‘A pale-faced, near-sighted urbanite like me is nothing less than handicapped in the heart of the jungle.’
The first thing I felt when I returned from the jungle was a paralysis of willpower. I didn’t shower, stayed in bed dozing, staring into space, remembering the rivers and streams I’d swum in and the places where I’d slept in Vaupés. I still felt like I was rocking in my hammock in the perpetu…
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‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
‘Ever since this happened to me, I haven’t really believed in free will.’
‘The whole arc of the failed promise of development became legible in the traces of the gold rush.’
James Pogue reports from the gold mines of Mauritania.
‘The town’s fate was tied to poor development and ecological disaster.’
Amitava Kumar visits a Himalayan town.
‘I think the stories that cannot yet be told must be told, can only be told, by un-telling.’
Momtaza Mehri in conversation with m nourbeSe philip.
‘Like all money, Bitcoin is valuable only to the degree that people believe in its value.’
Photography by Danny Franzreb, introduced by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian.
‘Things assume a sort of peace / if you accept life’s limitations.’
Poetry by Maya C. Popa.
