UNDERSTANDING, FRAMEWORKS, AND INTERPRETATION
Seyla Benhabib:
Understanding always means understanding within a framework that makes sense for us, from where we stand today.
RESPONDING TO AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
I’m reluctant to say much about yesterday’s attempt to kill Donald Trump. There’s too much that I don’t know, especially about the motivations of the shooter.
Read moreRESPONDING TO PROJECT 2025
It’s really encouraging to see the heightened media coverage of Project 2025. Surely (he thinks!) as people learn more about it, fewer and fewer people will elect a candidate for president aligned with those who developed it.
Read moreHOW MANY WORDS DOES IT TAKE?
Lydia Davis:
I read recently that in English, a mere 43 words account for half of all words in common use, and that just nine (and, be, have, it, of, the, to, will, you ) account for a quarter in almost any sample of written English (my source is a very entertaining exploration of the English language, The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, by Bill Bryson).
LOOKING FOR NEWS ABOUT TRUMP
I wrote a couple of posts last week about the upcoming election in the United States, focusing mostly on the question whether Biden should release his delegates and withdraw from the race.
Read moreADVENTURES IN THE USED BOOKSTORE
Virginia Woolf:
Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.