Posts by author
Michelle Vider
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Stories in Their Hair
Jessica Miller writes for Catapult on hair during World War II, using the practical reality of people’s hair to glimpse into war’s ordinary life and extraordinary horrors.
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The Art of Quitting
At Book Riot, Kelly Jensen discusses the scarcity of quitters in YA novels, and quitters’ importance in showing readers the accomplishment of self-preservation.
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The Artist as Public Object
Is it because rather than keeping us almost entirely out of the empty room, as Lee did, Ocean chose to let us in through hints and ephemera? And more broadly, what are we owed by an artist whom we profess…
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The Newest Euphemisms
John McWhorter writes for Aeon about the evolution of euphemisms, one of the functions in a language that evolves quicker than any other.
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Just Fail Your Best
Tim Falconer writes for Hazlitt on the psychological importance of failure: When you do what you’re good at exclusively, avoiding what you are bad at, you live in an evaluative world, one that’s full of judgement…. The danger is this…
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Opening up via Translation
At Lit Hub, Christina Farella examines the exchange of cultural ideas that comes with translation, using Helen DeWitt’s novel The Last Samurai as an example of books enriched by engaging with other languages in the English text itself.
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The Forbidden Maths
Gabrielle Emanuel writes for NPR’s Education section on the history of math education. Emanuel explores how basic mathematics were kept from becoming the common knowledge they are today, due to the influence of centuries-old taboos around money and commerce.
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The 18th Century from a Balloon
In the first of a two-part series at the Public Domain Review, Lily Ford uses 18th century illustrations and drawings from balloonists to capture the changes in science and society brought by the first people to see the world from…
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Signing off on the Future
For Hyperallergic, Allison Meier covers design ideas for nuclear waste warning signs, with scientists and artists around the world attempting to design warning signs that would deter humans 10,000 (or even 100,000) years in the future from digging up our…
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Searching for Your Next Band Name
For JSTOR Daily, linguist Chi Luu looks at the “my next band name” meme to identify not just trends in pairing interesting words, but also the social phenomenon of how we understand what words mean.
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Sex and the Family
For Notches, Kristy L. Slominski writes about the Reverend Anna Garlin Spencer, an early 20th century Unitarian minister who worked with scientists to educate the public on sexual health. Spencer’s efforts greatly influenced the modern connection between sexuality, sexual behavior, and…
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A Better Look at Science Fiction
In an excerpt from the introduction to their new book The Big Book of Science Fiction, Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer explore what they identify as the three strains of science fiction (via the works of Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, and H.…