Dalí poses as the Magician, his wife Gala becomes the Empress, and the death of Julius Caesar is reinterpreted as the Ten of Swords in the artist’s extraordinary custom tarot deck. First published in a 1984 limited edition that has since long sold out, this lush box set brings back all 78 cards, each dazzling in color, along with a companion book on the making-of and practical instructions.
To read more: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/art/all/44640/facts.dali_tarot.htm
Psychiatry, as a distinct branch of medicine, has come far in its short life span. (The term psychiatrist is less than 150 years old.) The field has rejected the famously horrific practices of the recent past—the lobotomies, forced sterilizations, human warehousing. Today’s psychiatric practitioners boast a varied arsenal of effective drugs and have largely dropped the unscientific trappings of psychoanalytic psychobabble, the “schizophrenogenic mothers” of yesteryear who had been thought to have somehow triggered insanity in their unwitting offspring. Two decades into the 21st century, psychiatry now views severe mental illnesses as legitimate brain diseases. Despite all these advancements, however, the field still relies solely on self-reported symptoms and observable signs for diagnosis. Though the American Psychiatry Association reassures us that psychiatrists are uniquely qualified to “assess both the mental and physical aspects of psychological problems,” they are, like all of medicine, limited by the tools at hand. There are not, as of this writing, any consistent objective measures that can render a definitive psychiatric diagnosis.
From an Atlas Obscura online review:
Inside, the small store has a good selection of literary fiction ranging from classics to current publications. There is also a great selection of books about New Orleans and local culture. There is, of course, a dedicated area, almost shrine-like, for Faulkner’s works, and the shop owner will let you take a look at those more expensive books, “if you want to get in trouble with your wallet.”
Blink while passing through New Orleans’s French Quarter, and you may miss this small, charming bookstore. But step inside, and you’ll steal a quick peek at the space where William Faulkner himself lived while in the city.
Though he later penned famous works like The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, Faulkner wasn’t much of anybody yet when he moved to New Orleans, and in fact published his first work in a local journal. There is a historical plaque outside the building that states that Faulkner wrote his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, while in residence there in 1925.
From an advance review:
Sciolino’s keen eye and vivid prose bring the river to life as she discovers its origins on a remote plateau of Burgundy, where a pagan goddess healed pilgrims at an ancient temple. She follows the Seine to Le Havre, where it meets the sea. Braiding memoir, travelogue, and history through the Seine’s winding route, Sciolino offers a love letter to Paris and the river at its heart and invites readers to explore its magic.
In the spring of 1978, as a young journalist in Paris, Elaine Sciolino was seduced by a river. In The Seine, she tells the story of that river through its rich history and lively characters—a bargewoman, a riverbank bookseller, a houseboat dweller, a famous cameraman known for capturing the river’s light. She patrols with river police, rows with a restorer of antique boats, discovers a champagne vineyard, and even dares to swim in the Seine.
To read more: https://elainesciolino.com/the-seine-the-river-that-made-paris
From a Wall Street Journal online review:
In “Unto This Last and Other Essays on Art and Political Economy” (1860), which gives the exhibition its title, Ruskin “sees” interconnected social injustices. He attacks economic inequality. Later, he sets out to establish a utopian community in working-class Sheffield, England. In one gallery we see his influence on “progressive thinkers worldwide.” Gandhi said that reading “Unto This Last” in 1904 transformed his life and ideas.
‘If you can paint one leaf,” John Ruskin once declared, “you can paint the world.” And in “Unto This Last: Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin”—the hypnotically potent (though flawed) exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art marking the bicentennial of his birth—we see how wonderfully he kept trying.
The acclaimed biographer Edmund Morris died earlier this year, at 78, before he could see the publication of his new book, “Edison,” about the brilliant and prolific inventor. David Oshinsky, who reviewed the biography for us, visits the podcast this week to discuss Morris and Edison.
Tina Jordan is on this week’s episode, discussing three new celebrity memoirs, by Demi Moore, Julie Andrews and Carly Simon. “Of the three, the Demi Moore stood out,” Jordan says, “because I’m not used to seeing a book that frank in an era where 99.9 percent of our celebrity memoirs are just vapid.”
From a University of Chicago Press review:
A revelation for Moby-Dick devotees and neophytes alike, Ahab’s Rolling Sea is a chronological journey through the natural history of Melville’s novel. From white whales to whale intelligence, giant squids, barnacles, albatross, and sharks, Richard J. King examines what Melville knew from his own experiences and the sources available to a reader in the mid-1800s, exploring how and why Melville might have twisted what was known to serve his fiction. King then climbs to the crow’s nest, setting Melville in the context of the American perception of the ocean in 1851—at the very start of the Industrial Revolution and just before the publication of On the Origin of Species.
Featuring a coffer of illustrations and an array of interviews with contemporary scientists, fishers, and whale watch operators, Ahab’s Rolling Sea offers new insight not only into a cherished masterwork and its author but also into our evolving relationship with the briny deep—from whale hunters to climate refugees.
Website: https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo27616248.html
Adam Winkler, author of our October pick for the NewsHour-New York Times book club, Now Read This, joins William Brangham to discuss “We the Corporations,” and William announces the November book selection.
From a National Geographic online release:
Travelers are dreamers who act on their inspirations. The new National Geographic book Epic Journeys: 245 Life-Changing Adventures is for the people who go beyond their comfort zones to experience the wild beauty of the natural world. The book features adrenaline-fueled forays to all seven continents. (See the most breathtaking national parks around the world.)
While the spirit of exploration spans the globe, being an intrepid traveler doesn’t have to mean summiting Mount Everest or surveying icebergs in Antarctica. Some of the planet’s wildest places—launchpads for all sorts of discoveries about the world and yourself—are in North America’s national parks. We’ve selected 15 mind-blowing adventures to inspire your inner explorer.
To read more: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/15-epic-national-park-excursions/
From a Yale News online review:
One way to understand American cuisine is through its regions — and the regional traditions that underlie the history of American cuisine. New England, the South, and New Orleans Creole are the regional cuisines of America. Examples of New England cuisine are “Yankee Pot Roast,” the lobster roll, and clam chowder. Southern favorites include grits, collard greens, okra, fried tomatoes, and sweet potato pie. Louisiana’s signature creole dishes are jambalaya, gumbo, and étouffée.
The compensation for that standardization — or at least what the food companies and the food and restaurant industry have offered — is variety. In my opinion, variety is what the food companies offer you in lieu of quality. At least in certain aspects, quality is impossible in an industrial food system.
In his new book, “American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way,” Yale historian Paul Freedman gives readers a window into understanding American history through cuisine spanning more than 200 years, debunking the myth that American cuisine does not, in fact, exist.
Freedman, the Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, approaches his study of American cuisine not by identifying a list of specific national or regional dishes, but rather by looking at the interactions among regionalism, standardization, and variety.
To read more: https://news.yale.edu/2019/10/15/yale-historian-pens-book-defining-what-exactly-american-cuisine
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