The Biblioracle Recommends

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So…the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post have decided not to publish a candidate endorsement for this year’s presidential election. The choice was made by the papers’ respective billionaire owners, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who made his fortune in biomedical devices, and some guy named Jeff Bezos.

I was reading New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka’s mini-profile of journalist when I came across this passage. Reader, I gasped.

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There is no emotion that I approach with more skepticism than nostalgia. Part of this skepticism is because of nostalgia’s obvious emotional power. One of the greatest ever works of literature hinges on one man’s memory of how a cookie tastes. Living in nostalgia is a comfort, a shield against dealing with the unknowns of the present. Nostalgia sands away the rough edges of the past, leaving only good vibes behind.

This past week, legislation requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in school classrooms was signed into law by the governor of Louisiana. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, John, that sounds totally unconstitutional. And it is! For now. The braintrust behind the law is looking forward to taking their case to this Supreme Court, which they think may not be such sticklers about the Establishment Clause.

I recently had a chance to go see and hear Percival Everett “in conversation” at an event here in Charleston, South Carolina where I live. I could have gone, my schedule was free (it’s always free), but I didn’t go, and I’ve been wondering why. In 2017, writing in my column at the Chicago Tribune I declared Everett the most interesting writer working today, a sentiment I’d held for years before I put it publicly into print.

(This post may be too long for some email clients. Click through to see the full post.) The title of Sal Khan’s new book, Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing), makes two implicit claims: AI will revolutionize education. The AI revolution is “a good thing.” It is strange, then, that the book makes no real attempt to grapple with the implications of its own argument.

One of the fun parts about getting older and persisting in the same general area of activity is connecting to others in the same field do the same, and seeing their careers progress. For me, one of those people is Teddy Wayne whose new novel The Winner will be available wherever books are sold starting this coming Tuesday. My first connection to Teddy came way back when I was editing the McSweeney’s website and he was one of the most frequent contributors.