order and chaos essay

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Connection Between Chaos and Order in King Lear

• Categories: King Lear

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Words: 1851 |

10 min read

Published: Jun 29, 2018

Words: 1851 | Pages: 4 | 10 min read

[We'll] hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, and who's out; And take upon 's the mystery of things, As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out, In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon. (V,iii, 13-19)

Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee On capital treason; and, in thine attaint, This gilded serpent [pointing to Goneril]. For your claim, fair sister, I bar it in the interest of my wife; 'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord, And I, her husband, contradict your banes. (V,iii,83-88)

Some good I mean to do, Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send, Be brief in it, to the castle; for my writ Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia: Nay, send in time. (V,iii,243-247)

Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone forever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives; She's dead as earth. (V,iii,257-261)

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12 Rules for Life

Jordan b. peterson, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

In an attempt to understand 20th-century tragedies and conflicts (including the Holocaust and the Cold War), Jordan Peterson immersed himself in the world’s great myths and religious writings. In doing so, he noticed a repeated pattern of order and chaos . By “order,” he means people acting according to predictable social norms—familiar, stable structures that keep society functioning smoothly. “Chaos,” on the other hand, is the unexpected bursting into the familiar, which can be both creative and destructive. Cultures, religions, and even individual human consciousness all contain both order and chaos, which constantly push and pull at each other. For example, the Taoist yin-yang symbol depicts chaos (black) intertwined with order (white), as well as the potential for chaos to manifest within order and vice versa (the contrasting dots on either side). The dividing line between the two sides represents “the Way,” or the ideal life path, a perfect balance of order and chaos.

Peterson believes that walking this border between order and chaos is the key to thriving and fulfillment. It’s here, he explains, that people find meaning within and beyond life’s inevitable suffering. As people instinctively recognize, too much stability can inhibit learning and change, yet too much change can overwhelm and disorient them. In addition, seeking meaning on the border between order and chaos has a larger benefit: it resists a nihilistic , expedient approach to life and helps make existence better not just for the individual, but for others, too. The book’s 12 rules are meant to provide a guide to living on that boundary by helping people articulate purposeful order in their lives and in the world without becoming closed off to chaos’s creative benefits.

Order, Chaos, and Meaning ThemeTracker

Order, Chaos, and Meaning Quotes in 12 Rules for Life

Over the previous decades I had read more than my share of dark books about the twentieth century, focusing particularly on Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn […] once wrote that the “pitiful ideology” holding that “human beings are created for happiness” was an ideology “done in by the first blow of the work assigner’s cudgel.” In a crisis, the inevitable suffering that life entails can rapidly make a mockery of the idea that happiness is the proper pursuit of the individual. On the radio show, I suggested, instead, that a deeper meaning was required.

Order and chaos are the yang and yin of the famous Taoist symbol: two serpents, head to tail. Order is the white, masculine serpent; Chaos, its black, feminine counterpart. The black dot in the white—and the white in the black—indicate the possibility of transformation: just when things seem secure, the unknown can loom, unexpectedly and large. Conversely, just when everything seems lost, new order can emerge from catastrophe and chaos.

During this time, I came to a more complete, personal realization of what the great stories of the past continually insist upon: the centre is occupied by the individual. The centre is marked by the cross, as X marks the spot. Existence at that cross is suffering and transformation—and that fact, above all, needs to be voluntarily accepted. It is possible to transcend slavish adherence to the group and its doctrines and, simultaneously, to avoid the pitfalls of its opposite extreme, nihilism. It is possible, instead, to find sufficient meaning in individual consciousness and experience.

Pay attention. […] Notice something that bothers you, that concerns you, that will not let you be, which you could fix, that you would fix. You can find such somethings by asking yourself (as if you genuinely want to know) three questions: “What is it that is bothering me?” “Is that something I could fix?” and “Would I actually be willing to fix it?” If you find that the answer is “no,” to any or all of the questions, then look elsewhere. Aim lower. Search until you find something that bothers you, that you could fix, that you would fix, and then fix it. That might be enough for the day.

Parents have a duty to act as proxies for the real world—merciful proxies, caring proxies—but proxies, nonetheless. This obligation supersedes any responsibility to ensure happiness, foster creativity, or boost self-esteem. It is the primary duty of parents to make their children socially desirable.

The ancient Jews always blamed themselves when things fell apart. They acted as if God’s goodness—the goodness of reality—was axiomatic, and took responsibility for their own failure. That’s insanely responsible. But the alternative is to judge reality as insufficient, to criticize Being itself, and to sink into resentment and the desire for revenge.

During [tens or hundreds of thousands of years], the twin practices of delay and exchange began to emerge, slowly and painfully. Then they became represented, in metaphorical abstraction, as rituals and tales of sacrifice, told in a manner such as this: “It’s as if there is a powerful Figure in the Sky, who sees all, and is judging you. Giving up something you value seems to make Him happy—and you want to make Him happy, because all Hell breaks loose if you don’t. So, practice sacrificing, and sharing, until you become expert at it, and things will go well for you.”

Each human being has an immense capacity for evil. Each human being understands, a priori , perhaps not what is good, but certainly what is not. And if there is something that is not good , then there is something that is good . If the worst sin is the torment of others, merely for the sake of the suffering produced—then the good is whatever is diametrically opposed to that. The good is whatever stops such things from happening.

If you say no to your boss, or your spouse, or your mother, when it needs to be said, then you transform yourself into someone who can say no when it needs to be said. If you say yes when no needs to be said, however, you transform yourself into someone who can only say yes, even when it is clearly time to say no. If you ever wonder how perfectly ordinary, decent people could find themselves doing the terrible things the gulag camp guards did, you now have your answer. By the time no seriously needed to be said, there was no one left capable of saying it.

Consider the following situation: A client in my practice recounts a long, meandering, emotion-laden account of a difficult period in his or her life. We summarize, back and forth […] It is now a different memory, in many ways—with luck, a better memory […] We have extracted the moral of the story […] That’s the purpose of memory. You remember the past not so that it is “accurately recorded” […] but so that you are prepared for the future.

To have this kind of conversation, it is necessary to respect the personal experience of your conversational partners. You must assume that they have reached careful, thoughtful, genuine conclusions […] You must meditate, too, instead of strategizing towards victory. If you fail, or refuse, to do so, then you merely and automatically repeat what you already believe, seeking its validation and insisting on its rightness.

Chaos emerges in a household, bit by bit. Mutual unhappiness and resentment pile up. Everything untidy is swept under the rug, where the dragon feasts on the crumbs. But no one says anything […] Communication would require admission of terrible emotions […] But in the background […] the dragon grows. One day it bursts forth, in a form that no one can ignore. […] Every one of the three hundred thousand unrevealed issues, which have been lied about, avoided, rationalized away, hidden like an army of skeletons in some great horrific closet, bursts forth like Noah’s flood, drowning everything.

If you shirk the responsibility of confronting the unexpected, even when it appears in manageable doses, reality itself will become unsustainably disorganized and chaotic. […] Ignored reality transforms itself (reverts back) int the great Goddess of Chaos, the great reptilian Monster of the Unknown—the great predatory beast against which mankind has struggled since the dawn of time. […] Ignored reality manifests itself in an abyss of confusion and suffering.

If the consequences of placing skatestoppers on plant-boxes and sculpture bases […] is unhappy adolescent males and brutalist aesthetic disregard of beauty then, perhaps, that was the aim. When someone claims to be acting from the highest principles, for the good of others, there is no reason to assume that the person’s motives are genuine […] I see the operation of an insidious and profoundly anti-human spirit.

Boys are suffering, in the modern world. They are more disobedient—negatively—or more independent—positively—than girls, and they suffer for this, throughout their pre-university educational career. […] Schools, which were set up in the late 1800s precisely to inculcate obedience, do not take kindly to provocative and daring behaviour, no matter how tough-minded and competent it might show a boy (or a girl) to be.

It is almost impossible to over-estimate the nihilistic and destructive nature of this philosophy. It puts the act of categorization itself in doubt. It negates the idea that distinctions might be drawn between things for any reasons other than that of raw power. […] There is sufficient truth to Derrida’s claims to account, in part, for their insidious nature […] [T] he fact that power plays a role in human motivation does not mean that it plays the only role, or even the primary role .

It might be objected […] that a woman does not need a man to rescue her. That may be true, and it may not […] In any case, it is certain that a woman needs consciousness to be rescued, and, as noted above, consciousness is symbolically masculine and has been since the beginning of time […] The Prince could be a lover, but could also be a woman’s own attentive wakefulness, clarity of vision, and tough-minded independence.

Order & Chaos

Like night and day or winter and summer, there is a rigid division between the states of order and chaos that seems immutable. Nevertheless, these opposing forces also depend on one another. In this study guide collection, we've put together texts that explore themes related to the diametrically opposed yet inextricably linked forces of order and chaos.

2 B R 0 2 B

By kurt vonnegut jr..

... Read 2 B R 0 2 B Summary

A Brave And Startling Truth

By maya angelou.

... Read A Brave And Startling Truth Summary

A Day of Fallen Night

By samantha shannon.

... Read A Day of Fallen Night Summary

by William Faulkner

... Read A Fable Summary

A Flicker in the Dark

By stacy willingham.

... Read A Flicker in the Dark Summary

After Virtue

By alasdair macintyre.

An influential work of moral philosophy, After Virtue (1981) by the Scottish-born philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre takes a bleak view of the state of modern moral dialogue, viewing it as suffering from a lack of rational thought and an inability to resolve disagreements. By looking at older forms of moral discourse, such as Aristotle’s moral framework, and comparing them to the modern version, he generally finds the modern moral framework to be lacking and suggests fixes ... Read After Virtue Summary

by Supriya Kelkar

... Read Ahimsa Summary

Alas, Babylon

By pat frank.

Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by Pat Frank. Written during the Cold War, it is one of the earliest post-apocalyptic novels to deal with the potential consequences of nuclear war. It examines themes of nationalism, natural selection, deterrent force, and resilience.Plot SummaryAs the novel begins, Mark Bragg sends a telegram to his brother, Randy. The telegram includes the words, “Alas, Babylon,” their code for the onset of a nuclear attack. Mark is an officer ... Read Alas, Babylon Summary

All You Zombies

By robert a. heinlein.

First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, the classic science fiction short story “All You Zombies—” (1959) explores an unusual paradox involving transsexual time travel: What if you undergo sexual reassignment surgery, go back in time, have an affair with your younger self, and become your own parent? The story became an award-winning 2014 science fiction film, Predestination. The 2012 eBook edition of the original story is the basis for this study guide. The ... Read All You Zombies Summary

A Midsummer Night's Dream

By william shakespeare.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedic play by William Shakespeare that was likely first written and performed around 1600. The first certifiably recorded performance took place in 1604. Set in the Greek city-state of Athens, the play centers on an impending marriage. Before the wedding, the characters find themselves in a forest where a group of fairies manipulates and tricks them. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and most performed ... Read A Midsummer Night's Dream Summary

An Economic Theory of Democracy

By anthony downs.

... Read An Economic Theory of Democracy Summary

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

By john locke.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke is a study of how humans think, learn, and retain knowledge. Scholars often focus first on Locke’s philosophical treatises, but his work on epistemology complements and shapes his political thought. Born in 1632, the English philosopher ushered in the Age of Enlightenment and is considered one of the greatest Western philosophers in history. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, first published in 1690, explores the origin and nature ... Read An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Summary

An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

By john dryden.

... Read An Essay of Dramatic Poesy Summary

Angel Of Greenwood

By randi pink.

... Read Angel Of Greenwood Summary

An Outpost Of Progress

By joseph conrad.

In “An Outpost of Progress,” Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), a Ukrainian-born Polish-British novelist and short story writer, presents a disturbing psychological case study centered on the struggle between good and evil in the hearts and souls of two white traders dispatched to a remote corner of Africa to oversee a trading station along the Congo River. The story probes how easily the heart can lose its moral and ethical bearings amid the oppressive emptiness of the ... Read An Outpost Of Progress Summary

by Sylvia Plath

... Read Ariel Summary

Around the World in Eighty Days

By jules verne.

Around the World in Eighty Days is from the Extraordinary Voyages series published in 1872 by French Victorian author Jules Verne. Recognized as an early example of the science fiction genre, the novel blends scientific content with artistic style. Verne is well known for writing adventure novels that accurately portray the use of complex travel-related technology developed during the Industrial Revolution such as steam engines and railways. His novels, at the same time, incorporate artistic ... Read Around the World in Eighty Days Summary

A Shadow in the Ember

By jennifer l. armentrout.

... Read A Shadow in the Ember Summary

A Sicilian Romance

By ann radcliffe.

... Read A Sicilian Romance Summary

by Aimé Césaire

Une Tempête, or A Tempest, is Aimé Césaire’s modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The play was first published in French in 1969 by Éditions de Seuil (Paris). A Tempest was performed in France, as well as in different countries in Africa and the Middle East and in the West Indies. Richard Miller translated the play into English in 1985, and the play premiered in America in 1991, at the Ubu Repertory Theater in ... Read A Tempest Summary

A Thousand Steps into Night

By traci chee.

... Read A Thousand Steps into Night Summary

Atomic Habits

By james clear.

James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones is a guide to adopting good behaviors through incremental changes to your everyday routines. Avery first published the book in 2018, and this guide refers to the ebook edition. The book has unique pagination, with the page numbers beginning again at the start of each new chapter. Clear likely numbered his book this way because of his emphasis ... Read Atomic Habits Summary

At the Mountains of Madness

By h. p. lovecraft.

At the Mountains of Madness is a science-fiction novella written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1931 and published in Astounding Stories in 1936. Like much of Lovecraft’s work, it also helped establish the genre of cosmic horror, or what Lovecraft called “weird fiction”: horror that relies on existential anxieties about humanity’s place in the universe to achieve its effects. The story involves a research team discovering an ancient city buried beneath the Antarctic. At the ... Read At the Mountains of Madness Summary

Aubade with Burning City

By ocean vuong.

... Read Aubade with Burning City Summary

by Jeff VanderMeer

... Read Authority Summary

A World In Disarray

By richard haass.

A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order is a nonfiction book by Richard Haass, published in 2017, that deals with foreign relations from an American perspective. Haass is a longtime diplomat who served several administrations from the 1980s to the 2000s. He was a special assistant to President George H. W. Bush, and as an official in the State Department, he was a close advisor to Colin Powell ... Read A World In Disarray Summary

Between Walls

By william carlos williams.

... Read Between Walls Summary

by Josh Malerman

Bird Box is a 2014 post-apocalyptic horror novel by Josh Malerman. The story follows a woman’s struggle to protect two children in a world where people are driven to violence by unseen monsters, touching on such themes as paranoia, raising children to deal with an uncertain future, and the dangers of exceptionalism. Bird Box won a Michigan Notable Book Award and was also nominated for the James Herbert Award as well as the Bram Stoker ... Read Bird Box Summary

Blood Meridian

By cormac mccarthy.

Blood Meridian, a 1985 novel by Cormac McCarthy, is one of the most celebrated works of modern American literature. The novel was inspired by people and events of the mid-19th century in the borderlands of the United States and Mexico. McCarthy’s works have won many honors including the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. Blood Meridian is often considered his greatest novel. This guide uses an eBook version of the 1992 First Vintage International edition ... Read Blood Meridian Summary

Bridge of Clay

By markus zusak.

... Read Bridge of Clay Summary

by Albert Camus

... Read Caligula Summary

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

By joseph alois schumpeter.

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy is a work of economics and political theory by Austrian born economist Joseph A. Schumpeter, originally published in 1942. Schumpeter argues that capitalism, where private, for-profit ownership controls a nation’s industry, will be eventually replaced by socialism, an economic system based on the public, state ownership of industry. However, he disagrees with German philosopher Karl Marx. Unlike Marx, Schumpeter does not believe the shift to socialism will come about due to ... Read Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy Summary

by Joseph Heller

Catch-22 is a 1961 satirical novel by Joseph Heller, whose experiences in the US Air Force during World War II inspired the narrative. The novel is set during World War II and portrays the absurd experiences of a group of Army pilots stationed in Italy. In addition to being hailed as one of the most seminal novels of the 20th century, Catch-22 has become an idiomatic expression for a certain kind of conundrum, a paradoxical ... Read Catch-22 Summary

Chaos: Making a New Science

By james gleick.

... Read Chaos: Making a New Science Summary

City of God

By e. l. doctorow.

E. L. Doctorow’s 2000 novel City of God is a postmodern, metafictional novel of religious questioning that attempts to reconcile the history of the 20th century, particularly the Holocaust, with modern conceptions of morality and God. The novel is structured as a fragmented writer’s notebook written by a character loosely based on Doctorow himself. The plot, which concerns a stolen cross and an Episcopalian priest’s doubts about his faith, is rendered through the mediated lens ... Read City of God Summary

by James Ponti

... Read City Spies Summary

Cloud Atlas

By david c. mitchell.

Cloud Atlas is a 2004 novel by British author David Mitchell. The sprawling narrative is composed of a series of nested stories, spanning centuries into the past and the future. In addition to winning numerous literary and science fiction awards, the novel was adapted into a 2012 film of the same name. This guide uses the 2014 Sceptre edition of Cloud Atlas.Content Warning: The novel and this guide depict slavery and discuss racism, death by ... Read Cloud Atlas Summary

Compromise of 1850

By henry clay.

... Read Compromise of 1850 Summary

Culture and Anarchy

By matthew arnold.

... Read Culture and Anarchy Summary

by Robert M. Sapolsky

... Read Determined Summary

Diary of a Madman

Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" was first published in China in 1918, during a period of significant cultural and political upheaval in the country. The Qin dynasty, in power since 1644, had recently collapsed from internal and external pressures in the 1912 Xinhai Revolution, marking a dramatic break from the past. New ideas about government, philosophy, and science prompted many Chinese intellectuals to reflect on long-held traditions and look toward a rebirth of the ... Read Diary of a Madman Summary

Doctor Sleep

By stephen king.

Doctor Sleep is a 2013 horror novel by Stephen King. It is a sequel to the events that occurred in King’s popular novel The Shining and features the return of Danny Torrance. Decades after the horrors at the Overlook Hotel, Dan Torrance must now reckon with the renewed threat of the spirits. When the novel begins, the dead woman from the Overlook’s Room 217 has returned and threatens Danny in his bathroom. King uses this ... Read Doctor Sleep Summary

by Bram Stoker

Dracula is a gothic novel by Bram Stoker published in 1897. Stoker tells the story of the fight against the vampire Dracula in an epistolary format. The story comprises various letters, telegrams, journal entries, and newspaper articles written by the main characters. Dracula explores the classic theme of good versus evil, but the novel also illuminates the relationships between religion and reason, the East and the West, the modern age versus the old world, and ... Read Dracula Summary

Dragonfly in Amber

By diana gabaldon.

... Read Dragonfly in Amber Summary

Einstein's Dreams

By alan lightman.

Einstein’s Dreams (1993) by Alan Lightman is a best-selling novel that explores the intersection of art and science, and the nature of time. The novel imagines the dreams of a fictionalized version of Albert Einstein to explain various theories about time, leading up to Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity, which he formed while working as a patent clerk and starting a family in Berne, Switzerland.Each chapter of the novel features a dream that exemplifies ... Read Einstein's Dreams Summary

by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Everybody, a one-act play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, premiered Off-Broadway in 2017 at the Signature Theatre and was first published in 2018. It is a modern retelling of Everyman, the most well-known and anthologized example of a medieval morality play, which was adapted from a Dutch play by an anonymous 15th century English writer. Morality plays first appeared in the 12th century, evolving from the Catholic Church’s cycle plays and liturgical dramas, which reenacted biblical scenes ... Read Everybody Summary

Every Day Is for the Thief

By teju cole.

Nigerian author Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief is a work of autofiction originally published in Nigeria in 2007 and published in the US in 2014. The novel unfolds in picaresque style from the first-person perspective, as a narrator who closely resembles the author returns to Nigeria after 15 years in the US to reckon with Nigerian national identity and his own legacy. Surprised to find that he feels less comfortable in his ... Read Every Day Is for the Thief Summary

Fire and Ice

By robert frost.

... Read Fire and Ice Summary

Fooled By Randomness

By nassim nicholas taleb.

... Read Fooled By Randomness Summary

From Beirut to Jerusalem

By thomas l. friedman.

From Beirut to Jerusalem is a 1990 memoir by news correspondent and war journalist Thomas L. Friedman. It tracks his journey from Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, to Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine and Israel, reflecting on the perils and distortions of truth that he encountered while trying to relay truthful information about the two states to the world. Despite popular portrayals of the Israel-Lebanese conflict, which depict both states as sparring over fundamental incompatibilities ... Read From Beirut to Jerusalem Summary

by Louis Sachar

In Newbery medalist Louis Sachar’s sci-fi thriller Fuzzy Mud (2015), Tamaya and Marshall cut through the restricted woods behind their school to avoid a bully—but encounter a strange mud that has the potential to destroy nearly all life on Earth. While Marshall struggles with the emotional effects of being bullied, Tamaya develops an unusually aggressive rash from the mud and worries that in protecting Marshall she has gravely injured Chad. Each character faces difficult ethical ... Read Fuzzy Mud Summary

Galapagos is a 1985 novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut. The novel’s narrator is the long-dead Leon Trout, a ghost who watched the evolution of humanity of the course of a million years. The story explores the themes Nature Versus Nurture, Pacifism, and Regret.This guide uses an eBook version of the 1985 Dial Press edition.Content Warning: This novel depicts explicit acts of violence and refers to death by suicide.Plot SummaryLeon Trout, the story’s narrator, is ... Read Galapagos Summary

Getting Things Done

By david allen.

... Read Getting Things Done Summary

Ghost Story

By peter straub.

... Read Ghost Story Summary

Going Infinite

By michael lewis.

... Read Going Infinite Summary

by John David Anderson

... Read Granted Summary

by John Gardner

John Gardner’s 1971 novel Grendel is a retelling of the story of Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic poem from the 6th century, from the perspective of the villain, the monster Grendel. In Grendel, the monster Grendel is an anti-hero, challenging the conventions of traditionally heroic behavior as he tries to understand the world in which he lives. In 1982, an animated Australian film adaptation of the novel called Grendel Grendel Grendel was released in major cities ... Read Grendel Summary

by Maggie O’Farrell

... Read Hamnet Summary

by Thomas Harris

Hannibal is a 1999 novel by American author Thomas Harris. The novel is the third entry in Harris's Hannibal Lecter series, following Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. In this novel, Lecter has escaped custody and fled to Florence, where he is tracked by Clarice Starling and other, more nefarious figures. The novel was adapted into a 2001 film, and elements of the plot were used for the television series of the same ... Read Hannibal Summary

Having It Out with Melancholy

By jane kenyon.

... Read Having It Out with Melancholy Summary

by J. G. Ballard

... Read High-Rise Summary

Homeric Hymns

By anonymous.

... Read Homeric Hymns Summary

House Made of Dawn

By n. scott momaday.

The novel House Made of Dawn, by N. Scott Momaday, was first published in 1968. Heralded as a major landmark in the emergence of Indigenous American literature, the novel won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. House Made of Dawn blends fictional and nonfictional elements to depict life on an Indigenous American reservation like the one where Momaday grew up.This guide uses an eBook version of the 2018 First Harper Perennial Modern Classics (50th Anniversary) ... Read House Made of Dawn Summary

How Civil Wars Start

By barbara f. walter.

... Read How Civil Wars Start Summary

In a Station of the Metro

By ezra pound.

... Read In a Station of the Metro Summary

Invitation to a Beheading

By vladimir nabokov.

Invitation to a Beheading is a 1938 novel by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov, and the penultimate novel Nabokov wrote in his native Russian before transitioning to English. This guide uses the 1965 Capricorn Books edition, based on the 1959 English version, translated by Dmitri Nabokov with help from his father, Vladimir. Plot SummaryCincinnatus C. has been arrested and imprisoned by the government in the unnamed country in which he resides. Cincinnatus has been found guilty ... Read Invitation to a Beheading Summary

I Will Put Chaos Into Fourteen Lines

By edna st. vincent millay.

... Read I Will Put Chaos Into Fourteen Lines Summary

by Carl Sandburg

... Read Languages Summary

by Ottessa Moshfegh

... Read Lapvona Summary

by Ursula K. Le Guin

... Read Lavinia Summary

Leading Change

By john p. kotter.

... Read Leading Change Summary

Leave the World Behind

By rumaan alam.

Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind (2020) is a work of apocalyptic fiction that examines the relationship between race and class during an unspecified disaster that cuts off all communication, forcing two families together. The book uses omniscient narration and interpersonal conflict to heighten the fear of disconnection in the Information Age, treating the apocalypse as an event that happens on a human scale. Published to great acclaim, it has been longlisted for the National ... Read Leave the World Behind Summary

by Yann Martel

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a Canadian philosophical novel and Booker Prize winner published in 2001. Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 to French-Canadian parents but spent his childhood in various countries including Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada. Martel’s father was a diplomat who completed his PhD dissertation on Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno at the University of Salamanca. Yann Martel studied philosophy at Trent University in Canada before becoming a ... Read Life of Pi Summary

London, 1802

By william wordsworth.

... Read London, 1802 Summary

by Samuel Johnson

... Read London Summary

by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s novel MaddAddam, published in 2013, completes her post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy that begins with Oryx and Crake (2003) and continues with The Year of the Flood (2009). The trilogy takes place in the aftermath of a destroyed technological dystopia, a world in which corporations have totalitarian control. Atwood, an award-winning Canadian author, has been a prolific writer of poetry, short stories, novels, and many other forms since the early 1960s. She is known for ... Read MaddAddam Summary

Maps of Meaning

By jordan b. peterson.

... Read Maps of Meaning Summary

Measure What Matters

By john doerr.

... Read Measure What Matters Summary

Meditations on First Philosophy

By rené descartes.

Meditations on First Philosophy is a philosophical treatise by René Descartes. Originally published in Latin in 1641, the text would go on to influence European and global philosophical traditions. In this work, Descartes argues for the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Two of its major contributions to philosophy are mind/body dualism and the famous phrase “I think, therefore, I am.” The book comprises six meditations wherein Descartes seeks to doubt all ... Read Meditations on First Philosophy Summary

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a nonfiction book by Michael Lewis published in 2003 by W. W. Norton. Lewis holds a master’s degree in economics and made his writing debut with the acclaimed Liar’s Poker (1989), based on his experience working for the investment bank Salomon Brothers. This background prepared him for Moneyball, a book about how statistics is applied to baseball in a method known as sabermetrics. A movie adaptation ... Read Moneyball Summary

by Ada Limón

... Read Mowing Summary

Much Madness is divinest Sense—

By emily dickinson.

... Read Much Madness is divinest Sense— Summary

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

... Read Mutability Summary

Naked Lunch

By william s. burroughs.

Naked Lunch is a 1959 novel by American author William. S. Burroughs. In it, Lee, a heroin user, looks to escape New York to avoid arrest by the police. He thus embarks on a journey through Philadelphia and Mexico before arriving in the fictional state of Freeland, where all life is well-ordered and hygienic. Following a riot in a Freeland psychological reconditioning center, however, Lee flees to the strange and fantastical city of Interzone. There ... Read Naked Lunch Summary

Never Never

By colleen hoover, tarryn fisher.

... Read Never Never Summary

New from Here

By kelly yang.

... Read New from Here Summary

Nights at the Circus

By angela carter.

Nights at the Circus is an adult fantasy novel by British author Angela Carter first published in 1984. It takes place in 1899 and follows protagonist Jack Walser, a journalist investigating the mystery of Sophie Fevvers, a part-woman, part-swan who performs as an aeraliste at the popular Colonel Kearney’s circus. The book was critically acclaimed upon publication and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 1984, as well as a nomination for ... Read Nights at the Circus Summary

Odds Against Tomorrow

By nathaniel rich.

... Read Odds Against Tomorrow Summary

Oil on Water

By helon habila.

Oil on Water is a 2010 novel by Helon Habila, who originally worked as a journalist and poet in Nigeria before becoming a professor of creative writing at George Mason. His writing has earned many accolades, including the Music Society of Nigeria national poetry award, the 2001 Caine Prize, the 2003 Commonweath Writers Prize, the 2008 Emily Balch Prize, and the 2015 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. Oil on Water is his third novel, and foregrounds ... Read Oil on Water Summary

One Dark Window

By rachel gillig.

... Read One Dark Window Summary

On Justice Power and Human Nature

By transl. paul woodruff, thucydides.

... Read On Justice Power and Human Nature Summary

On the Origin of Species

By charles darwin.

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (published in 1859) is a seminal work in evolutionary biology of great historical and scientific importance. Darwinian thought, especially regarding evolution, is now commonly accepted as the most powerful theory in biology and the natural history of species—and the system of natural selection that this theory advanced has been applied (and misappropriated) ... Read On the Origin of Species Summary

On the Soul

By aristotle.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was an important ancient Greek philosopher whose work embraced politics, ethics, and metaphysics. The title of his treatise On the Soul (sometimes known by its Latin title De Anima) suggests it is a seminal work on the process of understanding human beings. For Aristotle, “soul” denotes the life principle in plants, animals, and humans, and is thus a more biological and psychological than a spiritual concept. Some scholars believe that On the ... Read On the Soul Summary

Orphan Island

By laurel snyder.

... Read Orphan Island Summary

Out of the Silent Planet

By c. s. lewis.

Published in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet is a science fiction novel by author C. S. Lewis, best known for his bestselling fantasy children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia. It is the first book in Lewis’s Space Trilogy, followed by Perelandra (1943) and That Hideous Strength (1945). With Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis sought to write a narrative that differed from contemporary popular science fiction, which he believed promoted harmful ideas like human ... Read Out of the Silent Planet Summary

Parallel Myths

By j. f. bierlein.

... Read Parallel Myths Summary

by Blaise Pascal

... Read Pensées Summary

Pericles, Funeral Oration

By thucydides.

... Read Pericles, Funeral Oration Summary

Pickwick Papers

By charles dickens.

The debut novel of British author Charles Dickens, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (commonly known as The Pickwick Papers) was first published as a series by Chapman and Hall between 1836 and 1837. The Pickwick Papers chronicles the adventures of the members of the Pickwick Club, a group of travelers who journey around England and share their experiences. Because of the original serial format of the novel, the chapters contain individual but interconnected ... Read Pickwick Papers Summary

Picnic at Hanging Rock

By joan lindsay.

... Read Picnic at Hanging Rock Summary

Planetarium

By adrienne rich.

... Read Planetarium Summary

Politics by Aristotle is a study of political theories and approaches written in the fourth century BCE. Politics serves as a companion to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. In Politics, Aristotle builds a case in response to Plato’s Republic. Aristotle argues that the purpose of a city is to contribute to the common good, creating a framework for individuals to pursue happiness through virtue. The philosopher and scientist gathered data on 158 different cities before writing his ... Read Politics Summary

by William James

Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907) is a philosophical work by the American philosopher and psychologist William James. It consists of eight lectures originally delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston and at Columbia University in New York. James is closely associated with the philosophy of pragmatism, originally formulated by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, and this book is considered the major statement of the ideas and principles of ... Read Pragmatism Summary

by Mike Glover

... Read Prepared Summary

Rain, Rain, Go Away

By isaac asimov.

... Read Rain, Rain, Go Away Summary

Redhead by the Side of the Road

By anne tyler.

... Read Redhead by the Side of the Road Summary

The Tragedy of King Richard II is a play by William Shakespeare. It was probably first performed in 1595, and published in 1597. The play covers the last two years of Richard II’s life, from 1398 to 1400, during which he was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV in 1399. The play explores Richard’s growing unpopularity and ineffective leadership, leading to his overthrow by Bolingbroke, who not only has a taste for power ... Read Richard II Summary

Richard III

Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare written between 1592 and 1594. It is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and his second longest. The play depicts the rise of King Richard III of England, also known as Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Shakespeare portrays Richard as a Machiavellian tyrant who uses lies and violence to unjustly seize the throne during a politically turbulent period of England’s history known as the Wars of the Roses ... Read Richard III Summary

Rise to Globalism

By stephen e. ambrose, douglas brinkley.

... Read Rise to Globalism Summary

by Emma Donoghue

IntroductionEmma Donoghue’s Room is a 2010 novel about a boy named Jack who lives in a single room with his mother, Ma. Room is a crime thriller novel that explores themes of trauma, innocence, and adaptability through the eyes of five-year-old narrator, Jack. Room has received many awards, including the ALA Alex Award, the Indies Choice Book Award for Fiction, and The New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year award. Room was ... Read Room Summary

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

By tom stoppard.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a three-act play by the English playwright Tom Stoppard. It is an existentialist, absurdist satire featuring characters and events from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. First performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead enjoyed critical success, winning The New York Drama Critics’ Circle’s Award for Best Play and four Tony Awards in 1968. Since then, the play has been adapted into several radio plays and a ... Read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Summary

by Ian McEwan

Saturday is a novel by Ian McEwan, first published in 2005 by Jonathan Cape. Ian McEwan is an acclaimed British author who has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. In Saturday, McEwan delves into the inner life of a single individual, Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon living in London. The novel takes place over the course of a single day, February 15, 2003, against the ... Read Saturday Summary

Sea of Tranquility

By emily st. john mandel.

... Read Sea of Tranquility Summary

Shadows of Self

By brandon sanderson.

... Read Shadows of Self Summary

by Hugh Howey

... Read Shift Summary

Shooting an Elephant

By george orwell.

“Shooting an Elephant,” is an essay by British author George Orwell, first published in the magazine New Writing in 1936. Orwell, born Eric Blair, is world-renowned for his sociopolitical commentary. He served as a British officer in Burma from 1922 to 1927, then worked as a journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and essayist for the remainder of his career, going on to produce celebrated works such as Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). Before penning this ... Read Shooting an Elephant Summary

by Raina Telgemeier

... Read Sisters Summary

Sofia Petrovna

By lydia chukovskaya.

... Read Sofia Petrovna Summary

Sophie's World

By jostein gaarder.

Sophie's World is a young adult book by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder. The book follows main character Sophie, a young girl who is fourteen years old and living with her parents in Norway. Sophie's life changes dramatically when she receives a series of strange postcards, which ask her large, existential questions about the world around her. Each day, Sophie receives a postcard, and in the evenings she receives a package from a man named Alberto ... Read Sophie's World Summary

Spring and All

... Read Spring and All Summary

by Stuart Gibbs

... Read Spy School Summary

Starry Messenger

By neil degrasse tyson.

... Read Starry Messenger Summary

by Anna Funder

Stasiland, by Anna Funder, originally published in 2002, is the true account of life in East Germany during the Communist regime, from 1949 to 1990. It tells the stories of those who resisted and engaged in what has been called the most perfected surveillance state of all time.First, Funder visits Leipzig, Germany, to meet with Miriam Weber, a woman who was arrested by the Stasi, brutally interrogated, and who later tried to escape over the ... Read Stasiland Summary

Steelheart, a 2013 young adult sci-fi/fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson, is the first installment of The Reckoners trilogy. The story takes place in dystopian Chicago, dubbed “Newcago,” which is overrun by evil superhumans called Epics and ruled by a functionally invulnerable tyrant named Steelheart. David Charleston, an 18-year-old boy whose father Steelheart killed 10 years before, joins a rebel group called the Reckoners hoping that they will help him take revenge on Steelheart. Borrowing elements ... Read Steelheart Summary

Surviving the Applewhites

By stephanie s. tolan.

Surviving the Applewhites is the 2002 children’s novel written by American author Stephanie S. Tolan. Set in rural North Carolina, the story tells of 13-year-old Jake Sempler, a wayward juvenile delinquent who is sent away after inadvertently burning down his school. When he’s forced to live with an eccentric family of artists called the Applewhites, Jake struggles to fit in at first. However, through an unlikely bond he forms with E.D., the Applewhite’s underappreciated 12-year-old ... Read Surviving the Applewhites Summary

The Age Of Miracles

By karen thompson walker.

Published in 2012, Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles is a bildungsroman science fiction novel. Set in modern-day California, “the slowing” is the term used to describe the mysterious phenomenon of Earth’s rotation gradually decelerating. Humanity must face drastic environmental issues, such as increased days of sunlight, and this serves as the dystopian backdrop to the coming-of-age story of 11-year-old protagonist, Julia.The Age of Miracles opens just as “the slowing” begins and is told ... Read The Age Of Miracles Summary

The Anomaly

By hervé le tellier, transl. adriana hunter.

... Read The Anomaly Summary

The Atlas Paradox

By olivie blake.

... Read The Atlas Paradox Summary

The Awakening

By kate chopin.

The Awakening is Kate Chopin’s second novel. It was first published in 1899 and is considered one of the first examples of feminist fiction.The novel opens in the 1890s Louisiana, at Grand Isle, a summer holiday resort popular among wealthy Creoles who live in nearby New Orleans. Edna Pontellier, her husband, Léonce, and their two children are vacationing at the cottages of Madame Lebrun. Léonce is a kind and devoted husband, but he is often ... Read The Awakening Summary

The Bacchae

By euripides.

The Bacchae is an ancient Athenian tragedy by Euripides. The play is generally believed to have been staged (with Iphigenia at Aulis and another play) in 405 BCE by the poet’s son after his father’s death in 407-6 and to have won first prize. The production took place in Athens at the City Dionysia, a festival in honor of Dionysus. Set in Thebes, the play depicts Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) returning to his mother’s ... Read The Bacchae Summary

The Bald Soprano

By eugène ionesco.

La Cantatrice Chauve, translated to The Bald Soprano in English, is a 1950 absurdist play by Eugène Ionesco and a seminal work of the Theatre of the Absurd movement. Ionesco was famously inspired to write the play while learning English from an Assimil language primer, in which cliché English characters having artificial conversations and reciting basic facts of life soon began to take on absurd philosophical meaning for the playwright. The Bald Soprano was Ionesco’s ... Read The Bald Soprano Summary

The Birth of Tragedy

By friedrich nietzsche.

The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music is a work of dramatic theory and cultural criticism by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). It was originally published in 1872 as Nietzsche’s first work, and later rereleased in 1886 under the title The Birth of Tragedy, or Hellenism and Pessimism. Nietzsche argues that Greek tragedy is born out of the merger between Apollonian and Dionysian perspectives. Nietzsche first differentiates between these two worldviews ... Read The Birth of Tragedy Summary

The Black Death

By philip ziegler.

... Read The Black Death Summary

The Blackstone Rangers

By gwendolyn brooks.

... Read The Blackstone Rangers Summary

The Blazing World

By margaret cavendish.

... Read The Blazing World Summary

The Blithedale Romance

By nathaniel hawthorne.

... Read The Blithedale Romance Summary

The Blue Hotel

By stephen crane.

“The Blue Hotel” is an 1898 short story by American author Stephen Crane, a pioneer of Naturalism and Expressionism in the American literary canon. Originally published in two parts in the magazine Collier’s Weekly, “The Blue Hotel” was subsequently released in Crane’s 1899 collection The Monster and Other Stories. In telling the story of a murder that unfolds in a remote Nebraska town, it explores themes of Isolation and Its Impact on the Human Psyche ... Read The Blue Hotel Summary

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” is a short story by American author Stephen Crane. Published in 1898, the story parodies tropes of old westerns and addresses the themes of the death of the Old West, domesticity, and masculinity. The story details the journey of Jack Potter, marshal of the small town of Yellow Sky, as he brings his new bride from the East back to his home in Texas on the Western frontier. Once ... Read The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky Summary

The Bronze Horseman

By alexander pushkin.

The Bronze Horseman: A Saint Petersburg Story is a narrative poem by 19th-century Russian poet, dramatist, and novelist Alexander Pushkin, who is considered Russia’s greatest poet. It was written in 1833, but was not published until 1841, after Pushkin’s death due to censorship of Pushkin’s works by the Russian government.Regarded as one of Pushkin’s most accomplished works, The Bronze Horseman has had a marked influence on Russian literature. The poem tells of the founding of Saint ... Read The Bronze Horseman Summary

The Call of Cthulhu

... Read The Call of Cthulhu Summary

The Catbird Seat

By james thurber.

When the story begins, a man named Erwin Martin, who never smokes, is buying cigarettes. Mr. Martin works for a company called F & S, where he is in charge of the filing department. Mr. Martin has already been contemplating—and planning—the murder of a coworker for over a week. Two years prior, a woman named Ulgine Barrows joined F & S, where she quickly proposed changes to the department—changes that Mr. Martin finds intolerable.Later, as ... Read The Catbird Seat Summary

The Circle Game

... Read The Circle Game Summary

The City and the City

By china miéville.

China Miéville’s The City and the City, originally published in 2009, is a hybrid of two distinct genres—speculative fiction and detective fiction—that explores the human susceptibility to fear and the erection of borders as a response to that fear. Other themes examined in the novel are political corruption, violence inspired by far-right politics, and the allure of myths. The City and the City is the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the World Fantasy ... Read The City and the City Summary

The Collapse of Western Civilization

By naomi oreskes.

... Read The Collapse of Western Civilization Summary

The Competitive Advantage Of Nations

By michael e. porter.

The Competitive Advantage of Nations is a 1990 work of economics by American author Michael E. Porter, a Harvard Business School professor and expert in corporate competitive strategy whose influential works are frequently cited in business and economics. In this book, Porter dismantles traditional economic theories about how well a nation fares in global competition (factor costs and macro-economic policy) and proposes a model that focuses on active and malleable factors of business rather than ... Read The Competitive Advantage Of Nations Summary

The Crying of Lot 49

By thomas pynchon.

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) is a short novel by Thomas Pynchon that handles topics related to the US counterculture movement and the 1960s at large. In the novel, Oedipa Maas unearths a centuries-old conspiracy about warring mail-delivery firms. This discovery leads her along an absurdist investigation of the firms and their motivations. The novel has been heralded as one of the best English-language novels of the 20th century and is considered a primary ... Read The Crying of Lot 49 Summary

The Daily Stoic

By ryan holiday, stephen hanselman.

... Read The Daily Stoic Summary

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

By edward gibbon.

... Read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Summary

The Door of No Return

By kwame alexander.

... Read The Door of No Return Summary

The Drawing of the Three

... Read The Drawing of the Three Summary

The Dunwich Horror

... Read The Dunwich Horror Summary

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

By karl marx.

... Read The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Summary

The Elegant Universe

By brian greene.

... Read The Elegant Universe Summary

The Ersatz Elevator

By lemony snicket.

... Read The Ersatz Elevator Summary

The Eyes Have It

By philip k. dick.

... Read The Eyes Have It Summary

by John Grisham

The Firm is a legal thriller by author John Grisham. The Firm is Grisham’s second novel, and the first to bring him widespread fame as the number one novel of 1991 on the New York Times bestseller list. The novel was made into a feature film in 1993 directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Tom Cruise. In 2012, The Firm was made into a television series that enjoyed a single season on NBC that portrayed ... Read The Firm Summary

by Aristophanes

Frogs is an ancient Athenian comic play by Aristophanes (446-386 B.C.E.). It was first performed in 405 B.C.E. for the Lenaia, an annual sacred festival held in January in honor of the god Dionysus. According to ancient sources, Frogs (which won first prize) was held in such high regard that it was honored with a second production, an unusual event since comedies and tragedies were produced for competition at sacred festivals and rarely staged again ... Read The Frogs Summary

by Naomi Alderman

... Read The Future Summary

The Girl Before

By jp delaney.

The Girl Before is a 2016 novel by JP Delaney. The thriller is told from the perspectives of two women, Emma and Jane. Emma is the previous tenant and Jane the current tenant of One Folgate Street, an austere London flat built by the charming Edward Monkford, a leading innovative architect. As the narrative goes back and forth from the past to the present, mystery builds around the circumstances of Emma’s death, until Jane discovers ... Read The Girl Before Summary

The Glass Castle

By jeannette walls.

The Glass Castle is a nonfiction memoir published in 2005 by the American journalist Jeannette Walls. The book chronicles Walls and her three siblings’ nomadic and impoverished upbringing by their severely maladjusted parents. An enormous critical and popular success, The Glass Castle remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for 260 weeks in hardcover and 440 weeks in paperback. In 2017, director Destin Daniel Cretton adapted the book into a film starring Brie ... Read The Glass Castle Summary

The Golden Compass

By philip pullman.

Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, originally titled Northern Lights in the UK, is a young adult fantasy novel that follows 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua with her dæmon, Pantalaimon (Pan), a spiritual animal counterpart. They travel north from an alternate version of Oxford to find her friend, Roger, with the help of the gyptians, witches, and Iorek, the armored bear. Along the way, Lyra confronts unimaginable horrors, like children being severed from their dæmons by Mrs. Coultier’s ... Read The Golden Compass Summary

The Goldfinch

By donna tartt.

Donna Tartt’s 2013 novel, The Goldfinch, was a national best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. It follows the life of Theo Decker from his early teens into his late twenties. The novel is told in five parts and begins when Theo is hiding out in a hotel room in Amsterdam as an adult. It moves back in time and finally makes a circle back to his adulthood, explaining the reason for his stay ... Read The Goldfinch Summary

The Grand Inquisitor

By fyodor dostoevsky.

“The Grand Inquisitor” is an embedded narrative, or a story within a story, contained in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov. In the novel, “The Grand Inquisitor” is a prose poem composed by the character Ivan Karamazov. Its fictional author, who writes this poem in an increasing state of despair, recites this work to his younger brother, the novice monk Alyosha. “The Grand Inquisitor” imagines Jesus Christ coming to Seville at the time of ... Read The Grand Inquisitor Summary

The Great Divorce

C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, first published in serial form in 1945 and as a novel the following year, explores an unnamed narrator’s experiences in Heaven and Hell. Although Lewis is best known for his contribution to children’s literature in The Chronicles of Narnia series, he also wrote many works of adult fiction and nonfiction. Almost all of his published work is either explicitly or implicitly religious in nature; many of his nonfiction works are ... Read The Great Divorce Summary

The House of the Spirits

By isabel allende.

The House of the Spirits (1982) is Chilean writer Isabel Allende’s debut novel. The family saga follows the journey of the Trueba family across three generations. Set in an unnamed Latin American country (widely believed to be Chile), the family’s journey is interwoven with the sociopolitical history of their nation and the events that unfold over the span of half a century.Isabel Allende is one of the world’s most widely read Spanish-language authors. First published ... Read The House of the Spirits Summary

The Interpretation of Cultures

By clifford geertz.

... Read The Interpretation of Cultures Summary

Journey to the West: Volume I

By wu cheng'en, transl. anthony c. yu.

The Journey to the West: Volume I (1983), translated and edited by Anthony C. Yu, contains the first 25 chapters of a 100-chapter hero’s epic, an allegory designed to impart knowledge on how to behave and what values to extol. Originally published in the late 16th century during the late Ming Dynasty, this epic is “loosely based on the famous pilgrimage of Xuanzang…the monk who went from China to India in quest of Buddhist scriptures” ... Read Journey to the West: Volume I Summary

The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark

By ridley pearson.

First published in 2005, Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark is a fantasy-adventure for middle-grade readers by Ridley Pearson. Young Finn Whitman and his fellow Disney Hosts each night turn into holograms who visit the Magic Kingdom, where they must defeat a cadre of evil Disney characters trying to break out of the park and take over the world. Winner of the Sunshine State Young Readers Award, the book is the first of more than a ... Read The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark Summary

The Kite Fighters

By linda sue park.

... Read The Kite Fighters Summary

The Knife of Never Letting Go

By patrick ness.

... Read The Knife of Never Letting Go Summary

The Last Man

By mary shelley.

... Read The Last Man Summary

The Last Question

... Read The Last Question Summary

The Library of Babel

By jorge luis borges.

“The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges is a short story that explores the search for meaning in life, the concept of the infinite, the power of knowledge, and the difference between the human and the divine. Borges is generally categorized as a Postmodern, metafictional, and experimental writer who played with the concept of narrative structure to critique the construction of reality. This work is firmly situated within the speculative fiction genre, weaving together ... Read The Library of Babel Summary

The Lies of Locke Lamora

By scott lynch.

The Lies of Locke Lamora, written by Scott Lynch and published in 2006, is the first entry in the Gentleman Bastards series. These novels mix caper stories and fantasy stories and include adventure, violence, dark humor, and intimate friendships. The Lies of Locke Lamora is an international best seller and was nominated for multiple awards. The other entries in the series are Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves, and The Thorn of ... Read The Lies of Locke Lamora Summary

The Logic of Scientific Discovery

By karl popper.

... Read The Logic of Scientific Discovery Summary

The Maidens

By alex michaelides.

... Read The Maidens Summary

The Maltese Falcon

By dashiell hammett.

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) is a detective novel that was first serialized in the magazine Black Mask. As Hammett’s third novel, The Maltese Falcon includes the introduction of Sam Spade as the protagonist, a departure from the nameless Continental Op who narrated his previous stories. Spade’s hard exterior, cool detachment, and reliance on his own moral code would become staples of the hardboiled genre, and The Maltese Falcon has since been named one ... Read The Maltese Falcon Summary

The Maze Runner

By james dashner.

The Maze Runner is a young adult novel set in a post-apocalyptic world. The story begins in a dark metal elevator, where a teenage boy awakens with no real memories other than the fact that his name is Thomas. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by teenage boys. Their leader, a boy named Alby, welcomes Thomas to the Glade. Thomas quickly sees that the Glade is surrounded by high ... Read The Maze Runner Summary

The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

By rod serling.

... Read The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street Summary

The Muqaddimah

By ibn khaldun.

... Read The Muqaddimah Summary

The Mysterious Island

... Read The Mysterious Island Summary

The Myth of the Eternal Return

By mircea eliade, transl. willard r. trask.

... Read The Myth of the Eternal Return Summary

The Only Plane in the Sky

By garrett m. graff.

... Read The Only Plane in the Sky Summary

The Origin of Others

By toni morrison.

... Read The Origin of Others Summary

The Outsider

... Read The Outsider Summary

The Patron Saint of Liars

By ann patchett.

The Patron Saint of Liars (1992) is Ann Patchett’s debut novel. Since its publication, Patchett has written seven more novels that feature multifaceted characters and plots that explore ambiguous moral dilemmas. These aspects of her work are present in The Patron Saint of Liars as well, which follows the story of Rose, a pregnant young woman who flees her unhappy marriage to live at a home for unwed mothers. The novel was a bestseller and ... Read The Patron Saint of Liars Summary

The People Could Fly

By virginia hamilton.

... Read The People Could Fly Summary

The Phantom Tollbooth

By norton juster.

In Norton Juster’s 1961 middle-grade fantasy adventure The Phantom Tollbooth, a bored young boy visits a magical land whose people suffer from a strange delusion and volunteers to find a source of wisdom that can heal them. The book is a touchstone for generations of young readers; it has sold nearly five million copies in more than a dozen languages and has been adapted for film, stage, and symphony hall. Author Juster published a dozen ... Read The Phantom Tollbooth Summary

The Premonition

... Read The Premonition Summary

The Ramayana

By r. k. narayan.

R. K. Narayan’s The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (Suggested by the Tamil Version of Kamban) was first published in 1972 by Viking Press. The epic story of Rama’s journey contains the teachings of ancient Hindu sages, and these teachings continue to have a major influence on Indian culture.The story of Rama stems from the tradition of bardic literature that was passed down orally through the generations across different regions ... Read The Ramayana Summary

The Republic

The Republic is a work written by ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BC) in 375 BC. In it, the central character Socrates talks with several other Greeks, including Plato’s brothers, about the nature of morality. The main question they ask is whether a moral life is its own reward. Does being moral intrinsically benefit people? In doing this, they also explore the nature of the ideal society. They look at the laws this society would ... Read The Republic Summary

There Will Come Soft Rains

By ray bradbury.

Published in 1950, “There Will Come Soft Rains” is among Ray Bradbury’s most well-known short stories. Bradbury is one of the 20th century’s most recognizable American authors, and his work helped propel science fiction and speculative fiction into mainstream literature. “There Will Come Soft Rains” contains themes of scientific advancement, nuclear proliferation, and mid-20th-century American domestic life. Originally published in Collier’s Magazine in May 1950, “There Will Come Soft Rains” was published later that year ... Read There Will Come Soft Rains Summary

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

By john mark comer.

... Read The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry Summary

The Samurai's Tale

By erik christian haugaard.

... Read The Samurai's Tale Summary

The Sea of Monsters

By rick riordan.

The Sea of Monsters (Miramax Books, 2006) is the second installment of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians fantasy adventure series for young readers. The book picks up the summer after the prequel, The Lightning Thief, ends and follows returning heroes Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase on a quest to save Camp Half Blood. The Sea of Monsters was a New York Times and Book Sense National Childrens bestseller, and it won such awards ... Read The Sea of Monsters Summary

The Second Coming

By william butler yeats.

“The Second Coming” is an allegorical poem that W. B. Yeats penned in 1919 and published in The Dial in 1920. The poem describes a declining, violent present and an impending apocalyptic future, marked by the approach of a sphinxlike monster. The poem is often considered an allegory for the fraught times Yeats was living in—namely, the end of World War I, the midst of the Spanish flu pandemic, and the beginning of the Irish ... Read The Second Coming Summary

Enuma Elish

By leonard william king, ed..

... Read Enuma Elish Summary

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

By frederick jackson turner.

... Read The Significance of the Frontier in American History Summary

The Singularity Is Near

By ray kurzweil.

... Read The Singularity Is Near Summary

The Spell of the Sensuous

By david abram.

... Read The Spell of the Sensuous Summary

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

By gabriel garcía márquez.

Gabriel García Márquez’s The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor was first published in Spain in 1970 under the title Relato de un naufrago (“story of a castaway”). The nonfiction work relates Luis Alejandro Velasco’s 10-day survival adrift on a raft in the Caribbean after being thrown overboard from his Colombian destroyer in rough seas. While there had been a censored, government-backed version of Velasco’s story that was publicized, the uncensored story was first published in ... Read The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor Summary

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights

By howard pyle.

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, written and illustrated by Howard Pyle, was originally published in 1903. Pyle’s Book 1s part of the Arthurian romance genre, which begins with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s introduction of the Arthur character in The History of the Kings of Britain, written in the twelfth century. The Arthurian, or chivalric, romance genre includes texts from many different eras and in many different languages. Pyle’s novel offers an American perspective ... Read The Story of King Arthur and His Knights Summary

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

By thomas kuhn.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) by Thomas Kuhn stands as a seminal work that revolutionized the philosophy of science. As a scholar who shifted his focus from physics to the history of science, and later to the philosophy of science, Kuhn challenged prevailing notions about the nature of scientific progress, introducing concepts such as paradigms, normal science, and scientific revolutions. Situated at the nexus of science, history, and philosophy, Kuhn’s work upended the view ... Read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Summary

The Tale of Sinuhe

By sinuhe, r.b. parkinson (translator).

... Read The Tale of Sinuhe Summary

The Talisman

By stephen king, peter straub.

The Talisman is a 1984 novel co-written by Stephen King and Peter Straub. It is a fantasy novel with horror elements and has connections to the works in King’s Dark Tower series. The Talisman is a road trip book that tells the story of Jack Sawyer and his quest to save his mother. The Talisman examines themes of lost innocence, coming of age, friendship, the corrupting nature of power, and more.The Talisman has a sequel ... Read The Talisman Summary

The Tell-Tale Brain

By v. s. ramachandran.

... Read The Tell-Tale Brain Summary

The Terrible Two

By mac barnett, jory john.

... Read The Terrible Two Summary

The Thirteenth Tale

By diane setterfield.

The Thirteenth Tale, written by Diane Setterfield, was published in 2006 by Emily Bestler Books/Washington Square Press. The book rose to #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list just one week after publication and won the Quill Award for debut author of the year. Before publishing this first book, Setterfield was an academic, specializing in 20th-century French literature. Since the publication of her first book, Setterfield has published two further books, Bellman & ... Read The Thirteenth Tale Summary

The Throne of Fire

... Read The Throne of Fire Summary

The Tragedy Of Great Power Politics

By john j. mearsheimer.

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The Truth About Forever

By sarah dessen.

The Truth About Forever (2004) is a young adult contemporary romance by Sarah Dessen. The novel follows Macy Queen, a teen girl struggling to heal from the tragic death of her father, only to find that the answers lie not in chasing perfection and control but embracing the unpredictable and chaotic joys of life. The Truth About Forever is Sarah Dessen’s sixth published novel and won the 2004 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Urban ... Read The Truth About Forever Summary

The Uses of Enchantment

By bruno bettelheim.

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (1976) won acclaims such as the US National Book Award and the National Book of Critics Circle Award. Its author, Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990), was an Austrian-born psychoanalyst and public intellectual who worked primarily in the United States. Bettelheim wrote The Uses of Enchantment to persuade parents and educators that the European fairy tale, with all its fantastical and violent content, was a greater aid ... Read The Uses of Enchantment Summary

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street

By karina yan glaser.

... Read The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street Summary

The Varieties of Religious Experience

The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Nature (1902) by William James is a philosophical examination of how religious revelations function in individuals’ lives and minds. This renowned work applies James’s theoretical framework of pragmatism to the study of the functionality of religion. James utilizes radical empiricism to examine both the subjective and objective experiences of religion. James argues that individual experiences, not major religious institutions, form the spiritual shape of the world. He ... Read The Varieties of Religious Experience Summary

The World on Turtle's Back

By iroquois creation myth.

... Read The World on Turtle's Back Summary

The World Without Us

By alan weisman.

... Read The World Without Us Summary

Think Like a Monk

By jay shetty.

... Read Think Like a Monk Summary

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None is a work of fiction written by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Published between 1883 and 1885, the allegorical novel also known as Thus Spake Zarathustra is a collection of speeches by a character named Zarathustra to the villagers of The Motley Cow. Nietzsche uses many literary devices such as personification, allegory, and allusion. The philosophical points referenced in Thus Spoke Zarathustra include the death of ... Read Thus Spoke Zarathustra Summary

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by Billy Collins

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To Kill a Kingdom

By alexandra christo.

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Under the Dome

A mysterious Dome—invisible, electrified, and impenetrable—descends over the town of Chester’s Mill, or, as it is known to the locals, The Mill. Even more bizarrely, the Dome contours exactly to the borders of this small town in Maine. In Stephen King’s expansive novel Under the Dome, he investigates what happens when a town is cut off from the larger world, held captive not only by the mysterious Dome but also by the designs of a ... Read Under the Dome Summary

Under the Never Sky

By veronica rossi.

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Unflattening

By nick sousanis.

Unflattening began as the first comic-form dissertation at Columbia University, where Nick Sousanis completed a doctorate in education in 2014. It was published by Harvard University Press in 2015 and functions as an argument for visual thinking in teaching and learning. In 2016 the book received the further accolade of the American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence. In a Paris Review interview with Timothy Hodler, Sousanis cited Scott McCloud’s 1993 Understanding Comics as ... Read Unflattening Summary

Unreasonable Hospitality

By will guidara.

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by Junji Ito, Transl. Yuji Oniki

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V for Vendetta

By alan moore.

IntroductionV for Vendetta is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd. Moore also wrote the acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen and is considered one of the greatest living graphic novel authors, while Lloyd created Marvel’s Night Raven and has done illustrations for many Marvel and DC properties. V for Vendetta was initially serialized in the British anthology Warrior between 1982 and 1984. In the late 80s, it was reprinted in color ... Read V for Vendetta Summary

Vietnamerica

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Voices from Chernobyl

By svetlana alexievich.

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich is a collection of 35 first-person oral accounts of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union. Originally published in Russian in 1997, the book was translated into English by Keith Gessen in 2005; it has been translated into almost every European language. Alexievich, a Belarusian investigative journalist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for Voices from Chernobyl in ... Read Voices from Chernobyl Summary

War and Peace

By leo tolstoy.

War and Peace is a Russian historical fiction novel written by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1865-1869. The story charts the alliances and wars between Russia and France at the beginning of the 19th century, following the lives of characters swept along by historical events. War and Peace is heralded as one of the most important novels in Russian and world literature and has been adapted into films, television shows, and more.Multiply nominated for both the ... Read War and Peace Summary

by Cynthia Kadohata

Weedflower, Cynthia Kadohata’s 2006 historical fiction young adult novel, tells the story of 12-year-old Japanese American Sumiko amid Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the US government’s ensuing involvement in World War II. Kadohata depicts the conditions of Japanese internment camps from Sumiko’s perspective, providing unique insight and education on the racism that Japanese Americans faced and the US government’s poor decisions.This guide references the 2009 paperback reprint edition from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.Plot ... Read Weedflower Summary

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By chanrithy him.

Chanrithy Him’s memoir, When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge, was first published in 2000. This study guide refers to the 2001 Kindle edition. In the text Him details her experiences as a young child in Cambodia. Him was only five when the autocratic communist Khmer Rouge took over the country, and she recounts the trauma she endured during the five years the regime remained in power. Him’s father was beaten to ... Read When Broken Glass Floats Summary

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World War Z

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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a horror fiction novel by Max Brooks published in 2006. The book was a critical and commercial success, generally receiving positive reviews and spending several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. It has sold millions of copies around the world and was subsequently turned into a successful movie starring Brad Pitt, released in 2013, and a highly rated video game, released in ... Read World War Z Summary

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The Morning

Chaos and oppression.

The central question for universities responding to protests is whether to prioritize the preservation of order or the desire of students to denounce oppression.

By David Leonhardt

Arnold Kling, an economist, published a book a decade ago that offered a way to think about the core difference between progressives and conservatives. Progressives, Kling wrote , see the world as a struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed, and they try to help the oppressed. Conservatives see the world as a struggle between civilization and barbarism — between order and chaos — and they try to protect civilization.

Like many frameworks, Kling’s is a simplification, and it’s easy to find exceptions. But his book has been influential because the framework often sheds light on political arguments.

The debate over pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia and other universities has become an example. If you want to understand why university leaders are finding the situation so hard to resolve, Kling’s dichotomy is useful: The central question for colleges is whether to prioritize the preservation of order or the desire of students to denounce oppression.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll lay out the cases of the dueling sides.

Confronting injustice

For the student protesters, the injustice in Gaza is so horrific that it takes precedence over almost anything else.

The death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 is more than 30,000, the Gaza Ministry of Health reports. Entire neighborhoods are rubble. Israel has slowed the entry of basic supplies into Gaza, and many families are hungry. (My colleagues Vivian Yee and Bilal Shbair profiled two families trying to find their children enough to eat .)

The protesters view this suffering as an atrocity that demands action, much as Jim Crow laws, the Vietnam War and South African apartheid did for earlier students. In a statement yesterday, a pro-Palestinian group at Columbia cited as inspiration the anti-Vietnam War demonstrators who were killed at Kent State University in 1970.

If classes must be canceled and graduation ceremonies can’t happen, all the better, the students say. The disruptions will force the world to confront what the protesters describe as a genocide. “Big picture, genocide is happening, and this is where we stand,” one Columbia graduate student told the publication Hell Gate .

Many protesters specifically call for their universities to divest from companies that do business in Israel or help produce military equipment.

Some students have framed the debate as being about free speech, and free-speech principles do play a role. But I don’t think they are as central as Kling’s frame. Both sides, after all, have tried to restrict speech. Supporters of Israel have doxxed pro-Palestinian students and tried to penalize slogans like “ From the river to the sea .” Pro-Palestinian protesters have ripped away Israeli and U.S. flags and tried to prevent pro-Israel students from speaking.

The protesters’ abiding principle is not freedom of speech. It is justice for the oppressed.

Preventing chaos

For the protesters’ critics, the breakdown of order is the central problem — because a community that descends into chaos can’t function.

Protesters have frequently violated colleges’ rules. They have erected tents in public places and overwhelmed those areas. Columbia has switched to hybrid classes because of the turmoil.

Even worse, some protests have involved harassment and violence. The University of Michigan had to cut short an honors ceremony for students. At Vanderbilt, more than 20 protesters stormed the president’s office, injuring a security guard and shattering a window. At Columbia , videos have shown protesters threatening Jewish students with antisemitic vitriol, including a sign talking about Hamas’s “next targets.”

If universities do not enforce their own rules against such behavior, the rules have no meaning, administrators fear. Other protesters, seeing their own causes as existential, could likewise halt normal life. Perhaps they would be climate activists or students outraged by China’s oppression of Uighurs — or even demonstrators with right-wing views unpopular on American campuses. If anti-abortion protesters were to take over a quad for days, would university administrators ignore their own campus rules?

Jason Riley, a Wall Street Journal columnist, has compared the protesters’ tactics to those of the white residents of Arkansas who tried to use physical intimidation to prevent the enforcement of a law they didn’t like: school desegregation. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by proclaiming that “disorderly mobs” could not triumph, Riley noted.

College administrators are not making such analogies. Many express sympathy for the protesters’ concerns. But some insist that society can’t function if people violate rules without consequence. “We cannot have one group dictate terms and attempt to disrupt important milestones like graduation to advance their point of view,” Minouche Shafik, Columbia’s president, wrote to the campus this week.

What’s next?

I recognize that not everybody will accept Kling’s framework for this debate. Pro-Palestinian students will say that Israel is the true source of disorder, while pro-Israel students will say that Hamas is the true oppressor.

Still, I think the Kling dichotomy captures the dilemma that university leaders face. The protests continue, and graduation season is approaching. Those leaders will have to make difficult decisions about what values to prioritize.

The latest on the protests

“Go back to class,” Speaker Mike Johnson told protesters while visiting Columbia. He suggested calling in the National Guard .

At the University of Texas, police officers in riot gear blocked protesters and arrested at least 20 of them. The protests at Columbia, and the school’s response, have galvanized demonstrations at universities across the U.S.

Columbia’s president is fighting for her job. Some professors now oppose her , but she has the support of the school’s board.

Benjamin Netanyahu called student protesters in the U.S. “antisemitic mobs.”

Trump said the demonstrations were worse than the violent 2017 white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, where a woman was killed.

Brandeis, a historically Jewish university outside Boston, extended its deadline for transfer applications , promising an environment “free of harassment and Jew-hatred.”

THE LATEST NEWS

Foreign aid bill.

President Biden signed a bill with aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, calling it “a good day for world peace.” The administration plans to send Ukraine more weapons this week .

The bill includes $1 billion in humanitarian aid. “Israel must make sure all this aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza without delay,” Biden said.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, was a linchpin in winning aid for Ukraine, pushing back against isolationists in his own party.

An Arizona grand jury charged Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and others over their efforts to help Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election loss. The indictment names Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial resumes this morning. This graphic shows the links between Trump and other figures in the case.

Biden mocked Trump for suggesting as president that disinfectant injections might treat Covid. The bleach “ all went to his hair ,” Biden said.

More on Politics

Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, is in China. Economic tensions are high .

The Supreme Court sounded divided over whether to allow doctors to perform emergency abortions in states with strict bans. Today the court will hear Trump’s claim that he’s immune from prosecution over Jan. 6.

Three Arizona Republicans voted with Democrats to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban . The bill heads to the State Senate.

Building union leaders endorsed Biden. They plan to mobilize their members to support him in swing states, CNN reports .

Donald Payne Jr., a six-term Democratic congressman from New Jersey known for wearing bow ties, died at 65 .

International

Floods across Kenya have killed at least 32 people and displaced more than 40,000.

The U.S. secretly shipped new long-range missiles to Ukraine .

Hamas released a video showing for the first time that Hersh Goldberg-Polin , an Israeli American taken hostage on Oct. 7, remains alive.

Other Big Stories

The Justice Department is investigating the consulting firm McKinsey over its role helping drug companies sell opioids .

The Agriculture Department finalized new school meal guidelines with less salt and sugar .

To combat avian flu, the Biden administration will require tests for cows that cross state lines .

NPR is in turmoil : The broadcaster’s audience is shrinking, its sponsorship revenue is declining, and its leaders are struggling with political strife.

Trump’s criminal trials make him seem like a victim . That could help him on Election Day, Stuart Stevens , a Republican political consultant, writes.

The federal government should test people for avian flu now, before an outbreak starts, Zeynep Tufekci writes.

Here’s a column by Charles Blow on the Vietnam War and the Gaza protests.

MORNING READS

Athens: A Saharan dust cloud has turned the city orange .

Meet Cait Bailey: She’s a publicist to major celebrities, and her boyfriend is a famous chef. But she’d prefer to keep a low profile .

Diet: Could calorie restriction or intermittent fasting help you live longer? Read what scientists know .

Broods: Trillions of cicadas are emerging after more than a decade of feeding on tree roots. Get ready .

Lives Lived: Helen Vendler’s power as a poetry critic derived from her close and impassioned readings. A fellow critic called her a “colossus.” Vendler died at 90 .

Queens Park Ladies: An under-12 girls’ soccer team in England joined a boys’ league — and went undefeated . “They definitely underestimated us,” Edith Wragg, one of the players, said.

N.F.L. Draft: Four quarterbacks are expected to go in the first round tonight .

N.B.A.: The Miami Heat shocked the Boston Celtics in a 111-101 road win to even the series at 1-1.

College football: Reggie Bush’s 2005 Heisman Trophy was reinstated , nearly 14 years after he forfeited it during a scandal.

ARTS AND IDEAS

The Venice Biennale, the world’s best event to discover new art, opened with a Prosecco-soaked weekend. Artists, along with critics and collectors, filled the city.

The Times’s critic Jason Farago was one of them. While he loved some of the work, he didn’t love the theme, “Foreigners Everywhere,” which he felt reflects a problem in our culture. “It’s often preachy, but that’s not its biggest problem. The real problem is how it tokenizes, essentializes, minimizes and pigeonholes talented artists,” he writes. Read his review .

Related: Venice is trying to limit tourism with a small fee on busy days .

More on culture

“Challengers,” from the director Luca Guadagnino, is about love and tennis. The Times spoke with its stars, including Zendaya, about the film and life in the public eye .

The American Film Institute is giving Nicole Kidman a lifetime achievement award this week. See what makes her work singular .

The Getty Museum agreed to return an ancient bronze head to Turkey.

A long-lost Gustav Klimt painting sold for $37 million at auction.

Jimmy Kimmel dunked on Trump’s billion-dollar stock bonus .

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Toss a 20-minute lemony orzo with asparagus and garlic bread crumbs.

Navigate grief with these books .

Understand the new airline refund rules .

Buy a gift for a green-thumbed friend.

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangram was topiary .

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku , Connections and Strands .

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David

P.S. Lauren Jackson — one of the Times journalists in London who update this newsletter while you’re sleeping — has been promoted to associate editor .

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox . Reach our team at [email protected] .

David Leonhardt runs The Morning , The Times’s flagship daily newsletter. Since joining The Times in 1999, he has been an economics columnist, opinion columnist, head of the Washington bureau and founding editor of the Upshot section, among other roles. More about David Leonhardt

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