London Review of Books
@lrb.co.uk
Critical thinking, published every fortnight.
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Read at lrb.co.uk
Try the LRB for just £6: lrb.me/social
Pinned
Issue 48.20 is now online, featuring:
Eyal Weizman on 𝘕𝘈𝘡𝘈
@jamesmeek.bsky.social in Detroit
Adam Phillips on curiosity
Maureen N. McLane on Fanny Howe
Rosa Lyster at the Bayreuth Wagner Festival
and @shreir.bsky.social on the protests in France.
Read online now at www.lrb.co.uk
Eyal Weizman on 𝘕𝘈𝘡𝘈
@jamesmeek.bsky.social in Detroit
Adam Phillips on curiosity
Maureen N. McLane on Fanny Howe
Rosa Lyster at the Bayreuth Wagner Festival
and @shreir.bsky.social on the protests in France.
Read online now at www.lrb.co.uk
‘Like Cruise, Iñárritu is a perfectionist and a try-hard. His films have a recognisable – and recognisably virtuosic – grammar, with their long tracking shots, constant camera movement and seamlessly stitched-together scenes.’
Ruby Hamilton watches 𝘋𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ruby Hamilton watches 𝘋𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ruby Hamilton · At the Movies: ‘Digger’
The last time Tom Cruise played a villain seriously was more than two decades ago, silver-haired and wolfish as a hitman...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 9:50 PM
‘Like Cruise, Iñárritu is a perfectionist and a try-hard. His films have a recognisable – and recognisably virtuosic – grammar, with their long tracking shots, constant camera movement and seamlessly stitched-together scenes.’
Ruby Hamilton watches 𝘋𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Ruby Hamilton watches 𝘋𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by London Review of Books
"There is no ideal Highland past."
“Girning about hydro power in Strathglass is a bit like moving to Soho and complaining about the noisy nightlife.”
@frasermacdonald.bsky.social eviscerates ‘Borrowed Land: A Highland Story’ by Kapka Kassabova in this @lrb.co.uk review.
@frasermacdonald.bsky.social eviscerates ‘Borrowed Land: A Highland Story’ by Kapka Kassabova in this @lrb.co.uk review.
Fraser MacDonald · Who owns the glen?
Girning about hydro power in Strathglass is a bit like moving to Soho and complaining about the noisy nightlife. This...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 28, 2026 at 10:28 PM
"There is no ideal Highland past."
‘Even as the tsarist regime sought to tame its woodlands, another vision of the forest – as wild, romantic, sublime – served the imperial project rather differently.’
Miriam Dobson on a cultural history of Russia's forests.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Miriam Dobson on a cultural history of Russia's forests.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Miriam Dobson · Not all trees are useful: Russia’s Forests
By the late 1600s, the most important commodity from Russia’s forests was no longer fur or fish; it was the trees...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM
‘Even as the tsarist regime sought to tame its woodlands, another vision of the forest – as wild, romantic, sublime – served the imperial project rather differently.’
Miriam Dobson on a cultural history of Russia's forests.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Miriam Dobson on a cultural history of Russia's forests.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by London Review of Books
Extraordinary piece by Deborah Friedell, this
‘Roy Cohn was nearly always under investigation for something – bribery, extortion, obstruction of justice, one or another species of financial mismanagement. Whenever indictments came down he’d hold a press conference.’
@deborahfriedell.bsky.social on Trump’s lawyer.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@deborahfriedell.bsky.social on Trump’s lawyer.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Deborah Friedell · In the Public Closet: Trump’s Consigliere
Roy Cohn has been dead for forty years, but Donald Trump still yearns for him, his first lawyer and his fiercest. Who...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 31, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Extraordinary piece by Deborah Friedell, this
‘The atmosphere was lively and the hand-painted banners were as good as you’d expect. “Génération 6-7 qui fait Mai 68,” one said. “Who is really doing the looting?” one of the artists asked.’
Zoe Cooper joins the artists’ protest in Paris, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Zoe Cooper joins the artists’ protest in Paris, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Zoe Cooper | At the Grand Palais
On Wednesday, 21 October, four days after France’s biggest student protest in a generation, Inès stood in the rain...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 7:20 PM
‘The atmosphere was lively and the hand-painted banners were as good as you’d expect. “Génération 6-7 qui fait Mai 68,” one said. “Who is really doing the looting?” one of the artists asked.’
Zoe Cooper joins the artists’ protest in Paris, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Zoe Cooper joins the artists’ protest in Paris, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Reposted by London Review of Books
I thought when I wrote this the Dem vs Dem strife in Michigan would have eased off by now but seems not www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
October 31, 2026 at 2:56 PM
I thought when I wrote this the Dem vs Dem strife in Michigan would have eased off by now but seems not www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘The quality of the audience’s attention was as noticeable, and as singular, as the acoustics. This is not to say that they didn’t start falling asleep in large numbers all around us almost immediately after the lights went down.’
Rosa Lyster at the Bayreuth festival.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Rosa Lyster at the Bayreuth festival.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Rosa Lyster · Diary: Among the Wagner Fanatics
To be in or even near Bayreuth is to have Wagner drilled into your consciousness. The festival lasts for a month,...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 5:55 PM
‘The quality of the audience’s attention was as noticeable, and as singular, as the acoustics. This is not to say that they didn’t start falling asleep in large numbers all around us almost immediately after the lights went down.’
Rosa Lyster at the Bayreuth festival.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Rosa Lyster at the Bayreuth festival.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘The government’s justification for its reform of the courts has shifted from clearing the backlog to modernisation and rationalisation: those well-worn euphemisms for cost-cutting.’
Francis FitzGibbon (@ffkc.bsky.social) on why juries still matter, new on the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Francis FitzGibbon (@ffkc.bsky.social) on why juries still matter, new on the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Francis FitzGibbon | Why Juries Still Matter
The government’s justification for its reform of the courts has shifted from clearing the backlog to modernisation and...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 5:00 PM
‘The government’s justification for its reform of the courts has shifted from clearing the backlog to modernisation and rationalisation: those well-worn euphemisms for cost-cutting.’
Francis FitzGibbon (@ffkc.bsky.social) on why juries still matter, new on the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Francis FitzGibbon (@ffkc.bsky.social) on why juries still matter, new on the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Reposted by London Review of Books
‘Three years ago, in the war-torn eastern provinces, the…Kakhovka dam (a symbol of Soviet progress in the 1950s) was blown up… A hundred people died and eighty villages were flooded. Within a year, willows and poplar were growing in the reservoir; now it is Europe’s largest flood-plain forest.’
Miriam Dobson · Not all trees are useful: Russia’s Forests
By the late 1600s, the most important commodity from Russia’s forests was no longer fur or fish; it was the trees...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 31, 2026 at 12:41 PM
‘Three years ago, in the war-torn eastern provinces, the…Kakhovka dam (a symbol of Soviet progress in the 1950s) was blown up… A hundred people died and eighty villages were flooded. Within a year, willows and poplar were growing in the reservoir; now it is Europe’s largest flood-plain forest.’
‘It is telling that caricaturists could never quite decide whether Tōjō was a cold-hearted murderer or the buffoonish runt evoked by Jack Campbell’s “Tokio Kid” poster series.’
Christopher Harding on the Japanese Second World War general.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Christopher Harding on the Japanese Second World War general.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Christopher Harding · Sometimes a man has to jump: General Tōjō’s Downfall
Early in July 1942, people on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaidō became aware that a man was rifling...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 4:05 PM
‘It is telling that caricaturists could never quite decide whether Tōjō was a cold-hearted murderer or the buffoonish runt evoked by Jack Campbell’s “Tokio Kid” poster series.’
Christopher Harding on the Japanese Second World War general.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Christopher Harding on the Japanese Second World War general.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘The soldiers stationed at Vindolanda loved bacon, as we know from accounts logged on the surviving wooden tablets, while the couple who itemised their expenses on their trip to Pompeii splashed out on a fancy dinner.’
Emma Dench on the lives of ordinary Romans.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Emma Dench on the lives of ordinary Romans.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Emma Dench · How to keep count: Power to the Plebs
Ordinary people in the Roman Empire are often only glimpsed; where they are foregrounded, they tend to be treated with...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 3:00 PM
‘The soldiers stationed at Vindolanda loved bacon, as we know from accounts logged on the surviving wooden tablets, while the couple who itemised their expenses on their trip to Pompeii splashed out on a fancy dinner.’
Emma Dench on the lives of ordinary Romans.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Emma Dench on the lives of ordinary Romans.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by London Review of Books
#mustread #criticism #essay
Toril Moi on Frederic Jameson's early work on Sartre, on knowing your archive, and "What counts as innovation, as change, in literary history?". Teaching to read - likr Jameson learned from Auerbach, Spitzer and the Geneva School.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Toril Moi on Frederic Jameson's early work on Sartre, on knowing your archive, and "What counts as innovation, as change, in literary history?". Teaching to read - likr Jameson learned from Auerbach, Spitzer and the Geneva School.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Toril Moi · Fredric Jameson as Reader: Fredric the Great
Fredric Jameson seemed to me to have read absolutely everything. He was the very antithesis of the intellectual type I...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 31, 2026 at 5:19 PM
#mustread #criticism #essay
Toril Moi on Frederic Jameson's early work on Sartre, on knowing your archive, and "What counts as innovation, as change, in literary history?". Teaching to read - likr Jameson learned from Auerbach, Spitzer and the Geneva School.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Toril Moi on Frederic Jameson's early work on Sartre, on knowing your archive, and "What counts as innovation, as change, in literary history?". Teaching to read - likr Jameson learned from Auerbach, Spitzer and the Geneva School.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘Though Lula has insisted that Brazil is “no one’s backyard”, Paraguay is now all but annexed to the US, and Brazil’s new government, along with the majority of its citizens, will surely be put to the test.’
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Forrest Hylton | Lula continua
How did Lula defeat Bolsonaro so handily, by a far greater margin than in 2022, after losing in the first round? How did...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 2:05 PM
‘Though Lula has insisted that Brazil is “no one’s backyard”, Paraguay is now all but annexed to the US, and Brazil’s new government, along with the majority of its citizens, will surely be put to the test.’
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
‘El-Sayed and the DSA’s call for universal healthcare in America has resonated, but ultimately it is a call for financial solidarity, and other calls for financial solidarity that don’t sound so loudly say much about Detroit.’
@jamesmeek.bsky.social reports:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@jamesmeek.bsky.social reports:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Meek · Across 8 Mile: Democrats in Detroit
Detroit is the largest city in Michigan, a swing state. To win the Senate, the Democrats need to hold on to the one...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 1:05 PM
‘El-Sayed and the DSA’s call for universal healthcare in America has resonated, but ultimately it is a call for financial solidarity, and other calls for financial solidarity that don’t sound so loudly say much about Detroit.’
@jamesmeek.bsky.social reports:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@jamesmeek.bsky.social reports:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by London Review of Books
Really interesting #longread on Detroit (written before yesterday's shenanigans) from @lrb.co.uk: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
James Meek · Across 8 Mile: Democrats in Detroit
Detroit is the largest city in Michigan, a swing state. To win the Senate, the Democrats need to hold on to the one...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 10:40 AM
Really interesting #longread on Detroit (written before yesterday's shenanigans) from @lrb.co.uk: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘It’s part of the national story – Scotland or Britain, take your pick – that we re-engineer landscapes to suit our wider purposes: forest clearance, field creation, mining, land reclamation, reforestation.’
@frasermacdonald.bsky.social on the politics of renewables.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@frasermacdonald.bsky.social on the politics of renewables.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Fraser MacDonald · Who owns the glen?
Girning about hydro power in Strathglass is a bit like moving to Soho and complaining about the noisy nightlife. This...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 12:15 PM
‘It’s part of the national story – Scotland or Britain, take your pick – that we re-engineer landscapes to suit our wider purposes: forest clearance, field creation, mining, land reclamation, reforestation.’
@frasermacdonald.bsky.social on the politics of renewables.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@frasermacdonald.bsky.social on the politics of renewables.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by London Review of Books
Very good piece about a favourite artist, and a favourite picture: 'A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over' (1952)
November 2, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Very good piece about a favourite artist, and a favourite picture: 'A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over' (1952)
‘Violence and evil still flicker throughout Fanny Howe’s universe. She could pivot in a blink, or across a line break, from ecstatic vision to ferocious attack. Like Blake, she combined a mystic impulse with a satirical streak.’
Maureen N. McLane on the poet.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Maureen N. McLane on the poet.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Maureen N. McLane · I would like more gods: Fanny Howe’s Disobedience
Fanny Howe’s poems station us somewhere between pilgrimage and itinerancy. Pilgrimage implies devotion and destination...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 11:11 AM
‘Violence and evil still flicker throughout Fanny Howe’s universe. She could pivot in a blink, or across a line break, from ecstatic vision to ferocious attack. Like Blake, she combined a mystic impulse with a satirical streak.’
Maureen N. McLane on the poet.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Maureen N. McLane on the poet.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘To be curious is to recognise that there is something we want that we are lacking; it’s a benign acknowledgment of dependence, of our inability to be self-sufficient.’
Adam Phillips on curiosity.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Adam Phillips on curiosity.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Adam Phillips · Is curiosity good for us?
The superego – and its precursor, conscience – refers to the part of us that has no curiosity about ourselves. It’...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 10:10 AM
‘To be curious is to recognise that there is something we want that we are lacking; it’s a benign acknowledgment of dependence, of our inability to be self-sufficient.’
Adam Phillips on curiosity.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Adam Phillips on curiosity.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘Metaphor was his business. Michael Andrews was not the kind of artist who looks for the sake of looking. His gaze roved, seeking out analogues.’
Julian Bell on the painter.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Julian Bell on the painter.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Julian Bell · Not-Quite-at-Homeness: Restless Michael Andrews
Michael Andrews did not achieve brand recognition of the kind secured by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, with their...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 9:10 AM
‘Metaphor was his business. Michael Andrews was not the kind of artist who looks for the sake of looking. His gaze roved, seeking out analogues.’
Julian Bell on the painter.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Julian Bell on the painter.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘Advanced technological tools give murder an air of scientific legitimacy. They allow the Israeli army to claim that it goes to great lengths to distinguish between combatants and civilians and to reduce the number of civilians killed.’
Eyal Weizman on 𝘕𝘈𝘡𝘈.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Eyal Weizman on 𝘕𝘈𝘡𝘈.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Eyal Weizman · Necro-Economics: Death by Algorithm
Gaza has been experiencing an old-fashioned scorched-earth campaign reminiscent of the Nakba of 1948 and no different...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 2, 2026 at 8:15 AM
‘Advanced technological tools give murder an air of scientific legitimacy. They allow the Israeli army to claim that it goes to great lengths to distinguish between combatants and civilians and to reduce the number of civilians killed.’
Eyal Weizman on 𝘕𝘈𝘡𝘈.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Eyal Weizman on 𝘕𝘈𝘡𝘈.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘One character derides contemporary fiction as “nothing but stacks of metaphor, badly chosen metaphors”. Missouri Williams appears to be taunting us. After all, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴is not just a contemporary novel, but one overburdened with metaphors.’
Jordan Kisner:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jordan Kisner:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jordan Kisner · Big Dead Rock: ‘The Vivisectors’
Missouri Williams’s The Vivisectors presents a bleak view of academic institutions. Its scholars are fraudulent and...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 1, 2026 at 9:55 PM
‘One character derides contemporary fiction as “nothing but stacks of metaphor, badly chosen metaphors”. Missouri Williams appears to be taunting us. After all, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴is not just a contemporary novel, but one overburdened with metaphors.’
Jordan Kisner:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jordan Kisner:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘The polls got tighter and tighter – all signs pointed to wind in Lula’s sails, while Flávio was visibly running out of gas. But the result still came as a stunning turn of events.’
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Forrest Hylton | Lula continua
How did Lula defeat Bolsonaro so handily, by a far greater margin than in 2022, after losing in the first round? How did...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 1, 2026 at 8:10 PM
‘The polls got tighter and tighter – all signs pointed to wind in Lula’s sails, while Flávio was visibly running out of gas. But the result still came as a stunning turn of events.’
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
Forrest Hylton on the Brazilian elections, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/oc...
‘Park excels at making the audience care about characters who are inarticulate or even inanimate: the pathos of 𝘈 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘖𝘶𝘵 is provided by an abandoned coin-operated gas cooker on the moon.’
Malin Hay on Aardman and animation.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Malin Hay on Aardman and animation.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Malin Hay · At the Young V&A: ‘Inside Aardman’
Everything in an Aardman film is at a small scale: there’s a playfulness that nods to its young audience, to the child...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 1, 2026 at 7:05 PM
‘Park excels at making the audience care about characters who are inarticulate or even inanimate: the pathos of 𝘈 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘖𝘶𝘵 is provided by an abandoned coin-operated gas cooker on the moon.’
Malin Hay on Aardman and animation.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Malin Hay on Aardman and animation.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘Did Helenio Herrera push his players too hard? Almost certainly. Was he alone in this? Almost certainly not. Was doping widespread in football in the 1960s and 1970s? Undoubtedly. Was it used at every major club? Probably.’
@footymac.bsky.social:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@footymac.bsky.social:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
John Foot · Superstar or Supervillain: Football’s Dark Arts
Helenio Herrera’s life was enveloped in layers of fantasy and invention. He even faked his date of birth. We can’t...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 1, 2026 at 6:05 PM
‘Did Helenio Herrera push his players too hard? Almost certainly. Was he alone in this? Almost certainly not. Was doping widespread in football in the 1960s and 1970s? Undoubtedly. Was it used at every major club? Probably.’
@footymac.bsky.social:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@footymac.bsky.social:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...