Chinese poet Su Hui composed an 841-character array in the fourth century that can be read forward, backward, horizontally, diagonally, and vertically. The poem, entitled “Xuanji Tu,” can be read in 2,848 different ways as a result.
Su Hui’s Masterpiece Palindrome
Dead Poets Society
A look at famous authors' gravestones.
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“Sing for our time, too.”
Photographer Stefano De Luigi, featured in the latest New Yorker, traces the route and oral tradition of Homer's The Odyssey using only an iPhone.
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Hate: Is It In You?
Meghan Daum's written the longest and best article on "Haterade" you'll read this month. I guarantee it.
Revisiting Vanessa Veselka
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Didion: Cool and Manly?
The Atlantic reviews the first full-length biography of Joan Didion, The Last Love Song by Tracy Daugherty, to be released August 25th. The biography “looks at the author’s legacy of cool.” Related: Franklin Strong’s essay on “The Manliness of Joan Didion” in The Millions.
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From Abkhazia to Zimbabwe
"[W]e can confirm that there is no place on Earth (not even Antarctica) that literature isn’t written." Michael Barron, the U.S. literary editor for Culture Trip, curates "The Global Anthology," an online project showcasing more than 220 pieces of literature from all over the world written in or translated into English (via Moby Lives).
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