Colonial Williamsburg has become a space for truly complex, careful conversations about American history.

In America, the arts depend on charitable giving; that’s not ideal.

“The Death of the Fuck”: on puritanism and sex scenes in books.

I found this article fascinating — it’s about how the modern world assumes we want everything to be speedier and more efficient, but that’s not actually what we want all the time! God, I miss Blockbuster.

Meredith Shiner reflects on the high holy days, Palestinian lives, and that one CBS interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates.

“I progressed, swift, undeterred by silent letters, diphthongs, schwas, into a wintry future—my birthday is in January—of which two things could be said for sure: I would be five years old; I would be able to rely on myself.” Elisa Gonzalez considers homeschooling and what it means to be an autodidact.

Adam Serwer contemplates the snitch state.

“Rumor baiting is eclipsing constructive reflection. The pattern seekers are more interested in uncovering a juicier story than finding justice for victims who must now compete with specious secret-society rhetoric and crude Diddy memes to be heard.” A thoughtful piece about conspiratorial thinking and the exploitation of young artists in the music industry.

This profile of Palestinian American historain Rashid Khalidi (whose book I read this year) is excellent, and I am eager to read his next book on the links between Ireland and Palestine.

“What lengths may some fans go to get noticed?”

“With many patients, the drug is closer to brain damage.” A dopamine agonist used to treat Parkinson’s can lead to wildly out of character behavior and loss of impulse control.

Molly Young shares an abecedary of her enemies.

“Male historians will never stop explaining things. Female historians might, one day, stop listening.”

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“Participatory listenership (i.e., interrupting)” has killed me stone dead. Have some sociolinguistic analysis about why some people think New Yorkers are rude. (link)

ASTROLOGY BOOK CLUB. I really enjoy astrology book club. (link)

NPR has worked hard to bring together this list of the 100 best books for young readers. Yay! (link)

“Living in the now is a constant negotiation of how to put the things that I value—humane and safe working conditions, diversity in storytelling, anti-racism and justice—into active practice in an imperfect world.” On the revival of West Side Story. (link)

Lauren Markham appreciates the magic of the postal service even more in these quarantimes than she did before. (link) (This is true of me, Jenny, also — I am sending out one lovely note per day to friends!)

Slate dot com has done the important journalism of charting all the murmurs murmured by anyone in the Twilight saga. (link)

“Black people will defend your right to Blackness… That’s how these deceptions are born.” Evette Dionne on Jessica Krug. (link)

The country can change. It’s done it before. (link)

“Instead of solving social problems, the U.S. uses techno-fixes to bypass them, plastering the wounds instead of removing the source of injury—and that’s if people even accept the solution on offer.” On the American failure to address the pandemic. (link)

Eula Biss is so consistently good and smart. (link)

Here’s what’s going on with Storygraph, the burgeoning successor to Goodreads. (link)

This article on the Nancy Meyers kitchen is a few months old but it is very, very good. (link)

That’s all, folks! Have an absolutely stupendous weekend! I will be shut up in a dark room whispering “participatory listenership (i.e., interrupting)” over and over again until I have come to terms with it. Which will never happen. So that is just what I will be doing with my life from this point onward. Be blessed.

The post i.e., Interrupting: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

This piece on Netflix password-sharing is incredible, but also, it has such a good update at the end.

Adam Serwer on the Jussie Smollett mess and the history of hate crime hoaxes. Zak Cheney-Rice on what this case does and doesn’t mean.

The knitting community is grappling with racism.

Carrie Ann Lucas, a vocal disability advocate, died because her insurance company wanted to save $2000 on an antibiotic.

All worldbuilding is inherently political.

Here is a completely bananas article about a fake sex doctor, although holy shit TW for dismissive, irresponsible language about suicide and attempted suicide.

I am so embarrassed that I never realized Henry Higgins in Pygmalion is queer-coded. Dammit, My Fair Lady!

Namwali Serpell considers the limits of fiction’s ability to make us more empathetic.

Nobody remembers this influential 19th-century novel, written by a woman. This article argues that it’s all Henry James’s fault, which feels like — kind of a stretch? Like, the whole of the literary canon tends to exclude women as much as possible? I don’t think we can really lay it all at the door of one obituary.

More Murderbot is on the way!

An excellent vid of the ladies of Marvel. (Though as Michi Trota points out, it also highlights the lack of Asian women in the MCU — I’d have loved for this to include some Melinda May!)

Sarah Gailey on how imposter syndrome can lead to abuse.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on Michelle Obama’s persona and her new book, Becoming.

Happy weekend, friends! If you’re in a place that’s liable to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I hope that place is celebrating in a nice, fun way and not an awful, gropey way!

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