London Review of Books

Time 2020-09-21 23:07:39

Web Name: London Review of Books

WebSite: http://www.lrb.co.uk

ID:55129

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In America’s Blood Deborah FriedellFinancially, Trump s victory was a disaster for the NRA: members became complacent with an ally in the White House, and dues dropped by $35 million. In the midterm elections, for the first time, the NRA was outspent by gun control advocacy groups, and they ve had layoffs. All this has made them increasingly dependent on large donations from gun manufacturers, sometimes estimated to be at least 60 per cent of their income. It s not just American money: a quarter of the guns in the US were made in Europe, and Austrians (Glock), Germans (SIG Sauer) and Italians (Beretta) have donated millions of dollars to the NRA in order to protect their biggest market. The interests of gun sellers and gun buyers often overlap, but not always. I used to wonder why the NRA seemed to value the right to carry a concealed gun over an openly carried one, until it was pointed out to methat gun manufacturers often make more money from accessories waistband holsters, ankle holsters, jackets with special pockets, vegan leather handbags with gun compartments than from the guns themselves.Twenty years ago, theNational Rifle Association didn t know what to do after a mass shooting. But it now has the protocol down: it s had, after all, plenty of practice.Read More Flour Fixated Bee WilsonNot many people have heard of Norman Borlaug, but his invention the high-yield, short-straw wheat that fuelled the Green Revolution is consumed every day by the majority of humans on the planet. Without Borlaug s wheat, there would be no modern food as we know it. Everything from sandwiches to pizza to soy sauce to animal feed is manufactured from wheats adapted from...When you pick a blackberry, you can enjoy it just as someone in Abu Hureyra did a wild plum or cherry 15,000 years ago. But with wheat, multiple problems need to be solved before it can be eaten. Bye Bye Britain Neal AschersonIn 2019, Boris Johnson became prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 2020, he shrank into being prime minister of England. For the second time in less than seven years, the union is in trouble. But this time the problem needs a new question. Forget: Should Scotland be independent? The Scots will take care of that. Ask instead:...In 2019, Boris Johnson became prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 2020, he shrank into being prime minister of England. For the second time in less than seven years, the union is in trouble. But this time the problem needs a new question. Forget: Should Scotland be independ ent? The Scots will take care of that. Ask instead: Who in the rest of Britain needs this union with Scotland? And why? Read More Letters from Tove Emma HoganTowards the end of her life, Tove Jansson wrote a novel about two women in love. In Fair Play, Mari and Jonna, two artists, live together but apart. They have separate studios, connected by a corridor. They eat dinner in silence, their books propped up next to their plates. Each night they watch a film, often by a well-known director Truffaut, Bergman, Visconti, Renoir, Wilder...Jansson had many euphemisms for lesbianism: rive gauche , as if all Parisian women were at it; borderliner a new line , tendency , attitude . She had become more discreet since her affair with Vivica Bandler. Some of this reticence was due to her parents reaction. Her father tried to ask her if the rumours were true, but couldn t say the word homosexual because it made him so angry.Read More The Gospel of St Karen James LasdunThe Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies was held in September 2012 at the headquarters of the Order of St Augustine in Rome. Among the speakers was Karen King, the first woman to hold the Hollis Professorship of Divinity, Harvard s oldest endowed chair. King had made her name as an interpreter and champion of early Christian texts that asserted the spiritual authority of...Certainly one wants at times to shake off this clammy individual, to say: pah, sociopath, case closed, not interesting. But something about this artful, artless wife-of-Jesus scheme of his, spreading out under Karen King s Harvard-accredited endeavours like their disreputable shadow, urges a fuller accounting. Sheets of Fire and Leaping Flames Thomas JonesIt must have seemed like the end of the world, and for thousands of people it was. The Younger Pliny was 17 when he witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. He described it many years later in two letters to Tacitus, who had asked him for an account of his uncle s death. The Elder Pliny, now best known for his encyclopedic Naturalis Historia and for dying under the volcano, was...It must have seemedlike the end of the world, and for thousands of people it was. The Younger Pliny was 17 when he witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. He described it many years later in two letters to Tacitus, who had asked him for an account of his uncle s death.Read MoreFrom the blogMore from the blogThe National Trust flexes its mansion offerNicholas Penny18 September 2020 The National Trust, unsurprisingly, has had a bad year. An honest statement of how the fulfilment of its duty to preserve places of historical...How bad can he be?Patrick Mackie17 September 2020 Christopher Nolan s rampant new movie Tenet is the blockbuster charged with drawing us back to the cinema, so its spectacular opening carries...Aliens, Penguins and Bacteria-Hunting BalloonsChris Lintott16 September 2020 There s a long history of astronomers looking for signs of life on Venus. Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, reports circulated...Two-Chord VampsAlex Abramovich15 September 2020 The lack of specific dates speaks to the poverty that Frederick Toots Hibbert was born into in May Pen, in south-central Jamaica...Machine-Readable RefugeesKeren Weitzberg14 September 2020 Hassan (not his real name) was born in the Kenyan town of Mandera, on the country s borders with Somalia and Ethiopia, and grew up with...#BoycottMulanNick Holdstock11 September 2020 Liu Yifei, the star of Disney s new live-action remake of its 1998 cartoon Mulan, posted a message on Weibo last year expressing support...Adventures in BrexitlandPeter Geoghegan10 September 2020 Less obvious is what Johnson and his Vote Leave administration have gained from the week s machinations. At one stage a press spokesman...‘How could you bear it yourself?’Angelique Richardson7 September 2020 By March 2019,at least sixty councils had obtained the power to issue 100 fines for rough sleeping, begging andloitering...More from the blogPodcasts VideosMore Podcasts VideosPodcast 400 Million Guns Deborah Friedell and Thomas JonesDeborah Friedell talks to Thomas Jones about the origins, and origin myths, of the National Rifle Association, how it spends its money, and why it s wary of winning.Subscribe to the LRB from just 1 per issueDeborah Friedell talks to Thomas Jones about the origins, and origin myths, of the National Rifle Association, how it spends its money, and why it s wary of winning.Subscribe to the LRB from...Podcast The Incompetence of Boris Johnson David Runciman and Helen ThompsonThis week David and guests talk about the politics of incompetence: when does it matter and when can politicians get away with it?Have repeated u-turns during the pandemic damaged the government?Has Nicola Sturgeon had a better crisis than Boris Johnson or is it just competence theatre?Is the government's incompetence going to be enough to get Keir Starmer into Downing...This week David and guests talk about the politics of incompetence: when does it matter and when can politicians get away with it?Have repeated u-turns during the pandemic damaged the...Video Mayflies: Andrew O'Hagan and Edmund Gordon Andrew O Hagantalks toEdmund Gordonabout his new book, Mayflies,a heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.BuyMayfliesfrom us hereFind all Andrew O Hagan sLRBpieces hereAndrew O Hagantalks toEdmund Gordonabout his new book, Mayflies,a heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.BuyMayfliesfrom us hereFind...Podcast Covidology Rupert Beale and Thomas JonesRupert Beale talks to Thomas Jones about Covid-19 vaccine candidates, and reasons not to rush them; how worried we should be about reported cases of re-infection; possible reasons for the apparent drop in the infection fatality rate; and the prospects for reopening schools.Subscribe to the LRB from just 1 per issueRupert Beale talks to Thomas Jones about Covid-19 vaccine candidates, and reasons not to rush them; how worried we should be about reported cases of re-infection; possible reasons for the apparent...Video Akwaeke Emezi and Louisa Joyner: The Death of Vivek Oji Akwaeke Emezi talks about their latest book, The Death of Vivek Oji, with Louisa Joyner, their editor at Faber.Buy it from the London Review Bookshop hereThe article Emezi mentions during the discussion is Temporary spaces of joy and freedom , Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in conversation with Dionne BrandAkwaeke Emezi talks about their latest book, The Death of Vivek Oji, with Louisa Joyner, their editor at Faber.Buy it from the London Review Bookshop hereThe article Emezi mentions during the...Podcast The Absurdities of Race Paul Gilroy and Adam ShatzAdam Shatz talks to Paul Gilroy about his intellectual background and the recent anti-racist protests in the UK and US.They discuss Gilroy s experience growing up in North London in the 1950s and 1960s, the influence of African-American culture on his understanding of racial ordering, the role of Turner s paintingThe Slave Shipin the history of the Black...Adam Shatz talks to Paul Gilroy about his intellectual background and the recent anti-racist protests in the UK and US.They discuss Gilroy s experience growing up in North London in the...Podcast Kirsty Gunn and Max Porter: Caroline’s Bikini Novelist and essayist Kirsty Gunn s latest novelCaroline s Bikiniis a powerful retelling of one of the oldest stories in western literature that of unrequited love. In a series of conversations in West London bars, Gunn unravels the passion of financier Evan Gordonstone for the glamorous Caroline Beresford, an unravelling that brings Gordonstone to the brink of...Novelist and essayist Kirsty Gunn s latest novelCaroline s Bikiniis a powerful retelling of one of the oldest stories in western literature that of unrequited love....Podcast Early and Late Kermode Stefan Collini, Mary-Kay Wilmers, Thomas Jones and Andrew O’HaganStefan Collini talks to Thomas Jones about the life and work of Frank Kermode, and Mary-Kay Wilmers remembers him as a contributorto the LRB.Buy the LRB s selection of Frank Kermode s essays from the LRB StoreSubscribe to the LRB from just 1 per issueFind allFrank Kermode s pieces for the LRB hereStefan Collini talks to Thomas Jones about the life and work of Frank Kermode, and Mary-Kay Wilmers remembers him as a contributorto the LRB.Buy the LRB s selection of Frank...Video Is it OK to have children? Meehan CristGiven what we know about the future of the planet, is having children a matter of consumer choice, of political conviction, or something an authority will eventually decide for us? Meehan Crist explores the debate about the ethics of childbearing in the age of climate crisis. She addresses the relationship between BP and the British Museum, the implications of culture-washing, and the logic of...Given what we know about the future of the planet, Meehan Crist asks: is having children a matter of consumer choice, of political conviction, or something an authority will eventually decide for us?Video Akihito and the Sorrows of Japan Richard Lloyd ParryAkihito, who abdicated in April, was a paradoxical figure: a hereditary monarch, the son of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, strictly barred from political utterance, who even so stood out against the historical revisionism of the nationalist right. Richard Lloyd Parry considers the former emperor s part in the intellectual and political debate over Japan s wartime record, and its...Akihito, who abdicated in April, was a paradoxical figure: a hereditary monarch, the son of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, strictly barred from political utterance, who even so stood out against...Video Fiction and the Age of Lies Colin BurrowThe line between making a fiction and telling a lie has been blurry at least since Homer, and liars from Odysseus and Iago to Austen s Wickham and beyond have often played central parts within fictions. This lecture will aim to tell some (though not all) of the truth about the relationship between lies and fiction from Homer to Ian McEwan, and will ask if fiction has...The line between making a fiction and telling a lie has been blurry at least since Homer, and liars from Odysseus and Iago to Austen s Wickham and beyond have often played...More Podcasts Videos This site requires the use of Javascript to provide the best possible experience. Please change your browser settings to allow Javascript content to run.

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