Probes

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 6): Intelligence, Personality, Personhood, Being, and some genuine Woo-Woo

By Brian Fawcett | April 2, 2023

On a Sussex pig farm in 1963, Brian Fawcett is thinking about the intelligence of pigs, dogs, humans, and nuclear missiles.

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SENTENCE: DMD

By Mikhail Iossel | March 29, 2023

Mikhail Iossel is on the Red Arrow night express train from Moscow to Leningrad on January 9, 1986, when he meets a fellow traveler with two bottles of brandy and a box of chocolates. It’s a journey that can be told in a sentence.

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 5): Courage, Bravado, or Daring

By Brian Fawcett | March 26, 2023

In Ch. 5 of Brian Fawcett’s “Sussex Variations,” there’s courage, war, character and a dying boar.

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Scribbles from Italy: Intelligence

By Vian Andrews | March 24, 2023

Vian Andrews is out in the olive orchards, clearing brush from under the trees and thinking about ChatGPT and the future of artificial and other kinds of intelligence. The latest passage from Andrews’ journal about life in the Umbrian countryside, “Scribbles from Italy.”

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Reality Hunger: A Manifesto / b / mimesis

By David Shields | March 24, 2023

A tour through the history of writing. From David Shields’ 2010 manifesto, “Reality Hunger.” Time for a second look.

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 4): Concentration, and Testicles

By Brian Fawcett | March 19, 2023

Brian Fawcett learns about the gory details of life on the farm. Ch. 4 of “The Sussex Variations.”

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From the Archives: 20 Years Ago, in 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq. Here’s what Dooney’s said about the imperial “punitive expedition.”

By Stan Persky | March 18, 2023

From the Archives: Twenty years ago, the U.S. invaded Iraq. Here’s what Dooney’s said two decades ago about the American imperial “punitive expedition,” as it rolled across Iraq.

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 3): Females and Males

By Brian Fawcett | March 13, 2023

Brian Fawcett learns about males and females, both human and porcine, on a pig farm in Sussex, England in the early 1960s.

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Scribbles from Italy: The Thing About Sex; Standards of Measurement; Simplifications; No Oil…

By Vian Andrews | March 12, 2023

Vian Andrews hiking and thinking in the Umbrian countryside, amid olive groves in the rain and “sentieri” paths between mountain hamlets.

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Women I Read: International Women’s Day

By Stan Persky | March 8, 2023

An International Women’s Day game: who would be on your list? One way to mark IWD: thinking about the women writers we read.

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