The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads from 2015

How Jane Goodall Turned Her Childhood Dream into Reality: A Sweet Illustrated Story of Purpose and Deep Determination
How Jane Goodall Turned Her Childhood Dream into Reality: A Sweet Illustrated Story of Purpose and Deep Determination

A heartening testament to the power of undivided intention.

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Susan Sontag on the Trouble with Treating Art and Cultural Material as “Content”
Susan Sontag on the Trouble with Treating Art and Cultural Material as “Content”

“Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art… Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all.”

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Joan Didion on Driving as Secular Worship and Self-Transcendence
Joan Didion on Driving as Secular Worship and Self-Transcendence

“Participation requires a total surrender, a concentration so intense as to seem a kind of narcosis, a rapture-of-the-freeway.”

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A Vintage Illustrated Love Letter to Books and How They’re Made
A Vintage Illustrated Love Letter to Books and How They’re Made

“There is a reason for nearly everything.”

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Kierkegaard on Boredom, Why Cat Listicles Fail to Answer the Soul’s Cry, and the Only True Cure for Existential Emptiness
Kierkegaard on Boredom, Why Cat Listicles Fail to Answer the Soul’s Cry, and the Only True Cure for Existential Emptiness

“The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes.”

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The Wisdom of No Escape: Pema Chödrön on Gentleness, the Art of Letting Go, and How to Befriend Your Inner Life
The Wisdom of No Escape: Pema Chödrön on Gentleness, the Art of Letting Go, and How to Befriend Your Inner Life

“Our neurosis and our wisdom are made out of the same material. If you throw out your neurosis, you also throw out your wisdom.”

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Why Not to Put a Raincoat on Your Dog: A Cognitive Scientist Explains the Canine Umwelt
Why Not to Put a Raincoat on Your Dog: A Cognitive Scientist Explains the Canine Umwelt

“If we want to understand the life of any animal, we need to know what things are meaningful to it.”

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The Art of Tough Love: Samuel Beckett Models How to Give Constructive Feedback on Your Friends’ Creative Work
The Art of Tough Love: Samuel Beckett Models How to Give Constructive Feedback on Your Friends’ Creative Work

“If I were less concerned with you I should simply say it is very good.”

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Why Bees Build Perfect Hexagons
Why Bees Build Perfect Hexagons

The space-economics of honey and wax.

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A Graphic Cosmogony: Artists Imagine How the Universe Was Born
A Graphic Cosmogony: Artists Imagine How the Universe Was Born

From the lyrical to the ludicrous, uncommon takes on how our world came to be.

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