Our new issue is now online, featuring Fredric Jameson on Ben Pastor, @LalehKhalili on oil, money and democracy, John Lanchester on Wirecard, Andrew O’Hagan on Dolly Parton, @davies_will on the seductions of declinism and a cover by Alexander Gorlizki: http://lrb.co.uk
Excitingly, scientists say that alternative universes are allowed by physics. We find out about the leading multiverse theories, and establish whether they could harbour an alternate version of you.
August 2022
Fleeing his father’s empire, an Afghan prince travelled from Kabul to Sindh via Mecca, becoming a fugitive, courtier and pilgrim in the process.
What relevance do the Norman Conquest and the events of 1066 have to contemporary British politics? Everything and nothing.
Early modern methods of execution were carefully calculated to inflict shame upon the condemned.
The Battle of Stalingrad began in August 1942, subjecting its residents to months of living hell. But few doubted that the city was worth defending; its significance to the Soviet project made it too important to abandon.
After nearly 60 years as a hotel, this former home of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson has been triumphantly restored as a house museum. John Goodall reports; photography by Paul Highnam.
On January 21, 1884, the poet laureate Alfred Tennyson was elevated to the peerage as Baron of Aldworth, Surrey, and of Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. As the editor of The Complete Peerage (1896) primly commented when recording this exceptional accolade, ‘the assumption of two places in different counties (more especially when the estate possessed is inconsiderable), cannot be commended’. Tennyson, however, would not have cared. Indeed, he had refused the offer of baronetcy four times and was only finally persuaded to accept it by his friend, the then Prime Minister, William Gladstone.
Tennyson chose this unusual title because — unconventionally for the period — he had houses in both places that he considered to be homes. Aldworth, which he generally occupied in the summer months, was a retreat from his house at Freshwater. This latter building, known as Farringford, was sold by the family in the 1940s and thereafter became a hotel. Returned back into private ownership in 2007, it has now undergone a renaissance at the hands of a Tennyson scholar, who has turned it into both a home and a house museum to the poet.
Fig 1: The library, which was added to the house in 1871 and has been fully restored. Farringford, Isle of Wight. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life
In the years immediately following his marriage in 1850, Tennyson and his wife, Emily, actively searched for a place to live. They heard from friends about a family house at Freshwater, on the north-western extreme of the Isle of Wight. Following a slightly depressing first viewing by Tennyson — then aged 44 — the couple came back together. An account of their visit in November 1853 is given in Emily’s journal. Travelling by train to Brockenhurst — where the railway line then ended — they caught an omnibus to Lymington and crossed on a still evening from the mainland in a rowing boat.
Emily was delighted by the house, which enjoyed an expansive prospect along almost the whole Hampshire coastline, and ‘looking from the drawing-room window, thought “I must have that view”, and so I said to him when alone. So accordingly we agreed… to take the place furnished for a time on trial with the option of purchasing’.
Fig 2: The north front of the house, with its Gothic porch. Farringford, Isle of Wight. ©Paul Highnam for Country Life
Read more at Country Life Magazine: https://ift.tt/l9zibWL
Today’s episode features two books that reach deep into the animal world. First, E.O. Wilson sits down with Robert Seigel to discuss how the narrative of war is used in his story featuring ants, called Anthill.
Then writer Ed Yong talks with Ayesha Roscoe about trying to show the experience of life through a different perspective – animals – in An Immense World.
Species tend to live in narrower slices of mountainside on tropical versus temperate mountains. Stronger competition in the tropics explains this pattern for birds. For example, the habitable range of this white-tipped sicklebill (Eutoxeres aquila) is limited as a result of competition with its close relative, the buff-tailed sicklebill (Eutoxeres condamini). See page 416.
Fast-spreading subvariants are coming and going. But an entirely new variant could still emerge
Satellites capture fall in light-blocking pollution
Finding sequences that code for short proteins could add thousands of genes
The cover shows an artistic impression of marine life in Indonesia’s coral reefs. The question of whether there are limits to biodiversity in the seas is typically addressed by examining the fossil record. In this week’s issue, Pedro Cermeño and his colleagues present a model that combines the fossil record with plate tectonics and Earth’s environmental conditions to offer insight into regional diversification of marine invertebrates. The researchers used the model to examine how biodiversity recovered after mass extinctions during the Phanerozoic eon, covering
some 500 million years of Earth’s history. They found that throughout the Phanerozoic, less than 2% of area of the globe covered by water showed signs of diversity levels reaching saturation. The team also note that as Pangaea broke up into continents, the stability of Earth’s environmental conditions allowed the development of diversity hotspots that helped to drive an increase in biodiversity in the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.
Bizarre sea creatures, a new view of the ocean, the race to the moon, and more
We humans may think of ourselves, or possibly beetles, as typical Earthlings, but to a first approximation, life on Earth exists in the sea. And what spectacular life! Our special package on the oceans is teeming with images of eerie, delicate, elaborate, glowing and occasionally kind of frightening creatures that have rarely been seen by terrestrial species. The in-depth report was guided by sustainability senior editor Mark Fischetti along three main themes: mystery, discovery and surprise.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
Read by: Jennifer Kim and Julian Cihi
Length: 13 hrs, 52 mins.
Speed I listened: 1.7x–1.8x
I haven’t savored listening to a book in recent memory quite as much as I did this novel. It’s about two friends — Sadie Green and Sam Masur — who meet as kids in Los Angeles and then reconnect at MIT, where they begin developing experimental video games together. The lead characters (and let’s throw in the supporting ones too) are at times completely relatable, at times bittersweet, and almost always completely heartwarming. The book is mostly read by Kim except for a short fever dream by Cihi. Kim’s delivery might be monotone in places, but I found it steady, deliberate, and clear, so I didn’t have to miss a moment.
The Church of Baseball, by Ron Shelton
Read by: The author
Length: 8 hrs, 12 mins.
Speed I listened: 1.75x
Does there have to be a book about the making of 1988’s Bull Durham? Probably not. Did I get a kick out of this trip down memory lane with the movie’s writer-director? I did. It’s rare you get a glimpse into the making of a Hollywood movie in minute detail, and this one’s pretty soup to nuts, down to Shelton hiring the on-set script supervisor. These kind of books always start and end with the idea that everyone in Hollywood is crazy, and it’s good to be reminded of that. To that end, here, Kevin Costner’s agents tried to prevent him from starring as Minor League Baseball star Crash Davis, which turned out to be one of his most iconic roles. Shelton has a knowing but aw-shucks vibe that makes great company even if his performance of dialogue scenes from the original script could use more oomph.
Hollywood Ending, by Ken Auletta
Read by: Jonathan Coleman
Length: 19 hrs, 41 mins
Speed I listened: 2x
A darker addition to July’s “Hollywood Is Crazy Files” is this gripping account of Harvey Weinstein’s rise to and fall from power. You’re probably familiar with many of the sordid details in this book, and at 20 hours, it isn’t short. Still, I couldn’t turn off this compendium of the disgraced movie producer’s unbelievable behavior, from his rampant spending on hotel rooms to his truly despicable treatment of so many women. Auletta’s reporting is mostly firsthand, and hearing it cumulatively is jaw-dropping. As the narrator, Coleman is deadpan and direct enough to sometimes make you forget you aren’t listening to an actual thriller. Also kudos to the drippingly ironic title.
COVER: Voltage pulses from the tip of a scanning probe microscope induce single-molecule chemical reactions with selectivity and reversibility. Different constitutional isomers (distinguished here in shades of red, orange, and yellow) are selected by the polarity and magnitude of the voltage pulse. The findings advance the understanding of tip-induced chemistry and reduction-oxidation reactions in general. See pages 261 and 298.
Check out what’s new this week in Science: https://fcld.ly/uc4b5kh
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