LoginCommas, Common Sense and Justice
The ancients developed punctuation to create clarity, the Supreme Court used it to create confusion.
© The New York Times
Reading view
The Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer
Memoirs, histories, true crime, investigations and much more.
The Novels Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer
New fiction from Maggie O’Farrell, Ann Patchett, Colson Whitehead, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and much more.
© The New York Times
Big Swells of Rancor Are Capsizing America
Texas just got a lot more interesting.
© Damon Winter/The New York Times
Big Swells of Rancor Are Capsizing America
Texas just got a lot more interesting.
Jill Biden’s Reaction to Biden’s 2024 Debate: ‘He’s Having a Stroke’
“I had never, ever seen Joe like that,” the former first lady told CBS News. “Before or since.”
Jill Biden, the first lady, and President Biden after the presidential debate in June 2024. She understood he had performed poorly but told him that they had been counted out before.
© Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Thornton Wilder’s Last Play Vanished Into Thin Air. Or Did It?
Decades after “The Emporium” failed to open on Broadway in 1954, one man went on a quest to find it.
Thornton Wilder won three Pulitzer Prizes, including one for the classic drama “Our Town,” still among the most produced plays in the United States.
© Fred Stein Archive/Archive Photos via Getty Images
Why Is TikTok in This Book from 2006?
For decades, publishers have swapped out cultural references in new editions of books to appeal to younger readers. Fans aren’t always thrilled.
© The New York Times
Yuval Noah Harari on Donald Trump’s Core Delusion
The best-selling author of “Sapiens” and “Nexus” discusses the core delusions deranging our politics.
A Defense of a Liberal Arts Education in the Age of A.I.
Making the case for a “useless” education.
What Silicon Valley Is Coming for Next
Hint: It comes from inside of you.
We’ve Become Too Savage for ‘Lord of the Flies’
Savagery just ain’t what it used to be.
Why We Keep Tricking Ourselves Into Thinking A.I. Is Conscious
Notable thinkers keep telling us they think A.I. is conscious. That doesn’t mean it’s true.
This Is Why I Find Pema Chödrön So Essential
The 89-year-old Buddhist nun teaches the power of agreeing with your anxiety, instead of trying to run from it.
Xia De-hong, 94, Dies; Persecuted in China, She Starred in Daughter’s Memoir
“Wild Swans,” a best-selling 1991 memoir, told the story of a stoic mother holding her family together amid torture and imprisonment under Mao’s regime.
Gao Ertai: The desert flower that keeps blooming
“Some see in his critique of the Mao era parallels to today: the arbitrary rule of an aging leader, harsh treatment of dissent, and government programs that encourage people to inform on one another.” My profile of the octogenarian essayist Gao Ertai, who lived for years in the deserts of western China and now resides in Las Vegas.
Read the article in The New Yorker online here.
Read the Chinese translation in the Boston Review of Books (波斯頓書評) here.
The post Gao Ertai: The desert flower that keeps blooming appeared first on Ian Johnson.
