Harper’s Magazine
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Since 1850. “America’s most interesting magazine” —New York Times Subscribe: harpers.org/save
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In our November issue: a Harper’s Forum on media’s crisis of trust, Rowan Jacobsen on a good night’s sleep, Daniel Kolitz on porn’s new frontier, Joy Williams on Gene Hackman’s last days, Nick Pinkerton on Abel Ferrara and a new story by David Wingrave.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
16 days ago
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“Anyone paying attention to online porn’s evolution over the preceding twenty years could sense, in its brain-melting variety and abundance, the blueprint for a new kind of person, a new relationship to human sexuality.” —@danielkolitz.bsky.social
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The Goon Squad, by Daniel Kolitz
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
https://buff.ly/VpYazO8
34 minutes ago
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“‘To grieve in peace’ is a common phrase but it’s a peculiar one, is it not? A contradiction, a demanding, even unachievable stasis state.” Joy Williams on Gene Hackman’s last days.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
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One Four Two Five Old Sunset Trail, by Joy Williams
On the last days of Gene Hackman
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/one-four-two-five-old-sunset-trail-joy-williams-death/
about 17 hours ago
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“More than 80 percent of the world’s population is exposed to light pollution, and with each passing year, fewer and fewer of us have ever known anything else. In abolishing the terror of night, we may have flattened the beauty of day.” —Rowan Jacobsen
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Chasing Photons, by Rowan Jacobsen
In pursuit of a good night’s sleep
https://buff.ly/H6iNd0q
about 18 hours ago
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“Something has gone awry when a paid propagandist, working on behalf of a corporation or a trade union, earns more than the man whose job it is to tell the truth.” David Boroff on the state of media in “What Ails the Journalism Schools,” from 1965.
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Press Release, by David Boroff
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about 24 hours ago
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“The simple reality is that legacy media organizations are struggling, and they want readership, especially when they’re looking at younger journalists. They want people who can bring in younger audiences.” —
@taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://buff.ly/ePdfaks
1 day ago
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“Sometimes, I think, it’s to assuage existential terror. Because if you’re doing the violence, at that moment anyway, it’s not being done to you.” —Mary Gaitskill
harpers.org/archive/2025...
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Harm’s Way, by Mary Gaitskill
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http://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/harms-way-mary-gaitskill-violence/
1 day ago
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“We have to meet people where they are, which is on social media and on video, and try our best to get good at communicating with people in the spaces where they are engaged.”
@maxtani.bsky.social
in a forum on the media’s credibility crisis.
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://buff.ly/ePdfaks
1 day ago
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“The 80.55 million pounds of gunpowder exported by the British in the eighteenth century to Africa, Asia, and the Americas was enough charge for 1.3 to 4.6 billion shots.” Clifton Crais in The Killing Age, which will be published this month by
@uchicagopress.bsky.social
.
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Boom Times, by Clifton Crais
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https://buff.ly/mcLu4sA
2 days ago
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“These experiments, led most often by women in their own homes, revealed the domestic as a laboratory for testing enchantment.” Anna Della Subin in a talk delivered at the conference Enchanting Wor(l)ds.
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Phantom Threads, by Anna Della Subin
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https://buff.ly/daVrf1a
2 days ago
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“Ferrara’s arrival in New York City and subsequent entry into the movie business is presented as something like a case of recidivism, a dive from suburban gentility into the cauldron of steaming garbage that was Fun City–era Manhattan.” —Nick Pinkerton
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A Rake’s Progress, by Nick Pinkerton
Abel Ferrara’s addiction to filmmaking
https://buff.ly/gT63y5c
2 days ago
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“‘The universe is made of love,’ Daedone told her employees. ‘Sales is love. Therefore the universe is made of sales.’” Dan Piepenbring reviews Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult.
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New Books, by Dan Piepenbring
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https://buff.ly/LJ0vWXf
3 days ago
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“I don’t know how my father found out about the trip. We hadn’t spoken in almost a year when he emailed, saying that he’d like to get back to North Cyprus himself.” A new story from David Wingrave.
harpers.org/archive/2025/11/aytac-david-wingrave-cyprus-friendship/
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Aytaç, by David Wingrave
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https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/aytac-david-wingrave-cyprus-friendship/
3 days ago
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“He made sixty-six movies, sixty-seven if you count his uncredited voice of God in the forgettable Two of a Kind. (God had nothing meaningful to say.) He didn’t do death in most of them, but in the ones he did, his end was very awful.” Joy Williams on Gene Hackman.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
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One Four Two Five Old Sunset Trail, by Joy Williams
On the last days of Gene Hackman
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/one-four-two-five-old-sunset-trail-joy-williams-death/
3 days ago
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“That’s the trouble with dreams of power. It stimulates anxiety about a catastrophe that has yet to happen. ”
@hernyfreebland.bsky.social
in a collage essay which was published by
@laphamsquarterly.bsky.social
.
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The American Scheme of Things, by Henry Freedland
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3 days ago
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“I’m all for getting off without telos, but, as a rule of thumb (or whichever finger[s] you stroke with), anyone who takes a well-known word, capitalizes the first letter, and insists that it’s something new has an axe to grind.” —Dan Piepenbring
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New Books, by Dan Piepenbring
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https://buff.ly/LJ0vWXf
4 days ago
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Harper’s Magazine is hiring an editor to run its Readings section. Each month, the editor will be responsible for overseeing the section’s creation and assembly. The position is full-time and based in New York City. More details here:
harpers.org/careers/
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Careers
Senior Editor Harper’s Magazine is hiring an editor to run its Readings section. Each month, the editor will be responsible for overseeing the section’s creation and assembly. Responsibilities include...
https://harpers.org/careers/
4 days ago
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“About one in three American adults gets less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. The costs are staggering: by one estimate, up to $411 billion per year in disease, accidents, and lost productivity.” —Rowan Jacobsen
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Chasing Photons, by Rowan Jacobsen
In pursuit of a good night’s sleep
https://buff.ly/H6iNd0q
4 days ago
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“I do think that the corporate media—having worked in it myself—has done things to erode trust, whether it’s kowtowing to power or simply failing to represent the truth.”
@taylorlorenz.bsky.social
on establishment media’s crisis of trust.
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://buff.ly/ePdfaks
4 days ago
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“Can clothes be evil? The libertines will begin the film in suits. At the end, they’ll wear dressing gowns.” Olivia Laing from The Silver Book, which will be published this month by
@fsgbooks.bsky.social
.
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Film Rites, by Olivia Laing
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https://buff.ly/DFrfEc6
4 days ago
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General Interest is a new interview series between Harper’s writers and editors. This month, Daniel Kolitz speaks with Matthew Sherrill about his harrowing journey into the “Goonverse,” and Joy Williams speaks with Will Stephenson about Night Moves, dogs, and Rilke.
buff.ly/QTwDEM4
5 days ago
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Every month in our Findings column, Rafil Kroll-Zaidi presents a constellation of the most—and least—important scientific discoveries.
6 days ago
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From the November Harper’s Index.
buff.ly/Hen1y6H
7 days ago
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reposted by
Harper’s Magazine
Longreads
7 days ago
1. “Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?”
@jelaniya.bsky.social
,
@taylorlorenz.bsky.social
,
@jackshafer.bsky.social
,
@maxtani.bsky.social
"The journalists here differ in . . . how they interpret threats against press freedom in the US . . ."
harpers.org/archive/2025...
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/why-doesnt-anyone-trust-the-media-jelani-cobb-taylor-lorenz-jack-shafer-max-tani-establishment-journalism/?src=longreads
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“What happens when—whether through fatigue, indifference, or inability—the transmission of reading culture as we’ve known it comes to an end?” Christopher Carroll on American reading habits.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
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Moon Magic, by Christopher Carroll
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https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/moon-magic-christopher-carroll-literacy-rate-parenthood/
7 days ago
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“The war against journalism education has been long and relentless. Though the idiom of abuse has changed, the critics are as hostile as ever, while their targets react only with curious torpor.” David Boroff in “What Ails the Journalism Schools,” from 1965.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
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Press Release, by David Boroff
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https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/press-release-david-boroff-journalism-education/
7 days ago
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“If you look at the decline of trust in American institutions, it is overwhelmingly connected to the dynamics of local relationships.”
@jelaniya.bsky.social
in the Harper’s Forum on establishment media’s crisis of trust.
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://buff.ly/ePdfaks
8 days ago
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“I’ve come for a monthlong intervention. No light after dark. I picked this place online because of the location and the stargazing, and because it was the closest I could get to the Great Rift Valley on a budget.” —Rowan Jacobsen
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Chasing Photons, by Rowan Jacobsen
In pursuit of a good night’s sleep
https://buff.ly/IWxNfFT
8 days ago
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“The odds of recovering from chemical dependencies as crippling as Ferrara’s are infinitesimal; the odds of getting a steady stream of projects off the ground for almost fifty years as an independent filmmaker are not much better.” —Nick Pinkerton
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A Rake’s Progress, by Nick Pinkerton
Abel Ferrara’s addiction to filmmaking
https://buff.ly/g0k7TZS
9 days ago
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“After a short lull following the end of the Atlantic slave trade, Afriacn imports of powder from Britain took off: more than 4 million pounds in 1865, nearly twice the record annual amount during the external slave trade.” —Clifton Crais
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Boom Times, by Clifton Crais
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https://buff.ly/DmNQ8pN
9 days ago
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“As a visitor, I felt a temptation to fixate on this romance of twentieth-century stasis. But there had been diplomatic successes. The border was porous now. There were crossing points; Leonie and I had done it ourselves several times.” —David Wingrave
buff.ly/2oTF0Fh
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Aytaç, by David Wingrave
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https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/aytac-david-wingrave-cyprus-friendship/
9 days ago
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“Because of my bodily experience, I’ve become attuned to subtle social cues of possible violence: a look in the eyes, a tightening of the jaw, a way of moving or of speaking that precedes rage or cold, deliberate cruelty.” —Mary Gaitskill
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Harm’s Way, by Mary Gaitskill
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https://buff.ly/7A30xnI
9 days ago
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“Granted, day-in-the-life TikToks or unboxing videos won’t poison your soul to precisely the same degree as gooner porn. But it’s hard not to see goonerism as just an intensification, almost a burlesque, of prevailing cultural trends.”—@danielkolitz.bsky.social
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The Goon Squad, by Daniel Kolitz
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
https://buff.ly/ggsgw1g
9 days ago
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reposted by
Harper’s Magazine
Longreads
10 days ago
"What worries me more is the lack of outrage, the lack of interest, and the lack of pushback by the general public." —@maxtani.bsky.social, with
@jelaniya.bsky.social
@taylorlorenz.bsky.social
&
@jackshafer.bsky.social
for
@harpers.bsky.social
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/why-doesnt-anyone-trust-the-media-jelani-cobb-taylor-lorenz-jack-shafer-max-tani-establishment-journalism?src=longreads
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“Each suite has a cushy bed, ports in the wall for various diagnostic devices, cameras and intercoms, and futuristic light panels … It feels like a cross between a Comfort Inn and a panic room.” Rowan Jacobsen chases good sleep in the Sonoran Desert.
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Chasing Photons, by Rowan Jacobsen
In pursuit of a good night’s sleep
https://buff.ly/IWxNfFT
9 days ago
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“Anyone with a
Classmates.com
account can see a phenomenally dopey picture of my dad, along with his ‘favorites’ (‘pizza…girls…’) and his class’s prom theme (‘Oriental Evening’).” Dan Piepenbring reviews Kate Eichhorn's School Yearbook.
buff.ly/EV9QiUY
10 days ago
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“Motility is a defining quality of the soul, which has often been seen, since the pre-Socratics, as the starting point of motion in the body. Souls can move; they migrate; perhaps they are arrivants, the French term Warner uses for refugees.” —@annadella.bsky.social
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Phantom Threads, by Anna Della Subin
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https://buff.ly/aaJClEZ
10 days ago
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“The more I’m in such plant-based lightscapes, the more LED bulbs seem fit only for asylums and nightmares. I haven’t used mine in weeks.” Rowan Jacobsen on artificial light and the pursuit of a good night’s sleep.
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Chasing Photons, by Rowan Jacobsen
In pursuit of a good night’s sleep
https://buff.ly/IWxNfFT
10 days ago
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“It’s not the media’s job to protect the public from information that very well could be true.”
@maxtani.bsky.social
on mainstream reporting on COVID in a forum on the media’s credibility crisis.
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://buff.ly/vXyrHkN
10 days ago
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“The clothes Dani has made for his films over the past decade are more like sculpture than something to wear. Definitively strange, they have the function of dissolving the present, of creating a rent in time.” Olivia Laing from The Silver Book.
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Film Rites, by Olivia Laing
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https://buff.ly/LaoUH4u
10 days ago
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“On the news they’re talking about names and legacies and who the next pope will be. God chooses the pope, not cardinals, my barista says.” By Jamie Quatro, from the Sewanee School of Letters Summer Reading Series.
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Getting Used to It, by Jamie Quatro
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https://buff.ly/FS8Z1FE
11 days ago
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“Substance abuse was forbidden, though late in her tenure Daedone was alleged to have thrown some LSD into the mix. When you’re a charismatic leader, it’s never a bad idea to keep a few tabs in your back pocket.” —Dan Piepenbring
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New Books, by Dan Piepenbring
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https://buff.ly/EV9QiUY
11 days ago
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“Violence is for getting your way; for asserting your existence as an individual or a group; for venting torrential feeling; for sadistic pleasure.” Mary Gaitskill in an essay that first appeared in
@thepointmag.bsky.social
.
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Harm’s Way, by Mary Gaitskill
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https://buff.ly/7A30xnI
11 days ago
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“As far as I knew, Abdi wasn’t a doctor. He wasn’t anything. All he did, all day long, was drink coffee with Aytaç. He didn’t even play chess.” A new story from David Wingrave.
buff.ly/2oTF0Fh
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Aytaç, by David Wingrave
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https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/aytac-david-wingrave-cyprus-friendship/
11 days ago
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“Every once in a while, however, news of Death’s particular methods and attention to detail seizes our attention like the cougar does the clueless rabbit, and we suffer some serious confusion and fright.” —Joy Williams
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One Four Two Five Old Sunset Trail, by Joy Williams
On the last days of Gene Hackman
https://buff.ly/iQzqoeg
11 days ago
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“To be a successful independent filmmaker—that is, one who is even sporadically employed—is, in essence, to be a bit of a con man.” Nick Pinkerton on Abel Ferrara’s memoir, Scene.
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A Rake’s Progress, by Nick Pinkerton
Abel Ferrara’s addiction to filmmaking
https://buff.ly/g0k7TZS
11 days ago
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“God the Mother—maybe, but not my mother— and certainly not yours” From a manuscript in progress by Rae Armantrout.
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Farther, by Rae Armantrout
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https://buff.ly/FQPqD9h
13 days ago
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“Some part of me, I’m saying, was convinced that these gooners were human. Almost certainly they had, in their lives, hugged grandparents, cuddled pets.”
@danielkolitz.bsky.social
on loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation.
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The Goon Squad, by Daniel Kolitz
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
https://buff.ly/ggsgw1g
13 days ago
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“Corporate media in particular has spent years selling people out and getting things wrong. Look at mainstream coverage of the Iraq War, the COVID-19 pandemic, or the genocide in Palestine. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.” —@taylorlorenz.bsky.social
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Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?, by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
https://buff.ly/vXyrHkN
13 days ago
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“Without guns, the Industrial Revolution would not have unfolded the way it did, if it even happened at all, for weapons were what made environmental destruction, the expropriation of land, and the expansion of slavery possible.” —Clifton Crais
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Boom Times, by Clifton Crais
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https://buff.ly/DmNQ8pN
13 days ago
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“Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters (which I think bad in itself) and thereby encourages abuse of it in all spheres.” C.S. Lewis in a letter to a reader, from Letters on Living the Faith, which will be published in March.
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Penile Colony, by C. S. Lewis
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https://buff.ly/RW1gtvw
14 days ago
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