Critical thinking, published every fortnight. Read at lrb.co.uk Try the LRB for just £6: lrb.me/socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.ukhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvy3gloorl2zLydia Davis will the give the second annual 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 Autumn Lecture, titled ’Dying, or Doing Something Else: Reflections on Marcus Aurelius and Other Stoics’, on 28 October at the New School, New York City. Details and tickets here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/234228120 Sep 2026 20:55 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvy3gloorl2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxw4ozupq2r‘Oxbridge colleges still ease dons’ lives with all sorts of amenities and marks of specialness: ancient buildings, fellows’ gardens, staff who cook their meals and guard entry to their quads, even to patches of grass on which only fellows can walk.’ Susan Pedersen: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/susan-pedersen/keep-off-the-grass20 Sep 2026 19:20 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxw4ozupq2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxsrgddtc2r‘For appeals to get off the ground you generally need to provide “fresh evidence”. The Court of Appeal’s view of what constitutes fresh evidence has become increasingly restrictive in recent years.’ Matt Foot on problems at the Court of Appeal: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/matt-foot/short-cuts20 Sep 2026 18:20 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxsrgddtc2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxpgb2xbf2r‘Various nations have claimed to be its leader – France, Britain, the United States – but the central drama of the West has been its diet: which nations it has chosen to keep out, and which it has swallowed whole.’ Thomas Meaney on the West: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/thomas-meaney/ranks-of-humanity20 Sep 2026 17:20 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxpgb2xbf2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxmds5egl2rLydia Davis will the give the second annual 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 Autumn Lecture, titled ’Dying, or Doing Something Else: Reflections on Marcus Aurelius and Other Stoics’, on 28 October at the New School, New York City. Details and tickets here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/234228120 Sep 2026 16:25 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxmds5egl2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxignf2c62r‘The biggest sports ground in Central Asia, Bishkek Arena was completed just in time for the games. At least one of the construction companies involved is linked to Kyrgyzstan’s authoritarian president, Sadyr Japarov.’ Conrad Landin on the World Nomad Games: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/september/in-bishkek20 Sep 2026 15:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxignf2c62rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxhupes7h24‘Heat reuse is rare, while talk of low-impact construction elides Big Tech’s hunger for copper, aluminium and other metals. The microprocessors in the server racks last around three to five years, generating mountains of e-waste.’ Martin Thom on data centres: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/september/human-melting20 Sep 2026 15:05 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxhupes7h24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxhcvvycs2n‘As long as Trump was in office, Kim Jong-un did not abandon hope of a settlement. (“I will put in even greater effort, Mr President,” his last letter concluded, “to protect my faith in you.”)’ Richard Lloyd Parry (@dicklp.bsky.social) on North Korea: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/richard-lloyd-parry/keeping-up-with-the-kims20 Sep 2026 14:55 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxhcvvycs2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxcktsvwe2z‘Saxony-Anhalt is not Germany, and Siegmund’s closeness to former neo-Nazis would have hurt the AfD elsewhere. But by weakening the CDU further, it hopes to corner its democratic rivals into a doomed alliance for democracy.’ Ruairí Casey on the AfD: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/september/the-resistible-rise-of-the-afd20 Sep 2026 13:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxcktsvwe2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvxa2fguec2e‘For more than seventy years after the war ended, Predappio elected only left-wing mayors. And yet, ever since 1957, when Rachele reclaimed her husband’s corpse, the town has relied on Mussolini for its living.’ @danigaravelli.bsky.social on Mussolini’s birthplace: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/dani-garavelli/diary20 Sep 2026 12:45 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvxa2fguec2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvx4g7soe62n‘“Decarbonisation” was supposed to drive down prices and encourage consumers to switch from using fossil fuels for driving and heating. This hasn’t happened.’ @arthurdowning.bsky.social on Britain’s energy crisis: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/arthur-downing/asset-sweating20 Sep 2026 11:40 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvx4g7soe62nhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvwyrwfkeb2c‘Shiber recounts the parting shot of one angry French worker to the ransacking German soldiers: “Wait a minute! You’ve forgotten to take the nails!”’ Daniel Lee on a memoir of wartime Paris: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/daniel-lee/night-and-fog20 Sep 2026 10:35 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvwyrwfkeb2chttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvwvgmoetj24‘These days you can hardly move in the more remote areas of the planet for the scrum of sound artists engaged in attaching microphones to coral reefs or the underside of ice floes.’ David Trotter on the history of the microphone: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/david-trotter/a-fly-s-footfall20 Sep 2026 09:35 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvwvgmoetj24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvwrsfvwti2z‘In his commitment to perpetuating the Austro-German canon, he drew on the compositional techniques of his predecessors: the counterpoint of Bach, the classical forms of Mozart, the motivic working of Brahms.’ Laura Tunbridge on Schoenberg and his influence: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/laura-tunbridge/air-of-another-planet20 Sep 2026 08:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvwrsfvwti2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvvfnu3qej2r‘The shadows in the novel are already so deep that it comes as a shock to realise that the month of May is the book’s closest approach to springtime, a period almost of innocence.’ Adam Mars-Jones on Marlon James’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘳𝘴: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/adam-mars-jones/like-buying-a-bag-of-mints19 Sep 2026 19:20 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvvfnu3qej2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvvbzjygt62g‘Even if we are all subject to hourglass and sickle, Whistler insisted, the ordinary man is no equal of Shakespeare or Velázquez. Who is he to Holbein?’ Harry George Daniels on Whistler’s contradictions: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/harry-george-daniels/at-tate-britain19 Sep 2026 18:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvvbzjygt62ghttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvv6obj47k2g‘Her sharp and nuanced descriptions of eating, preparing and shopping for meals are psychologically and socially revealing, but remarks like “an éclair or two promotes clear thinking” are also their own reward.’ Kasia Boddy on the novels of Laurie Colwin: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/kasia-boddy/where-to-put-your-husband19 Sep 2026 17:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvv6obj47k2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvv32253jy2g‘In Hermione Lee’s biography we enter the life and work of a woman who was “dandyish, witty, controlled”, and who often sought in the shade what other writers may seek in the sunny uplands of a social group.’ Andrew O’Hagan on Anita Brookner: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/andrew-o-hagan/omelettes-and-whisky19 Sep 2026 16:10 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvv32253jy2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvuxfurov22r‘Hundreds of horses galloped in circles as flames erupted around the edge of the arena. An orchestra played as a giant plastic snow leopard, Kyrgyzstan’s national mascot, emerged from mountain scenery.’ Conrad Landin at the World Nomad Games opening ceremony: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/september/in-bishkek19 Sep 2026 15:05 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvuxfurov22rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvuu2jnt5t2c‘Lisette Model’s portraits of the leisure class on holiday weren’t indictments of affluence and privilege so much as creepy, outsized depictions of her subjects’ loneliness, despair and physical deformities.’ @adamshatz.bsky.social on the photographer: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/adam-shatz/on-lisette-model19 Sep 2026 14:05 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvuu2jnt5t2chttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvus3wxjj42z‘The head of domestic intelligence will surely be replaced. Teachers will be muzzled from political expression, disabled children separated from their classmates, and a prouder, guilt-free German history curriculum imposed.’ Ruairí Casey on the AfD: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/september/the-resistible-rise-of-the-afd19 Sep 2026 13:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvus3wxjj42zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvuqggk27q24‘The last half-century has seen an unprecedented flurry of legislation to control immigration, until the grand culmination of Brexit and the fresh unfurling of St George flags completed a millennium of pogroms and riots.’ Ferdinand Mount on England and immigration: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/ferdinand-mount/modest-and-misunderstood19 Sep 2026 13:00 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvuqggk27q24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvun2ydx7h2r‘(I never saw a hoopoe – Unless I was alone – Except some interloper Took out their telephone.)’ From ‘Four Ways of Looking at a Hoopoe’ by @aestallings.bsky.social. Read here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/a.e.-stallings/four-ways-of-looking-at-a-hoopoe19 Sep 2026 12:00 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvun2ydx7h2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvums4jv5k24‘In the Hellenistic period, 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘢could mean a democratic regime or simply freedom from external control.’ Rosalind Thomas on ancient Greek city-states: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/rosalind-thomas/after-chaironeia19 Sep 2026 11:55 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvums4jv5k24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvui23sezx24‘In New York, no one cares that you’re an Ivy League professor; you’re just another resident of a crumbling and glorious city. This is a great check on self-regard, and I found it unimaginably freeing.’ Susan Pedersen on the culture of elite universities: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/susan-pedersen/keep-off-the-grass19 Sep 2026 10:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvui23sezx24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvueorp7ce2r‘The problem with not addressing the failures that cause and perpetuate wrongful conviction is that they keep on happening.’ Matt Foot on the need to reform the Court of Appeal: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/matt-foot/short-cuts19 Sep 2026 09:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvueorp7ce2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvua7qqv4g2n‘When the going is good, the West is a limitless formation; when the going gets rough, the West cuts its losses, retreats into itself and publishes books about why it is the best.’ Thomas Meaney on the idea of the West: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/thomas-meaney/ranks-of-humanity19 Sep 2026 08:10 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvua7qqv4g2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvu55evoje2n‘Literary criticism, above all, is about particularities. It's about looking at a poem and saying something about this poem and not another poem. And that means it should be defended as a particularity.’ Colin Burrow on the point of criticism, on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=100079045856719 Sep 2026 07:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvu55evoje2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvsuvxmlj42r‘If the upper estimates – more than a hundred existing warheads and production of eighteen a year – are correct, then North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is on course to surpass those of France and the UK by the end of the decade.’ Richard Lloyd Parry @dicklp.bsky.social: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/richard-lloyd-parry/keeping-up-with-the-kims18 Sep 2026 19:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvsuvxmlj42rhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mvsqyq2izf2r‘In the UK – as elsewhere – the handful of data centres with on-site solar farms, small modular reactors or wind farms nearby are greatly outnumbered by those that still rely on fossil fuels.’ Martin Thom on data centres, from the blog: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/september/human-melting18 Sep 2026 18:05 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mvsqyq2izf2r