In 2002, David Friedman thought of a question he wanted to ask Oliver Sacks, on the topic of 3D glasses and “pseudoscopic” vision. A week after he sent the letter, he received a typewritten reply, complete with diagrams. At The Morning News, a copy of the letter he received, along with background.
“As a boy”
Honor My Profession
For Your Viewing Pleasure: an animated lecture by Kurt Vonnegut in which he talks about man-eating lampreys and warheads filled with sperm. It is a lot like what it sounds like.
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Common Consciousness Changed
"For good or evil, we are a single people: the more we become conscious of this, the less difficult and long will be humanity's progress towards justice and peace." The inimitable Primo Levi on the spiritual value of science and its ability to bring people together.
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Quick Reads
Recommended Reading: Carl Wilson on short books and “too long; didn’t read” syndrome.
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Passive Voice is for Missing Subject
"I wish all this telling women alcohol is dangerous was a manifestation of a country that loves babies so much it’s all over lead contamination from New Orleans to Baltimore to Flint and the lousy nitrate-contaminated water of Iowa and carcinogenic pesticides and the links between sugary junk food and juvenile diabetes and the need for universal access to healthcare and daycare and good and adequate food. You know it’s not. It’s just about hating on women. Hating on women requires narratives that make men vanish and make women magicians producing babies out of thin air and dissolute habits." Rebecca Solnit on the passive voice, mysterious pregnancies, disappearing men, and the Center for Disease Control. Pair with this Millions review of Solnit’s book The Faraway Nearby.
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Do They Accept Curiosities?
Experimental literary magazine theNewerYork wants to "screw with your head." They also want you to submit "short but challenging pieces" for publication.
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The Chart Artist
Ben Greenman, New Yorker editor, author, chart artist? The Observer explains.
O’Connell on Shields
Our own Mark O'Connell has reviewed How Literature Saved My Life by David Shields in this week's New York Times Book Review. "When you read David Shields, the first thing you learn is that he takes literature very seriously."
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Gained stereoscopic vision at 40? Huh. I don’t know what I’d do with stereoscopic vision. Given how much painting and photography is in my life, it may not be an advantage to achieve it.