personalcanon.com

i used to think that novels were a waste of time

Reading a novel don't always make us more moral, for instance—although my moral intuitions have been shaped by reading about the adulterous affairs of Russian aristocrats, and the political idealism of Norwegian PR consultants. The modest claim I'll make here is that novels and films have made me a better person, through the obscure mechanisms of style and form and story, and I'll never be without them again.

themarginalian.org

Very Necessary Qualifications of a Great Storyteller

All great storytelling — be it a novel or a poem, a film or a song — enchants us precisely because it swings open the door to a world distinctly other than our own, whose very otherness clarifies ours, returns us to it magnified and annealed.

longreads.com

Why Are Fish So Gay?

It was only when I juxtaposed our stories that I saw how harshly I had judged myself, when I was just another organism trying to survive. In this light, I found it helpful to write about myself the way I would a fish, such as thinking about times when I've had to adapt, evolve, or escape, and to write about a fish the way I would write about another person, which meant treating them as an individual whose life story matters, not just as a member of a school or a swarm.

longreads.com

The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon

The real, unsettling mechanism of Fallon's banal horror is its insistence on a radical non-engagement with reality: a position that, in our current political climate, is itself an aggressively political act.

longreads.com

The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt

I was trying to find the human side of history, and humans were often my best source. When I thought about Sacajawea in the Rockies, trying to keep her infant son alive, I thought about my own kids at that age—about my wife breastfeeding them, both parties always hungry, always thirsty.

whyisthisinteresting

The Monday Media Diet with Hannah Park

Fiction to expand one's creativity and empathy. To experience emotions and other perspectives that would otherwise be unknown.

fs.blog

Inside the Mind of Robinhood Co-Founder Vlad Tenev

A compelling false narrative, once viral, cannot be overturned by facts — you must accept that and play the long game instead of fighting the story with evidence.