Top Stories
New stories you'll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
An Education in Alienation. Top Story - April 2024.
It might seem odd to conjure the ghost of an ancient Greek philosopher the better to try to understand and appreciate a 19th Century tale of thrilling horror with his help. I was moved to do so because I am the sort of silly idealist who believes that anything encoded by a human mind can be decoded by one, to echo David Lodge’s irascible Morris Zapp, provided sufficient energy and attention are devoted to the cause. After all, I have had the privilege and pleasure of teaching this novel to hundreds of students. When I have done so, I have repudiated charming customer service and power point karaoke in favor of close reading of the text and texts about it. The latter have both preserved and provoked a scholarly and critical conversation about tragedy in general and this novel in particular. Aristotle was the first to contribute a systematic theory of tragedy to this conversation, in the 4th Century BCE. Walking anachronism that I am, I understand it to be my duty to prepare my students to understand the text and said conversation in order, in however modest and provisional a way, to contribute to it themselves. If the aims of a university are not to preserve, create and disseminate knowledge, by these and other means, what could they possibly be?
By D. J. Reddall2 years ago in BookClub
My Waistband and Me. Top Story - April 2024.
Ever since I was little, I have never really liked my body. Well, when I was with other kids, I started to dislike myself. My body hadn’t bothered me until the other kids pointed out ‘flaws’. Stuff that they perceived as wrong.
By Raphael Fontenelle2 years ago in Confessions
To Con a Pig. Top Story - April 2024.
Mo, Larry, and Curly were simple country pigs. They lived in a small town called Sty, where nothing much changed from day to day. Their homes were humble abodes constructed of straw and sticks, much like their neighbors. Every day was like the day before until it wasn’t.
By Mark Gagnon2 years ago in Fiction
The Dreich. Top Story - April 2024.
Dreich is borrowed from Scots dreich (“hard to bear, dreary, tedious, wearisome; interminable, long-winded; dull, uninteresting; slow, tardy; doleful, gloomy; baffling, difficult; difficult to reach, inaccessible”), from Middle English dregh, dri, drie (“burdensome; depressing, dismal; large, tall; lasting, long; long-suffering, patient; tedious; of blows: hard, heavy; of the face: unchanging, unmoved; of a person: strong, valorous”)
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 2 years ago in Fiction
Flex. Top Story - April 2024.
My Word: Weightlifter The Challenge: “To lift is a gift,” he thought. Life only goes around once and you cannot wilt while the wheel turns and you just flit from… He had to focus on the weight that he added to the tree of iron surrounding him.
By Kendall Defoe 2 years ago in Fiction
Finding Contentment. Top Story - April 2024.
Peace. The view from their coastal villa brought them peace. From their first visit, that sleepy seaside town had become important to them. It was intertwined into their lives and served as a tranquil bookmark, a serene highlighter for the many difficulties they have experienced throughout their life together.
By Paul Stewart2 years ago in Fiction
The lifestyle of Introverts. Top Story - April 2024.
I am an introvert and in my earlier years, I often felt that perhaps I should have tried to be more extroverted, that in order to fit in, I needed to be like everyone else. My discomfort around people made people either uncomfortable, facetious or puzzled. This then made me feel as if my natural way of being was not conducive to a successful or a fulfilling life—But the implication there is that being introverted is a problem that needs to be solved, which can sometimes be all too convincing in a world that seems to reward self-promotion over quiet reflection.
By Novel Allen2 years ago in Writers
Did We Manifest AI Due to Collective Human Attitudes on Work? . Top Story - April 2024.
Food for thought indeed. There is a mighty fine line between "AI is taking our jobs" as a downright conspiracy theory, to something that is true and proven in some (if not many) occupations; from cashiers to illustrators, and robotic surgery to name, let alone robot lawyers for real. Furthermore, this article is not designed to create more fear and uncertainty than what is already circulating in the cosmos, but rather to view AI and the world of work from a different perspective.
By Justine Crowley2 years ago in Journal
