Critical thinking, published every fortnight. Read at lrb.co.uk Subscribe for just £1/issue at lrb.me/socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.ukhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjwdfojqoz2z‘It is easy to disguise disagreement with a court’s decision as an accusation of activism. If the rule of law has meaning, it means that the judge will sometimes have to make decisions they find unpalatable.’ Francis FitzGibbon (@ffkc.bsky.social) on judicial activism. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/francis-fitzgibbon/short-cuts20 Apr 2026 11:10 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjwdfojqoz2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjwb6gcapt2p‘The interchangeable quality of the fictional elements in Ben Lerner’s novels signals an anxiety about his own artistic method, as it’s both the way his art is made and the thing that most troubles his characters.’ Christian Lorentzen reads 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/christian-lorentzen/i-sympathise-with-the-child20 Apr 2026 10:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjwb6gcapt2phttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjw6npxs4k23‘The breakthrough music on 𝘗𝘦𝘵 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 isn’t tethered to the customary bass, guitar and drums; it doesn’t stick with straightforward repetitive patterns; it stops, starts, pauses, reflects.’ Ian Penman on the Beach Boys. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/ian-penman/i-m-just-a-sound20 Apr 2026 09:45 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjw6npxs4k23https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjvzmqa22c2a‘As recently as 100,000 years ago we shared the world with several other kinds of human being – Neanderthals, Denisovans and the like – and before that even more. Could they speak with us? We don’t know.’ Francis Gooding on how we got to language. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/francis-gooding/rocket-science-for-monkeys20 Apr 2026 08:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjvzmqa22c2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjup25th5z24‘With its full control of checkpoints and terminals and every truck of cement and building material crossing into Gaza, Israel can ensure that reconstruction remains a perpetual “project”.’ Eyal Weizman on the destruction of Gaza. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/eyal-weizman/all-they-will-find-is-sand19 Apr 2026 19:33 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjup25th5z24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjukxobmav2o‘Much depended on men, and it is notable that these artists had supportive fathers and disastrous husbands who spent their money, failed to nurture their careers and in the end became burdensome.’ Rosemary Hill on the work of two eighteenth-century female painters. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/rosemary-hill/sacred-parallelogram19 Apr 2026 18:20 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjukxobmav2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjui67sha22w‘The scrambled time in 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘥𝘢 throws into question the characters’ relationships with one another, their surroundings, themselves. How do we know that the scenes we saw first aren’t fantasies?’ Gaby Wood on Mark Jenkin’s ‘radically artisanal’ films. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/gaby-wood/at-the-movies19 Apr 2026 17:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjui67sha22whttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjudp5y2232z‘That is the problem for any judge: to distinguish where justice as the judge sees it conflicts with the application of the law. It is easy to disguise disagreement with a court’s decision as an accusation of activism.’ Francis FitzGibbon (@ffkc.bsky.social): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/francis-fitzgibbon/short-cuts19 Apr 2026 16:10 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjudp5y2232zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mju6x6v7wh2uWe follow, part and overlap, Retracing steps. No cell phones and no map, They thread the living labyrinth of yew. Laughing, we follow, part, and overlap. Who’ll climb the ladder for the overview? ‘The Maze’, a poem by @aestallings.bsky.social. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/a.e.-stallings/the-maze19 Apr 2026 14:45 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mju6x6v7wh2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjtzqwyxa22z‘Despite Gandhi’s obsession with national unity, at the time of her death India was more unstable, more violent and more divided than at any moment since Partition.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social on Indira Gandhi. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/pratinav-anil/indira-is-india19 Apr 2026 13:12 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjtzqwyxa22zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjtxfsmncp2z‘Families in Lebanon are interconnected across religions, right? The whole civil society – or what remains of it, because it is an exhausted civil society as well – has mobilised.’ @joelleabirached.bsky.social on Lebanon, on the podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=100076193955719 Apr 2026 12:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjtxfsmncp2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjtv6f2j2q2h‘She may have lived like Madame de Pompadour but she lacked her purpose and personal influence. Pamela was drawn to power itself, rather than what power could achieve, and had no developed politics of her own.’ Azadeh Moaveni on Pamela Churchill Harriman. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/azadeh-moaveni/in-pam-s-club19 Apr 2026 11:50 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjtv6f2j2q2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjtswqcyje2b‘𝘝𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘳 noted that, as Britons could see live duchesses for free, “Why, then, pay £72,000 to see dead duchesses?”’ Elizabeth Goldring on the enduring desirability of Hans Holbein and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘴. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/elizabeth-goldring/at-the-national-gallery19 Apr 2026 11:10 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjtswqcyje2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjto6rgy6w2i‘In James Schuyler’s hands, simile is revealing and outlandish. “A wedding of disjunctions”, he calls it elsewhere, one that acts as a guarantor for a world in which each thing is very much its own thing – not sequestered, but not wholly conjoined.’ Matthew Bevis: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/matthew-bevis/wigging-in19 Apr 2026 09:45 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjto6rgy6w2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjtjbgncho2b‘Writing fiction seems to have cleared the mist from her memories, revealing a different kind of truth, one that aligned more closely to the history she had lived through. But some truths remained obscured.’ Sarah Resnick on the divided life of Ágota Kristóf. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/sarah-resnick/enemy-language19 Apr 2026 08:17 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjtjbgncho2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjs6fvu2hz23‘“Looking like they’ll acquit on the possession charge,” the judge remarked. His tone was studiedly neutral, though in my experience judges are rarely neutral about anything.’ James Lasdun on a month of attending trials across the midwestern and southern US. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/james-lasdun/reality-instruction18 Apr 2026 19:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjs6fvu2hz23https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjs2iqefka22‘Shooting demands such concentration that it seems to me the perfect recreation for a writer, a relief from sitting at a desk and – as I am doing now – trying to imagine the next sentence.’ Paul Theroux on his guns. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/paul-theroux/gun-love18 Apr 2026 18:20 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjs2iqefka22https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjrxpjgxvi23‘The flowers are the central image of 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, representing cross-generational artistic collaboration and art’s power to represent and preserve (or transcribe) impermanent life.’ Christian Lorentzen (@xlo.bsky.social) reads Ben Lerner’s new novel. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/christian-lorentzen/i-sympathise-with-the-child18 Apr 2026 17:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjrxpjgxvi23https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjrvhsjyi424‘Like surfing, Brian Wilson’s creativity involved a fragile balance, and carried the very real risk of going under or too far out to sea.’ Ian Penman on the Beach Boys. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/ian-penman/i-m-just-a-sound18 Apr 2026 16:50 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjrvhsjyi424https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjrtad3dsi22‘There are many more fires, hunts and stone tools in Mithen’s story than babies and comforted children, and when it comes to thinking about talking it isn’t immediately obvious why that should be so.’ Francis Gooding investigates how we got to language. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/francis-gooding/rocket-science-for-monkeys18 Apr 2026 16:10 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjrtad3dsi22https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjroibqtwj22‘We hear explosions that kill our neighbours and endure the relentless hum of the Israeli drones that watch us. I hear and sometimes see this war, but I’m not covering it. What good would it do?’ Charles Glass reports from Beirut, in the 1970s and now. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/charles-glass/diary18 Apr 2026 14:45 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjroibqtwj22https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjrjhd2cfa23‘For all the admirers who queue at the Indira Gandhi Memorial museum to pay homage to the blood-stained sari she wore on the day of her assassination, the taint of corruption still clings.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social on Gandhi and her legacy. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/pratinav-anil/indira-is-india18 Apr 2026 13:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjrjhd2cfa23https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjrgwuefx524‘We start to think that what we do sexually reveals something very profound about us, and maybe more profound and more true than something that we’ve committed to intellectually.’ @piercepenniless.bsky.social on men looking at men across history, on the podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=100076146328118 Apr 2026 12:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjrgwuefx524https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjrepdk4tn2e‘If their earlier songs addressed growing up – why do it? why bother? – this new album is about having grown up, and living with the mixed results. They conjure an almost sarcastic indie wonderland.’ Stephanie Burt (@notquitehydepark.bsky.social) on Heavenly’s revival. https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/april/twee-as-fuck18 Apr 2026 11:50 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjrepdk4tn2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjrcht4qsw2e‘Harriman was unsuited to politicking: she lacked analytical acumen, disliked reading and writing (Capote called her a “marvellous primitive”) and her public speaking was wooden and stentorian.’ Azadeh Moaveni on Pamela Churchill Harriman. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/azadeh-moaveni/in-pam-s-club18 Apr 2026 11:10 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjrcht4qsw2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjraabitsl24‘The Lebanese army has been kept weak and ineffective in many ways on purpose. And that’s part of the Israeli-US strategy.’ @mbazzi.bsky.social on Lebanon, on the podcast, with @joelleabirached.bsky.social and @adamshatz.bsky.social. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lrb-podcast/id510327102?i=100076193955718 Apr 2026 10:30 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjraabitsl24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjr5pv3lco2e‘Frick seems to have felt that he would never be viewed as a collector of the first rank until he had acquired at least one Holbein.’ Elizabeth Goldring on 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘴 and the enduring desirability of the German Old Master’s work. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/elizabeth-goldring/at-the-national-gallery18 Apr 2026 09:45 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjr5pv3lco2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjqyov4lzj24‘Reconstruction plans imposed on Palestinians with the implicit aim of destroying Palestinian life in Gaza demonstrate the reason Lemkin reserved a place for architecture in his conception of the crime of genocide.’ Eyal Weizman on the destruction of Gaza. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/eyal-weizman/all-they-will-find-is-sand18 Apr 2026 08:15 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjqyov4lzj24https://bsky.app/profile/lrb.co.uk/post/3mjpoh2b4ok2e‘The first time I saw Heavenly play, in 1991, I wasn’t sure what I’d seen: a girl-group revival? Children’s music, amplified? I figured out days later that my life had changed.’ Stephanie Burt (@notquitehydepark.bsky.social) on loving the indiepop group, from the blog. https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/april/twee-as-fuck17 Apr 2026 19:39 +0000at://did:plc:63zjpqfhowjsbfl26dipg3e2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjpoh2b4ok2e