Reviews and News:
Most Germans speak English. Does this mean English speakers shouldn’t learn German?
Alan Jacobs recommends Adam Roberts’s latest novel, Real-Town Murders.
The Vanzolini Saki, an elusive Amazon monkey, has been observed for the first time in 80 years.
Terry Pratchett’s unfinished novels crushed by a steamroller.
Ivy League scholars encourage students to think for themselves.
John Smelcer’s PEN award nomination rescinded: “Smelcer had fabricated a literary agent named Johnny Savage from whole cloth, using a photo of an actor from The Vampire Diaries and Lost. He also allegedly fabricated a blurb from Norman Mailer, according to Mailer’s biographer. His claim to Native heritage has been questioned by critics for years.”
Essay of the Day:
In 1822, James Holman left England for Russia in an attempt to circumnavigate the world. It was extremely rare for leisure travelers to undertake such a trip, and even more so in Holman’s case. He was blind:
“Holman had a loose idea of his circumnavigation route: spend winter in western Russia, traverse Siberia the following spring, pass through Mongolia, sneak into China, hop on a whaling ship set for Hawaii, and improvise onward.
“The plan was ambitious, if not crazy. ‘In the early 1820s there was no such thing as an amateur, independent circumnavigator,’ writes Holman’s biographer, Jason Roberts, in A Sense of the World. ‘There were people whose careers had carried them around the world—sailors, merchants, diplomats, missionaries, and a handful of naturalists—but no one had yet succeeded in doing so solely for the experience.’ Travel was a practical matter, not something you did for fun.
“It made even less sense to start in Russia. Foreigners of all stripes were regarded with suspicion there and risked deportation. With success uncertain, Holman concealed his trip’s true purpose and fibbed to anybody who inquired about it. He was merely in Russia to visit a friend, he’d say. ‘I was always particularly cautious in divulging my real plans,’ Holman wrote in Travels Through Russia.”
Photo: Santa Maddalena
Poem: Rainer Maria Rilke, “Orchard”
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