Weibo’s Free-Speech Failure
How a dissident movement almost broke through China’s internet censorship
Book Excerpts
Can a Dolphin Really Commit Rape?
Nature isn’t cruel—it’s just careless.
Getting Lost Makes the Brain Go Haywire
In caves and labyrinths, humans’ cerebral navigation equipment is mostly useless. That can spark panic or free the mind.
The Tricky Ethics of Transplants for Addicts
Many programs require liver recipients to be six months sober, but that policy may funnel organs away from the people they’re most likely to help.
The Making of Gone With the Wind: Part Ii
From the casting of Scarlett O’Hara to Rhett Butler’s “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” all of David Selznick’s actions were based on the idea that any methods were justified to make GWTW come out the way he wanted. Herewith the rest of the story of the filming of a classic, together with some second thoughts about the movie by five contemporary American film critics.
Pop Mom Moon
Rabbit Angstrom, the faded basketball hero of Rabbit, Run, is ten years older, and perchance wiser. These scenes from his life are drawn from Rabbit Redux, Mr. Updike’s forthcoming novel.
Auden in the Looking Glass
A writer who believes that a writer’s private life “is, or should be, of no concern to anybody except himself, his family and friends” is not likely to write an autobiography. Auden’s Commonplace Book, soon to be published by the Viking Press, undoubtedly is the nearest thing to an autobiography he will ever produce. Here are some samples from it. The exercise is followed on page 67 by an appraisal of Auden’s life and work by the distinguished English critic Frank Kermode, a contributing editor of the Atlantic.