“Given his devotion to empirical fact, it seems odd to think that Galileo’s most important ideas might have their roots not in the real world, but in a fictional one.” Galileo’s crucial contributions to physics may have come from measuring the hell of Dante’s Inferno.
Measuring Hell
Antidote Man
According to Smithsonian Magazine, Buzzfeed is the mortal enemy of the highbrow Lapham’s Quarterly. Regardless of which source of media you side with in the rivalry, it’s worth reading through their profile of Lewis Lapham.
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A Finalist in Our Midst
Sometime Millions contributor Bezalel Stern has been named a finalist in this week’s New Yorker cartoon caption contest. We think he’s got a chance at winning this thing.
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By Way of a Recommendation
Charles D’Ambrosio‘s Loitering has officially made it into our Hall of Fame. It was also a finalist for the PEN award for the Art of the Essay. Now the book’s preface is available on the PEN website, just in case all the book’s popularity and prizes haven’t yet convinced you to read it.
Millenial Think-Piece Bingo
Millennial think-pieces can be a bit redundant. Next time you encounter an article, bring this bingo board with you. For refreshing writing on millennials, our own Kaulie Lewis reflects on Marina Keegan’s The Opposite of Loneliness.
Hate: Is It In You?
Meghan Daum’s written the longest and best article on “Haterade” you’ll read this month. I guarantee it.
A subject “simply too controversial for the university”
As noted on Arts & Letters Daily, Yale’s decision to shutter its Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism raises the question, “Where does scholarship end and advocacy begin?”
Signs of the Apocalypse: Jersey Shore, the Novel
For those who don’t believe in the decline of civilization, new evidence: Snooki has written a novel. Generously, The Wall Street Journal has read it so you don’t have to.
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