next week from W. W. Norton & Company. nplusonemag.com/online-only/on…

columbiaspectator.com/city-news/2024…

I was denied entry at both gates after showing press credentials, begged with guards about the merits of 1st amendment , called a bunch of numbers which nobody answered, had my boss do the same, but ended up having to find my own way in, hopefully that won't happen again!

All good comparisons! Buy this book immediately

And the suspended students have already been evicted from their housing. How can you throw teenagers on the street?

To ensure the delivery of life-saving aid to Gaza and to secure our safety, write to your congressional representative to demand the US pressure Israel into allowing us through the illegal blockade: bit.ly/FreedomFlotill… Please share!

This, from an NBC News correspondent, is correct. If Columbia made it easier for press to get on campus, this would be reported more often.

“We used to believe that trees competed with each other,” explains a football coach on the US hit television show Ted Lasso. But thanks to “Suzanne Simard’s fieldwork”, he continues, “we now realise that the forest is a socialist community”. theguardian.com/environment/20…

My Shalamov-inspired opinions on the world’s largest hole. Thank you to Eliza for the edits!

For background please read Leonid Tsypkin's magnificent, darkly hilarious novel SUMMER IN BADEN-BADEN, about Dostoevsky's "honeymoon" with said stenographer. She ended up letting him pawn her clothes and jewelry to pay his gambling debts. Do not go on a honeymoon with Dostoevsky