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Harper’s Magazine

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 22d

In our October issue: Seth Harp on Trump’s military parade; David Velasco on his friend Brent Sikkema; Rachel Pearson on empathy in medical education; Garth Greenwell on Giovanni’s Room; Nicole Flattery on Jane Bowles; and a story from Matthew Shen Goodman.

harpers.org/archive/2025...

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 4h

“He would gladly declare himself here and now, but the problem was that he had learned nothing about the world, and so what was he to say…”

From November 2017, an excerpt from The World Goes On, translated by John Batki.

harpers.org/archive/2017...

Chasing Waterfalls, by László Krasznahorkai

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 4h

“There is no word for this hopeless color, for the slowly murderous variation of brown and gray that spreads over the city this morning, no word for the assault of this hopeless din …”

From 2015, an excerpt from Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens.

harpers.org/archive/2015...

Road to Nowhere, by László Krasznahorkai

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 4h

“He already knew how to draw a Madonna even before he knew what a Madonna was, but it wasn’t only in this that he displayed an extraordinary talent, but in nearly everything else too…”

From August 2013, an excerpt of Seiobo There Below, translated by Ottilie Mulzet.

harpers.org/archive/2013...

The Exiled Queen, by László Krasznahorkai, Translated by Ottilie Mulzet

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 4h

László Krasznahorkai received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature today “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” Harper’s Magazine has published three excerpts from his books—read more below.

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 5h

“Contrary to Mishra’s hopes, it seems likely that the American intelligentsia will continue to subside into what Guy Debord described in the Sixties as the ‘integrated spectacle.’”

Read more from responses to Pankaj Mishra’s August Easy chair column.

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 10h

“In his account of the Great Enshittening, Doctorow offers a masterly polemic, its scope so sweeping that it does, finally, seem to explain every pungent odor wafting from Silicon Valley.”

Dan Piepenbring on Enshittification.

New Books, by Dan Piepenbring

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 12h

“For Bowles’s women, sainthood does not exclude the good life, but they’re often confused as to what that is; the worldly pleasures they pursue are idiosyncratic.”

Nicole Flattery on Jane Bowles.

Never a Tourist, by Nicole Flattery

Jane Bowles’s spiritual transformations

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 13h

“America seems unlikely to be made great again by the demagogues of white nationalism, who cannot help but channel fury over irreversible decline at those who have been working hard, through either literal or spiritual immigration, to become American.”

The End of the Belle Époque, by Pankaj Mishra

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 1d

“The path forward will be populist, and it will need to address the great economic challenges that working-class Americans face.”

Ross Barkan responds to Andrew Cockburn’s report from Harper’s Magazine’s August issue.

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 1d

“Owens implied that their professions were suspicious and asserted, without evidence, ‘We know for a fact that psychiatrists have done some evil things.’”

From a lawsuit filed by Emmanuel Macron.

J’accuse!, by Harper’s Magazine

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 1d

“Reason, rationalism, individualism, the rejection of the past, the framing of custom as an obstacle, the idealization of progress and perpetual renewal: Bezos would recognize all of this, and perhaps nod in vigorous assent.” —Paul Kingsnorth

Critique of Pure Reason, by Paul Kingsnorth

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 1d

“How did I find dignity in a book that seems so determined to strip dignity away from its characters, especially its gay characters? Where did I find affirmation in a book so enamored of the abyss?”

@garthgreenwell.bsky.social on Giovanni’s Room.

Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell

On the place of affirmation in art

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 1d

“You walk as long as it would have taken to drive home, and then longer. He stays a little too far ahead for you to catch up without running. You know, somehow, not to run.”

A new story from Matthew Shen Goodman.

Enjoy the Break, Demons, by Matthew Shen Goodman

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 2d

““By midday, the heat was ungodly. Not a drop of the predicted rain fell, and not a breeze blew.”

Seth Harp reports on Trump’s military parade and the state of the armed forces.

Mission Impossible, by Seth Harp

The sad state of the American armed forces

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 7d

“I hate Basel. It’s the most prideful of the fairs, swollen with wealth and haunted by its furiously repressed specter, scarcity. Mesopotamian corpses, stirred by the babble of trade, wander the halls wrapped in shrouds of extravagant malice.” —David Velasco

The Good Pervert, by David Velasco

A friend’s life, a brutal death

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 7d

“I was left with the depressing certainty that the post-9/11 era, which had begun just as I reached adulthood, would last for the rest of my life.”

Seth Harp reports on Trump’s military parade and the state of the armed forces.

Mission Impossible, by Seth Harp

The sad state of the American armed forces

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 7d

“The garments have shipped and the fabric
remaining accepts another use, a shape.
A tailor made thee. Then see it float away.”

From “Small Hours,” by Jana Prikryl in the Winter 2025 issue of @nimrodjournal.bsky.social.

Small Hours, by Jana Prikryl

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 7d

“To a close reader, which I was not, the story was a warning, or a map. Which was it? It began with a disappearance into a wood.”

From Estate, by Cynthia Zarin, which will be published next month by FSG.

Vanishing Acts, by Cynthia Zarin

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 8d

EMORI: Rain that leaks through the umbrella
FUCHIKUNUN: Rain that comes indoors
GUU: Rain that one encounters by coincidence or chance

From Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words, out next month with MIT Press (@mitpress.bsky.social).

Liquiddity, by Miya Ando

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 8d

“When the lottery was announced, I was working on a play. The play would take place backstage at a play.”

From Lauren Rothery’s novel, Television, which will be published by Ecco this December.

Drama Splice, by Lauren Rothery

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Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 8d

“Once you’ve read enough Jane Bowles, some real-life experiences—like the girls on the street with their eyes lit dangerously like stars—can be seen only through the prism of her fiction.”

Nicole Flattery on Jane Bowles’s spiritual transformations.

Never a Tourist, by Nicole Flattery

Jane Bowles’s spiritual transformations

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 8d

“Earis told me that, when he criticized the organization at a meeting in 2007, committee members were “literally booing” him as he spoke.”

Veronique Greenwood on a controversy in the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.

A Change of Tune, by Veronique Greenwood

A revolution in English bell ringing

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 8d

“Empathy still has its skeptics. In my conversations with colleagues and students, many bristle at the implication that they need remedial education in how to feel.”

Rachel Pearson (@peopledoctor.bsky.social) on the place of empathy in medical education.

Bedside Manners, by Rachel Pearson

Can empathy be taught in medicine?

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 9d

“The open letter still stands and signifies, even if it did not stop the genocide. Brent’s life continues to resound for me like a percussive crash long after his body was perforated and discarded and his excesses, both sacred and profane, completed.” —David Velasco

The Good Pervert, by David Velasco

A friend’s life, a brutal death

Harper’s Magazine @harpers.bsky.social · 9d

“‘Everything is frozen for you,’ said the French president on a phone call to the U.S. president. The Supreme Court upheld a Trump Administration freeze of $4 billion in foreign-aid payments.”

harpers.org/2025/09/mili...

Weekly Review, by Harper’s Magazine

The presidents of Turkey, South Korea, and France were made to wait due to the U.S. president’s motorcade. “Everything is frozen for you,” said the French president on a phone call to the U.S. preside...