I wrote an essay for The Dublin Review on the strange phenomenon of Internet unboxing videos, in which people remove new purchases from their packaging and talk us through the process in exhaustive detail. You can read the whole thing online here.
Appearing Elsewhere
Old Writers, New Media
Which convergence between classic author and modern technology is more off-putting: the University of Virginia's William Faulkner recordings, or this YouTube video of Leo Tolstoy sawing wood?
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In China, my name is Mud.
Chinese citizens are increasingly adopting English nicknames. But, why would anyone choose a name like "Rainman" or "Mud"? The new book In China, My Name is... explores this puzzling phenomena. (Awesome t-shirt, Ben)
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Art Dealer$
Fresh on the heels of Rachel Cohen’s Believer piece on “the unexpected double history of banking and the art world,” one of the country’s biggest art collectors is slammed with a $276 million insider trading accusation.
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“No writer needs to be all the writers all the time”
Zadie Smith in conversation with Édouard Louis for the Document Journal. "Listening to the novelists Édouard Louis and Zadie Smith in conversation inspires a kind of hushed glee, a bliss familiar to eavesdroppers who encounter sublime discourse. " How can you resist?
I Can Haz Illuminated Manuscripts?
Cats and the Internet, cats and the codex: a match made in history.
On Board The Pequod
Recommended reading: Ben Shattuck spends a night and a day aboard a New England whaling ship in an attempt to better understand Ishmael's (and Melville's) experiences, and combines Moby-Dick excerpts with his own accounts of life onboard in a piece for The Atlantic.
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In the Future, We Are All Authors
Seed forecasts an age of universal authorship (though its definitions of "consumer" and "creator" beg for reconsideration). (via)
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