The structure of the modern plague novel, all the way to Stephen King’s “The Stand” and beyond, is a series of variations on “A Journal of the Plague Year” (a story set within the walls[…]
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Author: Drew Kaplan
“the existence of books, no matter how grim the tale, is itself a sign, evidence that humanity endures, in the very contagion of reading”
In the long centuries during which the plague ravaged Europe, the quarantined, if they were lucky enough to have books, read them. If not, and if they were well enough, they told stories. In Giovanni[…]
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“the Talmud only makes sense to the reader who has already read it; a first reading of the Talmud only happens during its second reading”
The Talmud is not a book to be read, but a book to do things with – not a book to think about but a book to think with; and beginning to read the Talmud[…]
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“the economy and the structure of work are not the way they used to be. This has had devastating effects on the family and on community life”
For the first few decades after the Second World War, per-capita U.S. economic growth averaged between two and three per cent a year. In the nineties, however, it dipped below two per cent. In the[…]
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“We Americans are reluctant to acknowledge that our economy serves the educated classes and penalizes the rest”
When it comes to people whose lives aren’t going well, American culture is a harsh judge: if you can’t find enough work, if your wages are too low, if you can’t be counted on to[…]
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“…there are ultimately four characteristics in candidates that I think drive our perceptions and our decisions…”
I think there are ultimately four characteristics in candidates that I think drive our perceptions and our decisions: competence (can this person do this job); policies (does this person have clear prescriptions to deal with[…]
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“we would often be better off worrying about what the appendages in legislatures and localities are doing than about what some ultimate head is thinking”
This idea of power simply emanating downward still animates apologetics for authoritarianism, but it also leads to excitement about top-down health-care programs that everyone knows will never be enacted by executive fiat. It inspires, too,[…]
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“…liberalism has, to an unusual degree, been defined by what it wasn’t”
…liberalism has, to an unusual degree, been defined by what it wasn’t. For French liberals in the early nineteenth century, it was a defense against the excesses of Jacobins and ultra-monarchists. For the free-trading Manchester[…]
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“The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah”
The term ma’aseh is the intrusion of real life events into the largely theoretical in hypothetical discourse of the Mishnah. It introduces an event that happened in the past which has halakhic implications or ramifications[…]
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The Siyum HaShas “Shockingly Has Nothing to Do with the Talmud Bavli”
The Event Shockingly Has Nothing to Do with the Talmud Bavli. I kind of knew to expect this—forgive me if what follows sounds hopelessly naïve—but I was struck by how the event had no educational[…]
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