@laphamsquart

A magazine of history and ideas. https://xitter.cf/t.co/MUOZW3uQId

 New York
laphamsquarterly.org
Joined October 2009
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Introducing the Lapham's Quarterly archive: every page, every issue, from the Neolithic period to the Information Age. Now available to our annual Substack subscribers. Read our explainer and dive into the archive itself at the links in the reply.
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“Hannah Arendt has been sanitized in a certain way now, as a kind of wise Jewish figure. In Germany, she’s probably the most read Jewish philosopher. Germany, with all its censorship of anti-Zionist viewpoints, has kind of adopted her. There’s a Hannah Arendt Strasse in every town in Germany.” –Benjamin Moser. Ep. three of A Broken World is now available. Featuring Benjamin Moser and Benjamin A. Saltzman. Link in reply.
Ocean Scars, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2019. Sea urchins, urushi lacquer, calcium carbonate, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation.11 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

ALT Ocean Scars, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2019. Sea urchins, urushi lacquer, calcium carbonate, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation.11 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

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Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2bWZWz… Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… Substack: substack.com/@laphamsquarter…

The World in Time / Lapham’s Quarterly

Podcast · Lapham’s Quarterly · Donovan Hohn, the acting editor of Lapham's Quarterly, interviews historians, writers, and journalists about books that bring voices from the past up to the microphone...

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“Euripides’s play begins with Agamemnon wavering in the dark, sealing and unsealing a secret letter warning his daughter to stay away. When the letter is eventually discovered and deemed traitorous, Agamemnon is forced to go through with the sacrifice, and Iphigenia volunteers her own death.” Benjamin A. Saltzman on sacrifice and silence, from classical Athens to Little Rock. Link in reply.
Detail from The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, artist unknown, first century, after a painting by Timanthes. Wikimedia Commons.

ALT Detail from The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, artist unknown, first century, after a painting by Timanthes. Wikimedia Commons.

Elizabeth Eckford with Grace Lorch during Little Rock Central High School Desegregation Crisis, 1957. Photograph by Raymond Preddy. University of Arkansas at Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture.

ALT Elizabeth Eckford with Grace Lorch during Little Rock Central High School Desegregation Crisis, 1957. Photograph by Raymond Preddy. University of Arkansas at Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture.

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Read here: laphamsquarterly.org/roundta…

The Silence of Agamemnon

Since antiquity, artists have depicted figures hiding their faces or covering their eyes. What does it mean when we turn away?

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For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. —Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BC Time’s ruins build eternity’s mansions. —James Joyce, 1922 Extracts: On Time. Link in reply.
Replica of the zodiac ceiling in the Temple of Hathor, Dandarah, Egypt, papyrus, c. 320 BC. Papyrus Museum, Cairo, Egypt / De Agostini Picture Library, Bridgeman Images.

ALT Replica of the zodiac ceiling in the Temple of Hathor, Dandarah, Egypt, papyrus, c. 320 BC. Papyrus Museum, Cairo, Egypt / De Agostini Picture Library, Bridgeman Images.

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“Caution might have told Arendt to let her friend remain silent or gracefully ignore her writings critical of Zionism. She could not do so. Her idea of friendship would not allow her to proceed with caution.” Roger Berkowitz on Arendt's “Zionism Reconsidered” and her friendship with Kurt Blumenfeld. Link in reply.
Detail from The Knife Grinder or Principle of Glittering, by Kazimir Malevich, 1912–1913. Yale University Art Gallery.

ALT Detail from The Knife Grinder or Principle of Glittering, by Kazimir Malevich, 1912–1913. Yale University Art Gallery.

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The Knife’s Edge | Roger Berkowitz

By 1945, Hannah Arendt believed Zionism had lost its way. The publication of “Zionism Reconsidered” threatened to exile her anew, this time from the “homeland” of friendship.

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Exclusive to Substack subscribers: the unabridged version of this episode, with a segment on the present-day implications of Hannah Arendt’s controversial essay “Truth and Politics,” first published in The New Yorker in 1967.
Lapham’s Quarterly
@laphamsquartOct 9
“[Hannah Arendt] didn’t think of herself as German, or Jewish, or American, or European. She said, ‘The only people I love are my friends.’ Friendship is hard, and she uses this beautiful metaphor. She says, ‘Friendship exists on the knife’s edge.’” –Roger Berkowitz. Ep. two of A Broken World is now available. Featuring Roger Berkowitz and Jennifer Szalai. Link in reply.
Bowels of the Earth – Water, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2020. Earthenware, urushi lacquer, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation. 12 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

ALT Bowels of the Earth – Water, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2020. Earthenware, urushi lacquer, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation. 12 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

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“[Hannah Arendt] didn’t think of herself as German, or Jewish, or American, or European. She said, ‘The only people I love are my friends.’ Friendship is hard, and she uses this beautiful metaphor. She says, ‘Friendship exists on the knife’s edge.’” –Roger Berkowitz. Ep. two of A Broken World is now available. Featuring Roger Berkowitz and Jennifer Szalai. Link in reply.
Bowels of the Earth – Water, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2020. Earthenware, urushi lacquer, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation. 12 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

ALT Bowels of the Earth – Water, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2020. Earthenware, urushi lacquer, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation. 12 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

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Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2bWZWz… Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… Substack: substack.com/@laphamsquarter…

The World in Time / Lapham’s Quarterly

Podcast · Lapham’s Quarterly · Donovan Hohn, the acting editor of Lapham's Quarterly, interviews historians, writers, and journalists about books that bring voices from the past up to the microphone...

open.spotify.com
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Voices: On Hannah Arendt. “The insight of Eichmann in Jerusalem is not that Eichmann was just following orders, but that Eichmann was a 'joiner.' In his own words, Eichmann feared 'to live a leaderless and difficult individual life,' in which 'I would receive no directives from anybody.'” Link in reply.
Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichman walking in yard of his cell in Ayalon Prison, Ramla, April 1961, by Gjon Mili (Government Press Office of Israel). Wikimedia Commons.

ALT Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichman walking in yard of his cell in Ayalon Prison, Ramla, April 1961, by Gjon Mili (Government Press Office of Israel). Wikimedia Commons.

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Read here: laphamsquarterly.substack.co… Featuring Roger Berkowitz, Lewis H. Lapham, Samantha Rose Hill, Ken Krimstein.
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"Jesus was a heretic because he hated hypocrites, those whose 'throats were open graves.' In Nietzsche’s estimation, this made him 'the noblest of men.' Jesus made himself useless to the ways of the Temple and useless to the ways of Empire." Seven theses on resistance from Curtis White. Link in reply.
Detail from Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple, by Theodoor Rombouts. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.

ALT Detail from Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple, by Theodoor Rombouts. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.

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Song of a Lost World | Curtis White

Seven theses on resistance.

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We war with rude nature and, by our resistless engines, come off always victorious and loaded with spoils. —Thomas Carlyle, 1829 ’Tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard. —William Shakespeare, c. 1600 Extracts: On Technology. Link in reply.
Two Boys with a Bladder, by Joseph Wright of Derby, c. 1770. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy the Getty’s Open Content Program.

ALT Two Boys with a Bladder, by Joseph Wright of Derby, c. 1770. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy the Getty’s Open Content Program.

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Listen now to the first episode in a new series of conversations from LQ: A Broken World. In the first episode, Donovan Hohn commemorates the life of Annie Dillard. Featuring Dillard, in her own words, on her relationship with Lewis H. Lapham. Link in reply.
Bowels of the Earth – Water, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2020. Earthenware, urushi lacquer, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation. 12 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

ALT Bowels of the Earth – Water, by Naoko Fukumaru, 2020. Earthenware, urushi lacquer, resin, and 23.5K gold. Kintsugi transformation. 12 cm. © Naoko Fukumaru. Courtesy of the artist.

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Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2bWZWz… Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… Substack: substack.com/@laphamsquarter…

The World in Time / Lapham’s Quarterly

Podcast · Lapham’s Quarterly · Donovan Hohn, the acting editor of Lapham's Quarterly, interviews historians, writers, and journalists about books that bring voices from the past up to the microphone...

open.spotify.com
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"[Annie Dillard's] preferred method is to transform, through the alchemy of metaphor, natural phenomena into spiritual ones. In her hands, the total eclipse, observed from a hillside in Washington’s Yakima Valley, becomes a descent into an underworld, a 'region of dread.' Images of deep-sea diving recur. Blotting out the sun, the moon, like 'a mushroom cloud,' obliterates 'meaning itself.' The essay is her Inferno." —Donovan Hohn on "Total Eclipse," from his 2016 review of Dillard's "The Abundance." Link in reply.
A total solar eclipse is seen in Dallas, Texas on Monday, April 8, 2024. NASA Headquarters/Keegan Barber.

ALT A total solar eclipse is seen in Dallas, Texas on Monday, April 8, 2024. NASA Headquarters/Keegan Barber.

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Now the Music Ceases | Donovan Hohn

In memory of Annie Dillard.

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