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The bar across the street
Last week, I went every morning for breakfast to the perfect bar. You stood at the counter for your shot of coffee; the other customers all greeted the owner by name. Nobody was on a laptop; nobody was even on their phone. Behind the bar were shelves displaying tobacco, lottery tickets, bottles of whisky and
Shepherds of Europe!
They’d put me on a float. It was midnight. A tractor hauled me and some twenty-five villagers into the woods. We were going to cut down a tree. I’d had a fine dinner with, among others, the village matriarch: the best meat for miles around, served at half past ten. Always after ten here: at
- Sean Berube Read
Moby Dick and Man’s War Against God
On Ahab, Obsession, and the Self-Destruction of Disordered Human Love
The Spectacle of AI taking over the world
A group of French scientists sees OpenAI unjustly claiming it has solved the mathematic Navier-Stokes problem and rings the alarm bell. A handful of Tech moguls is establishing a private monopoly over cognition and knowledge. « Reality considered partially unfolds in its own general unity as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation. The specialization
Die Leerstelle
In ihrem Roman „Das Leben der M“ traut sich Rachel Cusk nah an eine lebende Schauspielerin heran und entfacht eine Debatte Rezension von Tilman Urbach zu Rachel Cusk: Das Leben der M. Ein literarisches Vexierspiel über Selbstentwürfe Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2026
Ein Plädoyer für die Befreiung der Sexualität
Die französische Schriftstellerin Colette kommt in „Das Reine und das Unreine“ von 1932 zu unerwarteten Einsichten in Fragen der Sexualität, die auch bald hundert Jahre später nichts von ihrer Subversion verloren haben Rezension von Nora Eckert zu Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette: Das Reine und das Unreine. Roman Friedenauer Presse, Berlin 2026
Lord Cochrane: The real Jack Aubrey?
Thomas Cochrane: The real-life Master and Commander | Peter Moore’s A Dangerous GameNaval hero. Political radical. Convicted fraudster. Thomas Cochrane’s life makes the fiction he inspired look almost tame.Antonia Senior and Roger Moorhouse discuss Peter Moore’s A Dangerous Game, a biography of one of Britain’s most extraordinary—and troublesome—naval commanders.
- Literaturcafe.de Read
Schreiben mit KI – Seminar im Stuttgarter Schriftstellerhaus [Zusatztermin]
Nun sag‘, wie hast du’s mit der KI? Nützliches Kreativwerkzeug oder erst gar nicht mit dem Zeug anfangen? In diesem Seminar des Förderkreises der Schriftsteller:innen in Baden-Württemberg betrachten wir beide Seiten. Denn nur wer die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der KI kennt, kann sie gezielt einsetzen – oder besser darauf verzichten. Samstag, 7. November von 10 bis 17 Uhr. Zusatztermin am Sonntag, 8. November 2026 Hier klicken und weiterlesen: »Schreiben mit KI – Seminar im Stuttgarter Schriftstellerhaus [Zusatztermin]« >
- Onward and Upward Read
An Instance of Honor, &c
On golfers, the Iran war, flag-waving, a Philippine Schindler, and more
Steven Pinker: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows
Listen to Steven Pinker: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... from The Book Club. In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker to discuss his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…Pinker explores the powerful idea of ‘common knowledge’ - not simply what we know, but what we know that other people know, and what we know they know we know.
Tausend Könige, kein Königreich
Ein Buch über Ausbeutung, Überleben und den Versuch, Mensch zu bleiben in einer Welt voll Tempo, Druck und Kontrolle: Hu Anyans Erinnerungen „Ich fahr Pakete aus in Peking“ Rezension von Oliver Pfohlmann zu Hu Anyan: Ich fahr Pakete aus in Peking. Ein intimer Bericht eines Niedriglohnarbeiters in China Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2025
Warum Klassiker lesen?
Thomas Groß wirbt in „Warum sich weiterlesen lohnt“ für anspruchsvolle Literatur Rezension von Michael Duszat zu Thomas Groß: Warum sich Weiterlesen lohnt Flur Verlag, Heidelberg 2026
Narrative Poems: ‘Amours de Voyages’ by Arthur Hugh Clough
In 1848, Arthur Hugh Clough resigned his fellowship at Oxford after realising that he could no longer in good conscience teach the doctrines of the Anglican Church, as the job required. He immediately embarked on some European travel and the following year found himself in Rome during the short-lived republican uprising against the Pope, led by Giuseppe Mazzini.
How to Read Plato
Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we are preparing to read Plato’s Republic (we start next week!). Before turning to that long and demanding text, we ask a simple question: how do you read Plato well? Plato does not write treatises or lectures. He writes dialogues, and the setting, the characters, the irony, and
- St. Austin Review Read
Mining in a Lost Continent
Writing for the Harvard Library Bulletin in 2001, James Hankins described what he called a lost continent. He noted that “the Neo-Latin literature of the Renaissance and Baroque periods has been almost entirely forgotten.” Its being so fully forgotten means that it has become “an Atlantis, a lost continent of literature, sunken between Graeco-Roman literature [...]
- St. Austin Review Read
England’s True Queen
Our Lady of Walsingham has been the true queen of England for almost a thousand years... Our Lady of Walsingham: England’s Queen - Joseph Pearce
- St. Austin Review Read
Belloc’s Belinda
As a novelist, Hilaire Belloc was prolific though not always particularly adept. The one notable exception is his “Belinda” of 1928. Subtitled “A Tale of Affection in Youth and Age,” Belloc believed that this late novel was the one work of fiction with which he could feel satisfied… Belloc’s Belinda – Joseph Pearce
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