Posts by author
Lisa Dusenbery
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Youngsters in Fiction
Here is a breakdown of child protagonists in adult fiction. After noticing patterns in the characterization of youth in various novels, the author has hypothesized three categorical portrayals—“Portraits of the artist as a young person,” “The Go-Betweens” and “The Clockwork…
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Family Tree Shake-Up
Fossils found in a South African cave may be “the most plausible known ancestor of archaic and modern humans,” argue the scientists who discovered the bones, citing the combination of apelike and human features in the newfound species—dubbed Australopithecus sediba.…
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On The Ecstatic
“From the Greek ek-stasis, it means “standing outside of,” as in separation from the common, or, in the Hellenic religious understanding, a hiatus from cognition in celebration of the visceral and mystical.” Interpreting Euripedes’ The Bacchae as “a masterful homage…
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City Inspirations
With 80% of the population expected to inhabit cities by 2050, governments may find ideas for reforms in examples of urban transformations elsewhere. This piece looks to Colombia, whose story of “political metamorphosis” is told in Bogota Change, part of…
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Workdays Worldwide
This infographic breaks down the workdays of countries in the OECD (Organization for Economic and Co-operation and Development). Distinguishing between paid and unpaid work, the graphic reveals which countries have the shortest and longest average working day according to OECD…
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From Texting to Poeticizing
Britain’s 2009 poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, views texting as a “springboard”—not a hindrance—to strong poetry writing, arguing that the poem itself is a form of texting: “It’s a perfecting of a feeling in language – it’s a way of…
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Obscured Greatness
Bookslut zeroes in on the seemingly perpetual obscurity of women’s work in the arts. Looking at artists like Lee Krasner, Leonor Fini, and Mina Loy,—the spaces and roles that they were pushed into, along with the often intangible forms of…
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The Freelance Revolution
“Today, careers consist of piecing together various types of work, juggling multiple clients, learning to be marketing and accounting experts, and creating offices in bedrooms/coffee shops/coworking spaces. Independent workers abound. We call them freelancers, contractors, sole proprietors, consultants, temps, and…
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Points of View
“We are watching 18 screens showing high-definition images captured by nine cameras. Each camera was set at a different angle, and many were set at different exposures. In some cases, the images were filmed a few seconds apart, so the…
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Deconstructing Debt
In this interview economic anthropologist David Graeber disputes the standard theory that the monetary system replaces the barter system, arguing that credit and debt come before money. Graeber sheds light on the complex relationship between debt and morality, transitions from…
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Aimee Nezhukumatathil Interview
Over at HTML giant Roxane Gay interviews Aimee Nezhukumatathil, shedding light on the poet’s influences—from the natural world and family, to language, and more. The conversation turns to her third book, Lucky Fish, and the process of assembling a collection…
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Philosophy in Shapes
The project Philographics creates a series of posters “explaining complex philosophical theories through basic shapes.” This piece enlarges some of the posters, so that you can read the brief description while eyeing the graphic of concepts such as relativism, hedonism,…