The Browser - Top Of The Week

A selection from recent editions of The Browser

The Future Of Ghosts

Jeanette Winterson | Paris Review | 23rd October 2023 | U

Ghost stories may well have proliferated in the 19C because of the excess carbon monoxide from gas lamps — low level poisoning can cause hallucinations and dread. In the 21C, our hauntings will be predicated on the intangible reality we already inhabit. "A ghost is the spirit of a dead person. An avatar is a digital twin of a living person. Neither is 'real'. A haunted metaverse. Why not?" (910 words) 

What Does A Happily Ever After Look Like?

Alice Lang & Jan Diehm | Pudding | 16th October 2023 | U

Analysis of how romance novel covers have changed over time. Comprising almost a quarter of the US adult fiction market, the way these books are marketed reflects the changing status and perceived desires of their women readers. In the 1950s, as more women entered the workforce, "corporate romances" were popular. Later, the classic 1980s Fabio "clinch" reflected "more feminist openness" (2,800 words)

The Ends Of Knowledge

Rachael Scarborough King | Aeon | 29th September 2023 | U

A valid question about the future of academia: what could learning look like "if it were reoriented around emergent ends rather than inherited structures"? The answer is elusive here, but it bears considering. We accept that needs evolve and new areas of study open up, but the other side of that is that the demand for other areas diminishes. At what point do we start closing departments? (3,200 words)

Invitation To A Colonoscopy

Dynomight | Asterisk Magazine | 26th October 2023 | U

A masterclass in interpreting clinical data. American doctors perform some 15 million colonoscopies each year at an average cost of $3,000 apiece. In Europe, meanwhile, a huge clinical trial finds that colonoscopies have little or no effect on mortality rates. American doctors say the trial is wrong, the methodology is flawed, Europeans are different. Are they right, or self-interested, or both? (4,500 words)

My Left Kidney

Scott Alexander | Astral Codex Ten | 27th October 2023 | U

How to give a kidney and why you might want to do so. The surgery carries a 1 in 10,000 mortality risk; no real worries. But the pre-op CAT scan carries a 1 in 660 mortality risk, so ask for an MRI. No known risks to longevity. You sleep through the surgery. You wake up feeling fine (except for the catheter). You get a call to say that your kidney has saved a stranger's life. You feel wonderful (6,700 words)

Video: What On Earth | Jimmy Marble | Vimeo | 10m 00s

"I wrote the film as the world was opening back up after Covid. I had been in isolation and experiencing the world through my phone, watching other people who all seemed to be thriving way more than I could possibly imagine. I had never felt so strongly that everyone on Earth was much better at life than me in every single way possible. And so this character Zizi came to me." — Jimmy Marble 

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