Good morning.
This week’s selection of good reads from around the Guardian chart a varied terrain – from art and identity to politics and climate change. But each of them, one way or another, are an exercise in changing perspectives. Happy reading.
1. Has Romania shattered the link between economic growth and high emissions?
Many would not think of Romania – the “birthplace of big oil” – as a climate leader. But Ajit Niranjan reports from Ploiești that it’s found “the holy grail of the energy transition”: decoupling economic growth and pollution “faster than anywhere else in Europe, and perhaps even the world”.
So? Well, the two have traditionally been inextricably linked – especially by politicians committed to development via fossil fuels. “If industrial countries could decouple as quickly as Romania,” Niranjan reports, “the fight to stop climate breakdown may not seem so hopeless.”
But it’s complicated. Romania’s transition, as many there remember only too well, “was brutal for a lot of people”.
How long will it take to read: about five minutes
Further reading: Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis suggest three steps to begin moving past capitalism and save the climate. Closer to home, Adam Morton argued this week that Labor will never have a better time to revisit carbon pricing – but does it have the stomach?
2. Apocalypse no (or: most of the stuff we knew about the Maya is wrong)
New archaeological technologies are overturning many long-held beliefs about ancient history. Debate about the Maya centred for years on their civilisation’s collapse. Now, scholars are asking: how did they survive? As Marcus Haraldsson explains, it’s not just academic. “History – both ancient and recent – is a key political issue for the Maya.”
Rethinking the numbers: A few decades ago, the population of the classic-era (AD600-900) Maya lowlands surrounding Tikal was estimated to be about 2 million. Today, experts guess it was closer to 16 million – or, in other words, “that more people lived in the classic-era Maya lowlands than on the Italian peninsula during the peak of the Roman empire – all crammed into an area a third of the size”.
How long will it take to read: 11 minutes
3. ‘Never mind the lit-bros’: Michelle Zauner re-evaluates Infinite Jest
Thirty years after its publication, David Foster Wallace’s epic novel has gained a reputation as a book few people ever finish – and a performative read for “a certain breed of intense young man”.
Zauner – author of the bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart, frontwoman of indie band Japanese Breakfast, and a woman in her 30s – is not, in her own words, “what you might consider Infinite Jest’s target demographic”. But when she started reading it, she was surprised to find the book delivered, in spades.
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“Trust-fall into the barbed intricacies of the writing, and you will discover its soft, exquisite humanity.” – Michelle Zauner
How long will it take to read: three minutes
4. The rise of vice-signalling: how hatred poisoned politics
Remember when everyone talked about virtue-signalling? What’s arisen in its wake is far worse, Zoe Williams writes. “Over the last 10 years, the terms of political debate have changed completely – and week by week they seem to get worse.”
An expert’s definition of vice-signalling: attention-seeking, basically. A strategy “to constantly violate taboos, and in this way escalate the dynamics of the whole conversation, while getting immediate media attention, usually front page”.
Why it’s getting more worrying: as certain frequenters of global headlines on this site and elsewhere appear to have noticed, vice-signalling no longer carries the same risk, especially politically.
How long will it take to read: five minutes
5. Maybe only a woman can paint a truly great female nude
“When Gwen John stood in her bedroom in 1909 sketching herself nude, her body reflected in a wardrobe mirror, what was she thinking?” asks Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. Considering the way female nude self-portraits painted by women inspired her new novel, she reflects that:
When a female artist takes authority over depictions of her nudity, it can only be political.
John’s sketch, made in the midst of her turbulent affair with Auguste Rodin, takes her outside the male gaze – not objectified, not idealised, Cosslett observes.
Daring to be their own muse: There’s Amrita Sher-Gil (whose self-portrait you see at the top of this page), kicked out of art school; Carolee Schneemann, variously interpreted by critics as groundbreaking – or tasteless; and Francesca Woodman, whose photos capture something “uncanny, gothic almost, but also erotic, powerful, fraught with irony”. Cosslett lovingly catalogues these artists and others, honouring their frank depictions of the “inherent strangeness” of living in a woman’s body.
How long will it take to read: three minutes
However you spend your weekend, I hope it’s a good one. And happy Valentine’s Day to you all.
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