“If I could muster this kind of enthusiasm for any real-life task that’s just as conceptually boring, I’d be unstoppable, but alas, this is the only world with free soap.”
From reviews of the video game PowerWash Simulator 2.
“But a dance can last only so long. He could find better ways to luxuriate in his loneliness. Let’s help him out and say he’s obsessed with baseball.”
Dan Piepenbring on Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
“There is potential for current or planned actions in orbit to cause serious degradation of the orbital environment or lead to catastrophic outcomes.”
Enter a new satellite tool— the CRASH clock.
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“The anal specialist—‘my butt doctor,’ the rabbi proudly called him—did not forbid anal intercourse.”
From the novel My Lover, the Rabbi, by @waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social.
“After the Second World War, sumo was the first of Japan’s traditional cultural institutions to stage a comeback, probably because its connections to the empire were poorly understood by the Allied forces.” —@viajoshhunt.bsky.social
“Night: children’s great no-man’s-land. We were also worthy of love. But we didn’t want to live.”
From Mariella Mehr’s “Nightmare of the Embryos, out in March with New Directions.
“I’ve always been drawn to Caravaggio. You can look at his paintings and feel you’re witnessing the birth of cinema, of a drama that unfolds in the medium of light.” —Nicole Krauss
harpers.org/archive/2026...
“In the absence of incontrovertible proof that Iran has developed a bomb, or seeks to do so, the crisis is about intentions, and no outsider knows Iran's intentions, or how the country is changing as a result of international pressure and threats.” (July 2006)
“With all this money and opportunity, a person can no more fail than someone can go hungry at a restaurant that serves all you can eat.”
Dennis Cass on the promise of Silicon Valley (July 2000).
“My lover, the rabbi, developed an anal ailment, not life-threatening, not connected to digestion, not caused by sexual activity, not contagious, not within the purview of most medical practitioners he consulted …” — Wayne Koestenbaum
“The techno-industrialists believe that America needs to apply modern computing capabilities to industrial production. They believe that technology has drifted too far into the invisible realm of bits or into the digital cloud.” —Maddy Crowell
“We feel, as her camera takes them in, that the narrator has reached the limit of what she can know about her parents. And perhaps that Hjorth, too, has reached the limit of what she can tell us about this family from the perspective of the wronged daughter.”
“The merest departure from orthodoxy whipped its theologians into a lather. It’s always enjoyable to see rationalists behaving irrationally, especially when they’re as costive and comically German as this bunch.”
Dan Piepenbring on A Scandal In Königsberg.
harpers.org/archive/2026...
From July 2006: “Now there is no Khomeini, less religiosity, and, instead of specific hatreds, a generalized cynicism toward those who hold political power—whether in Iran or elsewhere.” —Christopher de Bellaigue
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“We often think of the Renaissance as a rediscovery of Greek and Roman thought and of the best of its humanism, but in fact, since time and history move in one direction only, it was less a rebirth than a relearning how to see.” —Nicole Krauss
“Once, San Francisco drew in runaway children, artists, and freaks; today it’s an enormous magnet for highly agentic young men. I set out to meet them.” — Sam Kriss
“There is potential for current or planned actions in orbit to cause serious degradation of the orbital environment or lead to catastrophic outcomes.”
.buff.ly/PwMlrUJ
“It was always about that. The search for a lost land. Love. This fucked-up youth, always exploited, betrayed, bribed, lost.”
From Mariella Mehr’s “Nightmare of the Embryos, out in March with New Directions.
“The soap is easily the best addition to the game’s already rock-solid cleaning loop.
There are also new and more varied types of dirt.”
From reviews of the video game PowerWash Simulator 2.
harpers.org/archive/2026...
“Do dogs even care about beauty-pageant success? If people fashion the breed standards, can’t they change them so dogs are healthier? Wouldn’t everyone be happier if we all decided to sculpt clay instead of flesh?” —Andrew Norman Wilson
“Watching arguably the greatest rikishi in history at the peak of his powers was all that kept many fans from abandoning the scandal-plagued sport, though some still struggled with the fact that he wasn’t Japanese.” — @viajoshhunt.bsky.social
For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. military has attacked Iran—both times without President Trump seeking congressional approval. Read the argument @chrislehmann.bsky.social made for Trump’s impeachment after the 2025 strikes on nuclear facilities.
Every month in our Findings column, Rafil Kroll-Zaidi presents a constellation of the most—and least—important scientific discoveries.
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From the March Harper’s Index.
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“Was there ever another painter who so consistently corralled tension, conflict, emotion, and light to scale the apogee of human drama on the canvas?”
Nicole Krauss on Caravaggio and Georges de la Tour.
John Jeremiah Sullivan’s “Twain Dreams” is a finalist in Reviews and Criticism.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
“The Goon Squad,” by Daniel Kolitz, is a finalist in the Features category.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
We’re excited to announce that the American Society of Magazine Editors has recognized Daniel Kolitz’s “The Goon Squad” and John Jeremiah Sullivan’s “Twain Dreams” as finalists for the National Magazine Awards.
“Hjorth, a devoted reader of Kierkegaard, subjects the mothers in her novels to a special kind of moral scrutiny.”
Elaine Blair on Vigdis Hjorth.
“Roy Lee is not like other people. He belongs to a new and possibly permanent overclass.”
Sam Kriss reports from San Francisco on the next generation of AI technologists.
harpers.org/archive/2026...
