Today We Just Say Germany
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Barbarism
Allen Bratton
‘He is an ancestor, he has had his son, he has lost possession of the world.’
Fiction by Allen Bratton.
In Conversation
Olivia Laing & M. John Harrison
‘Our imaginations are in service to the wrong ends.’
Olivia Laing and M. John Harrison on the commodification of the imagination.
A World of Networks and Vines
Marie Darrieussecq
‘No one is alone in their bed anymore.’
An excerpt from Sleepless by Marie Darrieussecq, translated by Penny Hueston.
Memory of Light
Prabda Yoon
‘Until a few years ago, to even mention the monarchy with a questioning undertone was taboo.’
Prabda Yoon on democracy in Thailand.
I Hear You’re Rich
Diane Williams
“I hear you’re rich. Can you give me some of your money? I hear you’re rich. ”
Fiction by Diane Williams.
Conversations with My Father
Idra Novey
‘I tell my dead father if he gives any more advice that rhymes, I’ll leave this story unfinished.’
Fiction by Idra Novey.
Great North Wood
Jonathan Skinner
‘the woods are vocal / with no single refrain’
Poetry by Jonathan Skinner.
My Time Machine
Arthur Asseraf
‘How do we imagine the past of those we love?’
Arthur Asseraf on family and fractured memories.
[harbour doubts]
Bebe Ashley
‘I don’t want to lie to you but I don’t want to tell you the truth either.’
Poetry by Bebe Ashley.
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘I came to the magazine in 2005 and took over the editorship in 2013.’
Sigrid Rausing introduces her last issue.
Reports from the Front: Winter 2023
Peter Englund
‘I repeat: the landscape of war is an acoustic landscape.’
Peter Englund on the war in Ukraine, translated from the Swedish by Sigrid Rausing.
Family Meal
Bryan Washington
‘It’s a paper bag filled with pastries. Chicken turnovers.’
An extract from Family Meal by Bryan Washington.
Cairo Song
Wiam El-Tamami
‘I see this everywhere. The creativity, resourcefulness and incredible talent for improvisation in Egypt.’
Wiam El-Tamami on returning to Cairo.
Plainsong
Suzie Howell & A. K. Blakemore
‘Postures of graceful receptivity, or surrender. How do we tell the difference?’
A.K. Blakemore introduces Suzie Howell’s photographs.
The Index of Porosity
Adam Mars-Jones
‘Is there in fact a jostling for dominance between the art forms, some barely suppressed competitiveness?’
Adam Mars-Jones on music and ceremony.
One Day It Will all Make Sense
Tabitha Lasley
‘It occurs to me then that he has not invited me for dinner, but my alter ego from the page.’
Tabitha Lasley on writing and dating.
A Report on Music in Ukraine
Ed Vulliamy
‘Nights at the opera in Ukraine – where everything, including every kind of music, has changed.’
Ed Vulliamy on music in Ukraine.
Journal Excerpts 1997–1999
Lydia Davis
‘gormandizing, gluttonous, lickerish, guttling’
Excerpts from Lydia Davis’s diary.
Once a Dancer
Diana Evans
‘What happens to a dancer when they stop dancing?’
Diana Evans on dancing and writing.
We’re Not Really Strangers
Sama Beydoun
‘The people I’ve photographed made Beirut liveable.’
Sama Beydoun photographs the nightlife of Beirut.
Soundscapes of Phnom Penh
Anjan Sundaram
‘From my bronze-painted balcony, I chronicled the sounds of Phnom Penh’s private industry.’
Anjan Sundaram on the sound of corruption in Cambodia.
The Tide
Adèle Rosenfeld
‘In my ears were muted thumps, the drumbeat of my pulse.’
Fiction by Adèle Rosenfeld, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman.
The Soundscape of War
Ada Wordsworth
‘Ordinary sounds change their meaning in the context of war when the reverberations of sound can mean death.’
Ada Wordsworth on silence, noise and the war in Ukraine.
Great North Wood
James Berrington
‘One of the things that keeps drawing me back is the wide variety of birds.’
James Berrington photographs the fragments of a London woodland.
Endurance
Maartje Scheltens
‘Four Organs allows us to step out of time and briefly inhabit infinity.’
Maartje Scheltens on Steve Reich, repetition and discomfort.
Things That Dream
Brian Dillon
‘Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” might well be the greatest record to feature the Linn drum sound.’
Brian Dillon on the legacy of drum machines.
Strange Beach
Oluwaseun Olayiwola
‘Worth. It circles around you – / the increasing gap between the surface’
A poem by Oluwaseun Olayiwola.
More Night
Oluwaseun Olayiwola
‘Immeasurable beauty / is immeasurable precisely / until it’s gone –’
A poem by Oluwaseun Olayiwola.
A Life Where Nothing Happens
Mazen Maarouf
‘His fear was that we would die in front of him and so he thought of us all the time, which is not what he wanted.’
Fiction by Mazen Maarouf.
TonyInterruptor
Nicola Barker
‘Insofar as value for money is relevant to art, that audience – an attentive audience, a great audience – were determined to get it.’
Fiction by Nicola Barker.
Mute Tree
Y-Dang Troeung
‘When and where does the crisis of war begin and end?’
Y-Dang Troeung on the longevity of war.
