Reads tagged with “Mary Shelley”
The Unphotographable #2: Alpine Transcendence with Mary Shelley
Sometimes, a painting in words is worth a thousand pictures. I think about this more and more, in our compulsively visual culture, which increasingly reduces what we think and feel and see — who and what we are — to what can be photographed. I think of Susan Sontag, who called it “aesthetic consumerism” half a century before Instagram. In a small act of resistance, I offer The Unphotographable — Saturdays, a lovely image in words drawn from centuries of literature: passages transcendent and transportive, depicting landscapes and experiences radiant with beauty and feeling beyond what a visual image could convey.
The Best of Brain Pickings 2020
A glance over the shoulder of time to reveal the patterns, themes, and ideas that steady us and shelter us in the tempest of life.
Mary Shelley on the Surest Remedy for a Sunken Spirit and What Makes Life Worth Living
“There is but one solution to the intricate riddle of life; to improve ourselves, and contribute to the happiness of others.”
Debbie Millman’s Touching Letter to Children About How Books Solace Our Heartbreak and Salve Our Existential Loneliness
“Books — like dogs — are among a handful of things on this planet that just want to be loved. And they will love you back, generously and selflessly, requiring very little in return.”
‘Frankenstein’ Author Mary Shelley on Nature and the Meaning of Happiness
“Coming to this delightful spot during this divine weather, I feel as happy as a new-fledged bird, and hardly care what twig I fly to, so that I may try my new-found wings.”
June 16, 1816: The Inception of Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s Prescient Warning About Reproductive Rights
A teenage girl from another epoch illuminates the fault lines of ours.
Mary Shelley on the Courage to Speak Up Against Injustice and the Power of Words in Revising the World
“Words have more power than any one can guess; it is by words that the world’s great fight, now in these civilized times, is carried on.”
How to Raise a Reader: Mary Shelley’s Father on Parenting and How an Early Love of Books Paves the Path to Lifelong Happiness
“The impression we derive from a book, depends much less upon its real contents, than upon the temper of mind and preparation with which we read it.”
Advice to a Daughter from Pioneering Political Philosopher and Feminism Founding Mother Mary Wollstonecraft
“Always appear what you are, and you will not pass through existence without enjoying its genuine blessings, love and respect.”
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