Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda; Translated by Janet Afary; John R. Perry— I’ve often wondered how it is that, with all the emphasis by prophets and sages and the great men of the world on the need for education of women, when our women have so often assembled and, humbly but insistently, petitioned
Sam van Schaik— …The logic of the text is causation: If you do x, then y will happen. This is, of course, karma. Every event comes about because of previous events. Moreover, every event sets up chains of causation that produce innumerable further effects. The Buddha’s teachings on karma take this
Tim Parks— Critics talk a great deal of the contents of books, their style, scope, plot, rhythm, characters, descriptions, and so on, but rarely turn their attention to our reactions to them, and through the books to the authors. Authors are categorized by periods, by ideologies, by the genres they
Bryn Geffert and Theofanis G. Stavrou— Although the New Testament uses the terms “priest” and “bishop” interchangeably, the early church quickly distinguished between the two. Priests acted as advisers and teachers. Bishops led Christian communities and “celebrated” (administered) the Eucharist—“Communion” or “the last supper”—that is, the ceremony that Jesus instructed
Jessica Helfand— Not long ago, at an elegant garden party, I was introduced to an equally elegant British woman who, after the usual pro forma pleasantries that precede normal conversation, asked how I had lost my husband. I replied briefly and factually that he had been diagnosed with a brain
Robert Miner— Beyond his status as a musical innovator—guitarist extraordinaire, master architect of King Crimson, collaborator with David Bowie and Brian Eno—Robert Fripp is a serious man. He dresses impeccably; he reads old books in his study. One perceptive reader of his online journal, noticing his apparent fondness for Anglican
László F. Földényi— This past April, the American edition of my book Melancholy was presented at the Rubin Museum in New York. While spending a week in the city, meeting friends and acquaintances, I was often confronted with the question: “Are you Hungarians melancholic?” Initially, my answer was: “No, not
Gregory Woods— There is a tendency to think the culture and politics of homosexuality belong, and should belong, to separate spheres of activity. The one, the cultural, is thought of as being mainly concerned with the psychology of the individual (Proust, Hall) and with the glamour and games of High
Lee Jackson— In 1899, the Chinese ambassador was asked his opinion of Victorian London at the zenith of its imperial grandeur. He replied, laconically, ‘too dirty’. He was only stating the obvious. Thoroughfares were swamped with black mud, composed principally of horse dung, forming a tenacious, glutinous paste; the air
Math and art have had an active relationship for centuries. Think of perspective geometry and Renaissance art, higher-dimensional geometry and cubism, how the Alhambra walls and Klemscott press margins use patterns of wallpaper and frieze groups, the tilings both Euclidean and hyperbolic that appear in Escher’s designs, and on and