In French class we received a kissing map so we will know how many kisses to give depending on where we go in France

Far from the snow

When Hannah Arendt described finding her husband by chance in the South of France at the village market next to a stack of mattresses I always had a hard time picturing what that looked like, until this morning.

Spring walk

Carcassonne’s torture museum has a display of a writer collapsed at his desk.

se abdere in bibliothecam suam to bury oneself in one's library

"Are you the one," I ask, "whom Dante hear dictate the lines of his Inferno?" She answers: "Yes." — Anna Akhmatova

Tonight! at 6pm ET (online) Join me for a conversation with Barbara Wansbrough bout her debut book, Wild Things: A Geography of Grief Link here: substack.com/home/post/p-...

W.S. Merwin

Racism is and has always been central to fascist political ideology.

Thank you to everyone who donated and attended the reading of Hannah Arendt's essay "Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship" last night. Here's the recording: substack.com/home/post/p-...

For more about Arendt, take a listen to the conversation with @jackewilson.bsky.social and Samantha Rose Hill about her biography of Arendt. #books #hannaharendt @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

Take a journey through Hannah Arendt's life and work with me this February at the JTA, where we'll explore the key concepts and ideas that animate Arendt's work through a close reading of The Human Condition! Registration: my-jewish-learning.teachable.com/p/hannah-are... 20% discount code: HUMAN20

In response to the unfolding terror in Minnesota I wanted to create a space to come together. I’m hosting a book club on Hannah Arendt’s essay Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship next Tuesday to raise money for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota samantharosehill.substack.com/p/a-special-bo

Teaching Kafka tonight

Louise Glück

“Defensive shots” is Orwellian language for a gang of masked armed state agents firing at least ten shots into a man pinned face-down in the street. They don't need a reason, they'll make one up after the fact. Political lies become common speech to cover up crimes.

This is how fascism comes to America. It’s the endless events, day after day, until one day you wake up in a different country. Anti-immigrant rhetoric, censorship, attacks on universities, masked terror squads murdering people in the streets, enemy lists, denaturalization, camps

Macron Davos 2026 directed by Godard

"A lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history." — Hannah Arendt

Favorites thinkers, writers, and philosophers of desire? (living)

Only one other person in history has accepted a Nobel prize as a gesture of thanks

"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meet Brontë She loves speaking French, ear scratches, and sleeping.

From the ever brilliant and courageous Louise Adler who is a champion of writers, free speech, and democratic values in dark times www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Perfect start to the day with words by Hannah Arendt, translated by @samantharhill.bsky.social and @genesegrill.bsky.social

“A fundamental difference between modern dictatorships and all other tyrannies of the past is that terror is no longer used as a means to exterminate and frighten opponents, but as an instrument to rule masses of people who are perfectly obedient.” — Hannah Arendt

"No one has the right to obey." — Hannah Arendt

When hope is a hindrance For Hannah Arendt, hope is a dangerous barrier to courageous action. In dark times, the miracle that saves the world is to act | by Samantha Rose Hill (@samantharhill.bsky.social) aeon.co/essays/for-a... #Arendt #hope #philosophy #philsky#PhilosophySky

And the follow-up point is that because imperialism requires constant expansion, it is inherently incompatible with stable political institutions. It causes and relies on political instability at home. Not unrelated to unaccountable state actors shooting citizens in the street.

Hannah Arendt’s point in Imperialism was that there is no end to imperialism. It goes on and on. The nation-state is rooted in imperialism and imperialism is rooted in expansionism. Trump is doubling down on 19th-century nation-state politics, and doing the once quiet part aloud.

When you order wood in a small French village and they leave it at your door

“That’s a suspicious amount of books.” 22 years of notebooks in one suitcase

Friedrich Nietzsche, For the new year:

City Lights has long been a beacon of bookishness for me. It was a thrill to do CITY LIGHTS LIVE!: a conversation about close reading with Yael Segalovitz and my co-editor on Close Reading for the 21C, @johannawinant.bsky.social moderated by @samantharhill.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehZ0...

look, when the legendary City Lights asks to record a conversation about close reading, you respond “yes, I’ll hide upstairs in a room in my parents‘ house, put on a clean shirt, and talk a lot with my hands!!!” join @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social , Yael Segalovitz, @samantharhill.bsky.social, and me!

Moby-Dick seminar brings about questions about self / political / religious / perspectives on life by an author in times of formation. My great grandfather’s middle name was Melville. His brother Harold died at sea. @samantharhill.bsky.social #writing #novels open.substack.com/pub/samantha...

Happy to see that my pal Samantha Rose Hill got a shout out in the Times this weekend. @samantharhill.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/b...

I am co-leading a year-long Man Without Qualities Reading Group with @samantharhill.bsky.social , starting on Monday, October 13th. Join us! Details can be found here: genesegrill.substack.com/p/man-withou...

@samantharhill.bsky.social in New York Times

"The danger is not that A.I. will replace human connection. The danger is that it will make us forget what actual connection requires..." @samantharhill.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/o...

"The danger is not that AI will replace human connection," @samantharhill.bsky.social writes. The danger is that it will make us forget what actual connection requires while eroding our ability to think for ourselves." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/o...

“Tech companies have found a way to market digital goods to lonely people, promising relief through connection, but this kind of connection isn’t the solution; it’s the problem,” @samantharhill.bsky.social on the tech loneliness doom hoop. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/o...

My favorite definition of love Rainer Maria Rilke:

Look Sam, Heidelberg is online @samantharhill.bsky.social youtu.be/i04iCnOUAvc?...

Hannah Arendt with her mother Martha Sara Cohn

Frank O'Hara

"Boredom is the threshold to great deeds." — Walter Benjamin

"We've grown very poor in threshold experiences." — Walter Benjamin