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Stories and literature

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations

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Painting of three 18th-century men in discussion, one holding an illustration. A dog lies on the floor.

essayVirtues and vices

David Hume vs literature

Hume distrusted literature and worked to discredit character sketches as legitimate forms of philosophy

Katie Ebner-Landy

Vintage black and white photo of a woman in a garden sitting beside a large urn with a sleeping dog lying nearby.

essayFamily life

Glorious and mundane

I once exalted in the extraordinary. But as I’ve learned from Virginia Woolf, indelible beauty is also found in the everyday

Diana Saverin

Abstract sketch of a cityscape with buildings, cars and patterns in pencil and ink.

essayArt

Witty wotty dashes

Doodles are the emanations of our pixillated minds, freewheeling into dissociation, graphology, and radical openness

James Reath

Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

essayLanguage and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

Vintage painting of a man with glowing eyes surrounded by floating spheres on a decorative background.

essayStories and literature

Merveilleux-scientifique

With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago

Fleur Hopkins-Loféron

Abstract digital collage with classical statue overlayed by red lines, geometric shapes and layered images on a textured background.

essayStories and literature

Our narrative prison

The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?

Eliane Glaser

Sepia-toned photo of a person in formal Victorian attire, standing with a slightly tilted head, against an ornate backdrop.

essayGender and identity

Requeering Wilde

Oscar Wilde is an icon of gay liberation from secrecy. But his life and his sexuality were not so simple – nor so binary

Sam Mills

Traditional Indian painting of a deity reclining on a serpent on water with another figure on a lotus against a red background.

videoStories and literature

Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling

14 minutes

Painting of a serene night scene with a full moon reflecting on a dark blue lake surrounded by silhouettes of rocks and trees.

essayStories and literature

The listening gift

It is the dark matter of conversation, the white space around a poem. For Rilke, listening is receiving the divine

Faith Lawrence

Two weathered, clay duck sculptures facing each other against a grey background.

essayMetaphysics

The truth about fiction

What distinguishes fiction from nonfiction? The answer to this perennial question relies on how we understand reality itself

Hannah H Kim

Painting of passengers in a 19th century bus, featuring men and women in period dress, one holding a basket of flowers.

essayStories and literature

Elegance and hustle

How French modernists from Proust to Mallarmé were alarmed and inspired by the voracious dynamism of the newspaper world

Max McGuinness

Digital artwork of a forest inside a circular frame with geometric lines, displayed against a black background.

essayStories and literature

Laboratories of the impossible

By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics

Joshua Roebke

A photo of a printshop workbench featuring a newspaper layout, metal type blocks, and tools.

videoHistory of technology

Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy

19 minutes

Ancient stone statues depicting a standing and a reclining Buddha against a natural rock backdrop.

essayPhilosophy of religion

Compassionate time

On his final journey through Asia, Thomas Merton found some peace in the dialectic between refusing the world and loving it

Drew Calvert

Painting of two anthropomorphic peacocks in 18th-century attire in front of a stately home surrounded by trees.

essayBeauty and aesthetics

Is beauty natural?

Charles Darwin was as fascinated by extravagant ornament in nature as Jane Austen was in culture. Did their explanations agree?

Abigail Tulenko

Illustration of a person reading a book with glowing hot air balloons and mountains emerging from the pages.

essayPhysics

The city of wisdom

Don’t be intimidated by physics: it is made of stories and metaphors. Learn these and the field will open up to you

Jamie Zvirzdin

Close-up photo of a wooden mask with fur eyebrows, hollow eyes, a rounded mouth opening and long black hair against a dark background.

essayAnthropology

Witches around the world

The belief in witches is an almost universal feature of human societies. What does it reveal about our deepest fears?

Gregory Forth

Photo of a person wearing large sunglasses with outdoor scenery reflected, resting their fingers on their chin in a thoughtful pose.

essayEthics

Main character syndrome

Why romanticising your own life is philosophically dubious, setting up toxic narratives and an inability to truly love

Anna Gotlib

Photo of a doll with curly red hair, blue eyes, and a large maroon hat, wearing a double string of pearls and a red dress.

essayRituals and celebrations

Tender, yet creepy

Dolls help children create wonderfully vivid and imaginative worlds, while also serving as unsettling reminders of the abyss

Tishani Doshi

Painting of a rural street on a dark night featuring a two-storey white farmhouse, a red barn, powerlines, and a bright light in the centre.

essaySleep and dreams

Spinning the night self

After years of insomnia, I threw off the effort to sleep and embraced the peculiar openness I found in the darkest hours

Annabel Abbs

A walking figure made of black shapes, with a pink ticket for “The Moviegoer” by Walker Percy as its body, on a yellow background.

videoMeaning and the good life

‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’

2 minutes

Still life with musical instruments, sheet music, books, and a small statue on a table draped with a richly patterned red and gold curtain.

essayMusic

A novel kind of music

So-called ‘classical’ music was as revolutionary as the modern novel in its storytelling, harmony and depth

Joel Sandelson

Silhouette of a soldier with glowing eyes and helmet, holding a rifle, with a blurred, colourful background.

videoWar and peace

A century later, can poetry help us make sense of the First World War’s horrors?

9 minutes

Intricate artwork of robed women with long, flowing hair in a forest, surrounding a glowing, veiled woman adorned with flowers.

essayBeauty and aesthetics

All aquiver

The Decadent movement taught that you should live your life with the greatest intensity – a dangerous and thrilling challenge

Kate Hext