A GUIDE during the COVID-19 Situation: Bonus! What to Read

Results of the Diagram Prize. "Introducing the Medieval Ass" came in second.

Positive cases and deaths are increasing this season. "Atlantic" staff writer Joe Pinsker makes some suggestions.

"We ourselves are part of the natural world," writes Margaret Henkl for the New York Times.

After the novel coronavirus, "Life has taken on a slightly hobbitish air, albeit without the consolations enjoyed by the Shirefolk at The Green Dragon."

Novelist, traveler, and garden writer Kincaid remembers her mother, learning how to read, and finding herself in gardens.

"Bro! Tell me we still know how to talk about kings!" (line 1)
Maria Dahvana Headley’s version is more of a rewriting than a true translation, reënvisaging the poem for the modern reader rather than transmitting it line for line.

by English poet Thomas Nashe, 1599/1600

An analysis of the major civil unrest following the death of another black man in police custody, by author and columnist Ross Douthat

An essay by former president and community organizer Barack Obama.

a previously unpublished story by Ernest Hemingway, in the New Yorker of June 8/15, 2020.

who discusses his books, his life experiences, and "the totally ridiculous terrible situation we are in. ...It’s all happening at once in this horrible convergence and we are all witnesses to it.”

An essay by Nathaniel Rich.

"if you're concerned... you might want to look in the mirror. And see if you are wearing a mask."

A lot of controversy was caused by this open letter, published in Harper's magazine: "The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away."

Free speech may be tied to how much you give, apparently.

"I can't breathe" is a cry of protest as well as illness. How are they related?

"So Brutal a Death," about the killing of George Floyd from an immigrant viewpoint.

from New York magazine, June 8, 1970 (published on line in 2008)

"Too bad; I'm going to help you anyway"! a fun article from sportswriter Ryan Nanni, though this article has nothing to do with sports.

a review-list from the New Yorker

Etymology and entomology say "no," in The New Yorker.

An acerbic look at what the New Republic calls "liberals' glorification of expertise."

A Cultural Comment in the New Yorker, by Mason Curry

by Susanne Antonetta, teacher and author.
This could be reinterpreted: "even when I test positive, I'm still me."

A lively article by the a prominent literary scholar and author of Swerve, a popular book about the ancient Roman philosopher Lucretius.

Don DeLillo's White Noise is a book to read now. Or when Watson Library reopens, check it out at PS3554 .E4425 W48 1985, in the stacks.

An essay from a Catholic-historical perspective about quarantine, disease, and penitence.

"...in the midst of this terrible despair, [the pandemic] offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. ...We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it."
An article by the contemporary Indian writer Arundhati Roy, in the Financial Times.

A short article of good advice from a different point of view, in Mother Nature Network

A summary from the New York Times (3.20/2020), including a story about a couple in Kenner, Louisiana.

by Jill Lepore, respected essayist for the New Yorker. "In the literature of pestilence, the greatest threat isn’t the loss of human life but the loss of what makes us human."

Historian Yuval Noah Harari: "When the present crisis is over, I don’t expect we will see a significant increase in the budgets of philosophy departments. But I bet we will see a massive increase in the budgets of medical schools and healthcare systems.
"And maybe that is the best we can humanly expect."

"What would life be without coffee?” King Louis XV of France is said to have asked. “But, then, what is life even with coffee?”

Lapham's Quarterly calls this excerpt from a 17th-century diary early "blogging."

An article from the New Yorker, published in its March 27 newsletter.

The answer to her question about "wartime knitting" is in chapter 3 of Esther Rutter's book This Golden Fleece, reviewed in the Guardian on September 13, 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/13/this-golden-fleece-esther-rutter-review

A sarcastic commentary by an English academic in California

"What Submarine Crews and Astronauts Can Teach Us About Isolation," by Anna Russell in the New Yorker April 9, 2020

From Shakespeare to Broadway to CAPA, theater both suffers and benefits from closure. Read more in this Atlanti9c article.

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Audio with related artwork, about a desperate man with a burden he tries to shed.

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