"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

#Spooktober 7: Skull Lyres from Central Africa

Skull lyres such as the ones in the header were made by an indigenous entrepreneur for selling to the Europeans as authentic stuff from the dark, savage continent, and they have baffled scholars for over two centuries. And I think it’s just hilarious. You can take a look at them today on my Patreon.

Summertime

The Seduction of Place

We’re closing out the month a little differently than we opened it, and we’re circling back to the city since many of you will be doing just that. What’s left of August won’t be organised into weekly themes with a Wednesday essay tying them together:

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architecture, engineering and construction

Ruins and Memory

Every text this week has been trying to answer some version of the same question: what, exactly, does a ruined building (or district, or city) owe the people still standing near it, and what do we owe to the ruin itself out of respect for

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Summertime

The Prison and the Railway Station

We already encountered W.G. Sebald with his The Rings of Saturn, and today I’d like to bring you his last novel, Austerlitz, published in 2001. The story follows a man named Jacques Austerlitz while he slowly uncovers the truth about his origins and his traumatic

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The Seduction of Place

We’re closing out the month a little differently than we opened it, and we’re circling back to the city since many of you will be doing just that. What’s left of August won’t be organised into weekly themes with a Wednesday essay tying them together:

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