Category Archives: New Utopia

Winters can sometimes be really harsh and hard to get through, especially if you are someone who is always cold and cannot bear even the slightest drop in the surrounding temperatures. However, if you have the right resources at your disposal that will help you stay warm and cosy, you can get through even the harshest winters. This is exactly what an electric blanket aims at doing. By providing the right heat and warmth, an electric blanket helps to keep you and your bed warm which can not only help you stay warm in cold weather but also help to relieve stress by inducing a relaxing effect. Read below to know more about some of the best electric blankets available on Amazon which you can buy to keep yourself warm and cosy!

When looking for a new convenient method of keeping yourself warm through the winters, which can prove to be much more efficient at a much lesser cost than the heaters and radiators, you cannot go wrong with this Expressions EXPLORAR04DB electric bed warmer. It keeps your bed warm with dual controls that are uniquely designed to fit the comfort of two people sharing the bed. How annoying does it get when your bed partner is always warm while you are always cold or vice versa? With this electric blanket, you do not have to worry about that as it allows you to customise the warmth according to each of your needs. The soothing heat and warmth also help to relax your muscles and relieve stress and pain after a long tiring day. The electric blanket works at a low wattage to ensure complete safety.

The Utopia Bedding single bed electric bed warmer comes with a 100% waterproof design which enables it to sustain an occasional splash of water without malfunctioning or getting damaged. With the durable yet soft design, it lets you take the control of your warmth and comfort into your hands. This Utopia electric blanket can also be used to warm up your bed before getting into it, which means you no longer have to worry about having to sleep in a cold bed. You can also leave the under blanket switched on all night without any safety concerns and enjoy a warm and comfortable sleep all night long.

This GoHome double bed heating ELECTRIC-POLARDOUBLERUST blanket ensures maximum comfort and safety by using the auto cut off feature which gives you complete overheat protection by switching the supply off if the temperature crosses the optimum limit. With its two heat settings, you get total control of your comfort by customising the heat according to your needs. The quick heat-up feature gets your electric blanket ready in no time for you to snuggle up and get warm and comfortable in your bed. The 100% polyester design makes for a durable yet soft fabric to provide you with ultimate comfort.

This woollen electric blanket from Odessey products uses a low wattage technology that works towards heating up the blanket at a low watt power to ensure complete safety. The woollen fabric adds to your comfort and warmth which makes it a great choice for staying cosy even in the harshest winters. Heat therapy works wonders in relieving stress and pain from your sore muscles, this is why the electric blanket is also very useful in case of body aches, muscle pains or arthritis for relaxing your muscles and inducing a comfortable sleep so you feel refreshed and rested when you wake up.

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Best electric blankets to keep you warm and cozy on Amazon India - Digit

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CP Photo: Jared Wickerham

Chrome Cable poses for a portrait in the Strip District on Fri., Nov. 12, 2021.

And its truly been a family affair.

UTOPIA as a project is also an endeavor of McCloskeys production team and creative agency, Hounds, that he started with his brother, Clay, in 2018. Hounds does everything from design and branding to consultations and photo and video work. McCloskey says that he wanted his debut album to be, in part, a showcase of what Hounds can do.

I just wanted it to feel kind of out of this world, I wanted it to be larger than life. I wanted it to be an overall experience, he says about his album. I wanted to feel like I was from another world. I use the 412th dimension a lot, too with Pittsburgh. That's supposed to be the other world of Pittsburgh in my mind.

UTOPIA is a 14-track album that comes in at under 40 minutes, and it definitely succeeds in achieving that out of this world feeling. The tracks blend seamlessly together and whether McCloskey is rapping or singing, his vocals are smooth and balanced.

McCloskey produced, engineered, and wrote all the songs on the album. He was essentially a one-man production team, with the exception of one collaborator: popular local hip-hop artist Mars Jackson, who is featured on the song Energy. The track is definitely a stand-out, with an old school hip-hop and R&B feel.

It's stressful, very stressful, but its fun though because you get to choose, you get to do everything the way that you want to at your own time, says McCloskey. You don't have to worry about, let's say, bothering someone or having to pay someone for something you know? I love collaboration, but I wanted to see if I could do this myself.

McCloskey says he has been making music seriously for the past four or five years, but got his true start in the industry about seven years ago. Chrome Cable has steadily released singles since 2019, including his 2020 single Mother Earth which a Pittsburgh City Paper article described as singing sweet nothings to the planet like one would to a loved one.

Taking four years to put out his first full-length album might seem like a long time for some, but McCloskey says he wanted this project to be something he was fully proud of.

It was something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I've been kind of low key about making music and just getting out there because I wanted to get to the point where I was comfortable with everything I was doing. I wanted to make sure that I found my sound and I didn't want to, for lack of better words, half-ass anything, he says. I wanted to be sure when I put something out there, especially as a full album, I knew I wanted to impress people. Especially since I do all my production to engineering and then obviously all the writing and recording as well. I wanted to make sure that it was good enough.

CP Photo: Jared Wickerham

Cole McCloskey aka Chrome Cable

UTOPIA isnt an album that youll hear played at one of the many dance nights in Pittsburgh. It's not necessarily a club listen, its more of a project that youll put on when hanging out with friends, going for a drive, or chilling by yourself when you want to listen to something with some balance.

The album has already seen a lot of support from fans, but whether hes getting praise or criticism, McCloskey says he is grateful that he isnt surrounded by yes men who tell him everything is perfect and great.

Utopia is this place where it's your highest high, but you don't want to get lost in that utopia. You want to have that balance of reality and that utopia. So you want to be able to balance it out, so you're not doing the wrong things, making the wrong moves, he says. You may not be paying attention to what's really going on in real life, but it's not all bad things, too, you know. There's a lot of good things when it comes to your utopia. When you have that balance, that's when you can find the truth.

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Chrome Cable releases new out of this world album, Utopia - PGH City Paper

Mega-gallery David Zwirner is growing again.Today, it unveiled Utopia Editions, a new publisher of original prints by contemporary artists. It will be overseen by Elleree Erdos, who joined the gallery in August as director of prints and multiples.

One offer right out of the gate are three new print editions by Marcel Dzama, each in an edition of 75, priced at $2,500 each. The works are titled: Under for opening eyelids of the moon; The flowers of indulgence; and And now we have Mother Nature on the run. The works are lithographs thatwere made by master printer Maurice Sanchez of Derriere LEtoile Studios in Queens, in collaboration with the artist. All three are currently available on platformart.com.

Next up, Utopia Editions will release lithographs by Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy on December 8, and a silkscreen edition by Ebecho Muslimova in early 2022. Additional artists to release prints include Katherine Bernhardt, Cy Gavin, Raymond Pettibon, Cynthia Talmadge, and Luc Tuymans, and others.

Marcel Dzama, Under for opening eyelids of the moon, (2021). Marcel Dzama. Image courtesy the artist and Utopia Editions.

Asked about the impetus for the new initiative, gallery founder David Zwirner told Artnet News via email that,once the gallery launched Platform in 2020, right after the lockdown kicked in, I saw how quickly our client base was growing, I realized that our publishing avenue needed to be developed further.

Zwirner added that from the time he first opened the gallery, he wanted to be a publisher as well as an art dealer. His first job in the art world was working for Brooke Alexander Editions. I started there in 1990. I was in charge of the production of prints and multiples, where we worked with artists like Bruce Nauman, Richard Tuttle, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, John Baldessari, to name just a few. At that point, I fell in love with the medium and the endless possibilities for expression as artists collaborated with master printmakers.

Though he initially undertook print projects with artists like Raymond Pettibon and Chris Ofili, he says that the realities of running my growing gallery kept me busy.

However, once the gallery started establishing itself in the online world in early 2017, Zwirner says he reconnected with his interest in fine art prints and embarked on successful projects with Lisa Yuskavage, Neo Rauch, Alice Neel, Josh Smith, and others, offering their prints through davidzwirner.com. We were excited to see that our activities reached a different kind of collector, looking for great art at a lower price point. Young collectors who were just getting started responded immediately, as did seasoned collectors, he added.

Following the launch of Platform last year,I started to look for somebody to lead our efforts establishing the new publishing house at our gallery and was fortunate to find Elleree Erdos, Zwirner said. Her deep knowledge and expertise in the world of prints allows us to establish Utopia Editions with a leader at the helm.

Marcel Dzama with one of three new prints produced with Utopia Editions. Image courtesy the artist and David Zwirner Gallery.

Asked about pricing for the various editions, Erdos explained that it will be set by a group of gallery directors, including herself, in collaboration with the artists who are making them. We will also be publishing prints with artists outside of the David Zwirner roster, so these prices will be decided by those artists and their galleries.

In general though, Erdosnoted, pricing will depend on a combination of factors such as edition size, physical size of the print, and the printing technique or techniques used.

Of the work being released today, Dzama said: I love the tradition of printmaking, how it changed the world and the ability to make multiples but still be an original work. Some of my favorite works of art were prints made by Drer and Goya. This series of work was made during this monumental time of change in the world with the pandemic, tyrannical leaders, and destructive climate change. These works have a bit of an escape in mind but also knowledge that a threat is at our doorstep.

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Building on the Appeal of Lower-Priced Online Sales, Zwirner Launches an Editions Company to Publish Artists Prints - artnet News

As most European monarchies made way for constitutional democracy, Russia remained under autocratic rule. Unable to raise their voice in congress, Russian thinkers relied on pen, paper, and printing presses to figure out how society could be improved. Their combined efforts gave way to what literary scholars now refer to as sociological literature. Books from this period were rarely written simply to entertain; they diagnosed social problems and attempted to formulate viable solutions.

The first step in this process was by far the easiest. Compared to Europe and the (still infantile) United States, Russias form of government was considered inapt and outdated. Power was vested in a single individual, the selection of whom was based not on skill but blood. Russians were divided between a small group of obscenely rich nobles and a disproportionally large group of have-nots. Prior to the emancipation of 1861, many of these have-nots were kept as serfs and deprived of basic human rights.

But while virtually every Russian thinker agreed that their country was in desperate need of change, they all came up with different, often conflicting solutions. In his article, A Clash of Utopias, professor of Russian and Slavic studies Hugh McLean proves as much when he compares the utopian pictures painted by two equally influential Russians: author Leo Tolstoy and political activist Maxim Gorky. The insurmountable contrasts between their visions explain Russias stunted development and hint at its destructive future.

McLeans inquiry into Tolstoys vision of utopia begins with a truth which many scholars before him had already acknowledged, that the authors critical powers, his capacity for discerning flaws in the reasoning of others, were infinitely greater than his ability to construct positive systems on his own. Tolstoy wrote multiple books and hundreds of essays on societys discontents from substance abuse to systemic poverty but often failed to find compelling answers to the questions that he asked.

Though Tolstoy had always been interested in big questions, his writing did not become overtly utopian until later on in his career. Works from this period which include the essays A Confession and The Kingdom of God is Within You, as well as Tolstoys last true novel, Resurrection are characterized by their didactic style and Christian themes. Pulled out of depression by a religious reawakening, the writer settled on non-violence as the only viable path to peace and justice.

Believing that all people were inherently good, Tolstoy blamed virtually all evil on civilization and its corrupting institutions. While he thought himself deeply religious, he refused to be labeled as such. Rejecting organized religion and the saint-like figures these organizations were built upon, the author interpreted God as a symbolic expression of love and argued that a utopia could be created the moment every man, woman, and child on the planet began to trust in this basic human impulse.

From a socioeconomic standpoint, Tolstoys utopia could only be realized through devolution rather than evolution. If every person on Earth loved unconditionally, there would not be a need for borders, nor armies to protect them. Cities would dissolve as their inhabitants dismantled the institutions which Tolstoy deemed unnecessary or unacceptable. They would then reorganize themselves in the countryside, where they would work the farm, engage in communal activity, and devote themselves to matters of spiritual improvement.

Though widely known and read inside Russia, Maxim Gorky never approached Tolstoys level of international renown. As such, his person might require a more substantial introduction. Born in 1868, Gorky began his career writing sociologically minded short stories. He was one of few authors to play an active role in the Russian Revolution, becoming an ally of and adviser to the learned Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik government.

Gorky not only had a radically different vision of utopia than Tolstoy, but he also argued for different means by which that vision should be realized. Arguing that Russias deeply religious working class had been passive long enough, he agreed with Lenin that the status quo had to be destroyed, even if doing so meant resorting to violence. Considering landlords and nobles had frequently used the threat of force to stay in power, Gorky had no problem fighting fire with fire.

In true socialist fashion, Gorky also took issue with Tolstoys notion that utopia was best achieved through self-improvement. To him, such an argument would make sense only if every man was born with an equal amount of opportunity, which in 19th century Russia was definitely not the case. Though he agreed with Tolstoy that many social institutions were corrupt and dysfunctional, he still believed these institutions could be improved.

In an article published in 1909 titled The Destruction of Personality, Gorky called Tolstoy and his contemporary Fyodor Dostoevsky the greatest geniuses of a land of slaves () With one voice they cry out Endure () Resist not evil by violence. I do not know in Russian history a more painful moment than this, I do not know a slogan more offensive to a person who has already proclaimed his capacity to resist evil and to fight for his goal.

Gorkys vision of utopia was, as McLean puts it, the standard socialist one espoused by so many intellectuals in Russia. It was a world in which the means of production belonged to the workers instead of their employers, where private property was largely abolished, where governmental decisions were made via popular vote or by representatives who took the interest of the masses to heart, and where education would be reinvented to impart students with an irrevocable sense of social responsibility.

At the same time, Gorky was unique in that he did not fall prey to the kind of factionalism that divided socialist parties across Russia at the time. Before the Bolsheviks established their one-party state, Russia did indeed know dozens upon dozens of socialist organizations, each touting their own interpretation of the work of Karl Marx. Understanding that all socialists worked toward a common goal and differed only in the means used to achieve said goal, Gorky emphasized unification through civilized dialog.

However, of all brands of socialism, Gorky seemed to have liked Bolshevism the best. In the years leading up to the revolution, the writer made significant financial donations to the struggling party and even organized meetings at his home to turn working men and women into class-conscious revolutionaries. He also played a crucial role in the partys God-building campaign, which sought to figure out how the Bolsheviks could inspire the same kind of faith in their regime as the Russian Orthodox Church had done.

A classically trained intellectual first and a communist activist second, Gorkys personal upbringing soon drove a wedge between him and other Bolsheviks. Where Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin envisioned the communist state as a completely new, non-Western form of government, Gorky was never quite able to shake his admiration for European countries, which he not without bias considered the peak of human civilization and the ultimate destination of Russias political makeover.

Just as Gorky pointed out the flaws in Tolstoys worldview, so too did Tolstoy albeit unconsciously and indirectly point out the flaws in Gorkys. Though the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina never outlined Russias authoritarian future in quite as much detail as did Dostoevsky in his novella Notes from Underground, Tolstoy still understood the emotions that led to the Soviet Unions blood-soaked birth as well as its slow and painful downfall.

Tolstoy knew that, for a socialist utopia to actually work, its citizens could not be coerced into cooperation. For such an experiment to succeed, participants would have to experience a personal revelation and participate out of their own volition. Looking back at the millions of Soviet citizens who died of starvation, war, and persecution, there can be no denying that the cost of maintaining Lenins government far exceeded the regimes benefits.

But while Tolstoys approach is undoubtedly better in theory, it is also impractical and even a little nave. For instance, though the writer waxed poetically about the power of love, McLean struggles to find epistemological evidence for his hypotheses. Tolstoy found the law inscribed in his own heart, he wrote, and therefore concluded that it must be there in all of us. By emphasizing introspection, Tolstoy understated the significance of social change, and his economic theory represents an incomplete and, consequently, useless blueprint.

Rather than simply criticizing Russian intellectuals for the devastation their disagreements have caused, however, we must also show appreciation for the earnestness with which these individuals tackled the problems that affected their society. Many of them were willing and able to stand up for what they believed in even if this meant being ostracized, imprisoned, or killed. Though their writings did not protect Russia during the 20th century, hopefully they will guide human development moving forward.

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Tolstoy vs. Gorky: a war of Russian intellectuals over utopia - Big Think

Editor's note: This story is part of Smart Cities Dive's "Reassessing the smart cities movement" multipart series, which provides a look into the past, present and future of the space.

In 1982, Walt Disney World officials officially opened Epcot Center, inspired by Walt Disneys plan for a utopia that would "never be completed, but will always be introducing, and testing, and demonstrating new materials and new systems." Although the Florida attraction was not necessarily a utopian city, the parks Future World pavilion marked by an iconic geodesic dome was meant to show off new technology and visions of the future.

Today in nearby Orlando, Mayor Buddy Dyer wants his city to take a similar forward-looking perspective, to become what he calls "Americas premier future-ready city." In September,the city moved toward that vision in announcing the early steps of a plan to bring flying cars to Orlando skies a technology that not even Disney could bring to Epcot.

"We know this technology is going to come, and we want to have the best framework in place when it does,"said Jacques Coulon, transportation planning projects coordinator for the city of Orlando. "We know that simply expanding roads and highways isnt going to get us to the quality of life we want, so we have to think about new opportunities."

Througha forthcoming Advanced Air Mobility Transportation Plan, Orlando officials will partner with engineering firm VHB and NASA to consider how air taxis could fit into the citys future. Orlando is also one of five entities and the only city partnering with NASA on a series of air mobility workshops.

Flying cars, air taxis or aircraft with electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOLs)are still,even by optimistic estimates, years away from ferrying riders. But Orlandos forward-looking approach reflects a reality for smart cities: Departments used to dealing with roads and trains mightsoon have to think about mobility solutions that seem like theyre out of The Jetsons.

While transportation departments have always worked on long-range plans to adequately prepare for multi-year construction projects, some governments are thinking even further ahead.

Miamis 2045 Long Range Transportation Plan, first released in 2019,includes language on connected and autonomous vehicles, maglev trains, hyperloops and delivery drones. The Texas Transportation Plan 2050,adopted last year,recognizes that technology is being adopted at a faster pace than ever before and weighs a variety of future scenarios with different levels of technology, stating that "as Texans embrace new technologies, behavioral patterns for transportation use will likely change."Pittsburgh even released a planthis year that looks out to 2070.

The world of transportation has changed dramatically even in just the last decade. Considering the ride-hailing revolution powered by Uber and Lyft, or the fleets of scooters and e-bikes dropped on city sidewalks, urban transportation departments have had to adapt quickly. Kersten Heineke, head of the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility in Europe, said cities should be evaluating recent developments in mobility offerings in technology and think about becoming a pilot city to help shape the application of technology.

In an email, Heineke said there are "two main risks"for cities not preparing for new tools. "With previous technologies and services, cities who did not proactively co-shape with players had to 'overcorrect'by issuing ... bans for certain services or vehicles," Heineke wrote. He added that unprepared cities will be the last to reap the full benefits of the new technology.

For Orlando, that means preparing for urban air mobility by envisioning a network of landing pads for eVTOLvehicles. Those vehicles may be closer to launchingthan many people think:Californias Joby Aviationsays it has completed more than 1,000 test flights of an eVTOL vehicle, including a 154-mile flight it says is the longest for any eVTOL, and it has started the process to gain approval from the Federal Aviation Administration with an eye on beginning commercial operations in 2024.Uber and Boeing are developing flying vehicles as well.

A report this year from Deloitte and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) found that urban air mobility could be worth $115 billion by 2035.

Several cities are hoping to capture a share of that market and take advantage of the opportunity to move people around downtown corridors without adding any congestion on existing roads.Los Angeles announced in 2020 its Urban Air Mobility Partnership to educate and engage residents and policymakers in the technology. Houston has been a hub for Ubers flying taxitesting. In Miami, the newly constructed Paramount Miami World Center, which developers call Americas City-within-the-City of the Future,has a takeoff and landing port, and other new construction will include similar "SkyPorts."

Orlandos Coulon said that early work can ensure that any new technology meets the citys goals of sustainability and equity, rather than just chasing something new. Rather than dump money into an initiative that may just serve a niche market, Coulon said Orlando is thinking about "making this a way to get around that provides opportunities and growth."

"Were not going to repeat the mistakes of the past," he said. "When we think about placement, we are looking at how to do this without negatively impacting one neighborhood over another, not displacing anyone, but creating the best service for as many residents as possible."

Pittsburgh looked a half-century into the future with the PGH 2070 Mobility Vision Planit released in September. That document is based on historic transportation data and community input and considers a range of new modes, from waterborne transit to gondolas to high-speed trains running to Chicago and Washington, D.C. Completing this kind of long-range planning is necessary, said Kim Lucas, acting director of Pittsburgh's Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, to "lay the foundation for the more complex and challenging things that could come."

Of particular importance, Lucas said, was thinking about hubs for multimodal trips, like a central station that could handle high-speed rail and hyperloop trips and connect to intracity modes. The "living document" lays out the citys broad priorities and can adapt as new modes, public or private, emerge. But she added that Pittsburgh, which has been aggressive on smart city technology for years, was in the right position to think about 2070.

"Pittsburgh has the secret sauce that can get us a 50-year plan before a lot of other cities," Lucas said. "When leadership is receptive and we have a talent pool, this is a good environment for new technologies."

Similarly, Miamis 2045 plan envisions a city where people zip around on high-speed trains, navigate via air taxis and rely on autonomous and connected vehicles on the roads.Eulois Cleckley, CEO of the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works, said that reflects the "entrepreneurial and innovative nature of the city and county."

"Were not looking to replace anything, its supplementing what we already have and using new technology to fill in the gaps," he said. "You need both of those together, and ultimately you have the fabric of a mobility system that provides more access for more modes."

But certain advocates say that such a forward-looking vision can sometimes ignore the day-to-day needs of commuters. Kevin Amzaga, president of the Miami Riders Alliance, said a plethora of long-range plans for the region have led to a form of "analysis paralysis."

"We put things off for so long that new technologies come along that we think are going to solve everything," Amzaga said. He pointed to the countys plans to build a monorail between Miami and Miami Beach, despite a previous study that showed that extending the existing Metromover transit service might generate more ridership. Building a new line, he said, would require riders to potentially switch modes if they are making longer trips, tacking on to what he called a "fragmented" rail network.

"It can seem like Miami prioritizes ribbon cuttings over moving people in an efficient way,"Amzaga said.

Cleckley said the monorail system is part of a voter-approved planning process that dates back nearly 20 years and will "create this connection that has been needed for some time."

The tension between the desire to be on top of new technology and meet today's less-sexy needs can be a struggle for some agencies, said Alisyn Malek, executive director of the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility, a project of Securing Americas Future Energy.

"City leaders should really be thinking about the entire system,"Malek said. "That way, whether its aerial mobility or teleportation, they can understand what modes solve what challenges, and it becomes easier to fill in the gaps."

That can also prepare cities for the inevitable delays in bringing new technology to market, whether its setbacks in permitting, approval or consumer acceptance.

For years, automakers and tech companies had promised that autonomous vehicles would be widespread by 2020, but self-driving taxi networks are still in trial stages. Still, cities that have worked on autonomous technology have managed to attract some pilot projects,and they say they are well set up for the proliferation of the cars. Other governments have backed away from ambitious projects; Colorado in 2019 ended a partnership with Virgin Hyperloop One that was exploring a 360-mile route for a train that could travel 600 miles per hour, saying its transportation department would instead focus on buses and light rail.

Even the $1.1 trillion infrastructure billthat President Joe Biden signed into law on Monday dedicates $110 billion to highways, roads and bridges, a sign of the needs of the transportation system of the past even as it laid out $500 million for new smart cities technology.

Malek said that transportation departments thinking about new technology have the opportunity to take a systems-level look that focuses on moving people in the most efficient way possible."The thing that gets me excited is the blurring of the lines," Malek said. "We have a chance to leverage these changes and think about how we align funding to give better transportation options to people."

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Flying taxis, hyperloops and driverless cars: Is it too early to start planning for future mobility? - Smart Cities Dive

Express News Service

At its core, Akash Kapurs latest book is about the eternal human desire for utopia and the cruelty that accompanies it. In early 2004, the author moved with his wife, Auralice Graft, from New York to Auroville. For the couple who grew up in Auroville, the move represented a step back into the past. Grafts mother, Diane Maes, and adopted father, John Walker, had both died in Auroville when she was 14. The deaths remained shrouded tragedies, and it wasnt clear what happened.

An intelligent, privileged scion of a wealthy American family, Walker left his life of luxury and chose one of an asceticcomplete with austerity and self abnegation. Maes was a beautiful, spiritually inclined dropout from Belgium. As Kapur narrates the detailed story of their lives, he also traces Aurovilles origin, its idealism, geography, architecture and gradual expansionthe many layers to its history as well as stories of hardship faced by its many inhabitants.

Along the way, he includes vivid details about the central characters who helped shape Aurovilles trajectory over the yearsa Frenchwoman called Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa, known as the Mother, Aurobindo Ackroyd Ghose, known as Sri Aurobindo and a Frenchman, Bernard Enginger, known as Satprem. All of these people were rebels, who shared a constant restlessnessthe urge to fill a distinctive gap in their souls and escape their seemingly mundane lives. They were joined by thousands of others from around the world, people propelled by the same thirst, the same vague longing for something different, something more meaningfula deeper way of living.

Kapur analyses the possible reason for this phenomenon. After the Second World War, a number of people, particularly in the West, were dismayed with societyleading to a heightened interest in Eastern religions, cultures and spiritualism. During the 1960sthe golden age of utopiamore than 10,000 communities in alternative living with at least 750,000 members emerged across the world. Some moments in time are simply more epochal: they offer more scaffolding for our ideals, and for our fantasies of reinvention, writes Kapur.

And so, the Ideal City of Aurovillea brave experiment in communal livingwas a creature of its time, founded in 1968 with the goals of encouraging human unity and fostering evolution. For all its idealism and the promise of a better world, the fractured landscape of this idyllic land full of possibility was plagued with several fault lines which Kapur goes on to expose, such as disagreements, divisions, hunger, food shortages as well as a lack of organisation and finances. A number of freak occurrences add further to the turmoil.

According to Kapur, everyone at heart is a utopian. He also knows, however, what faith can do, and that the dream has its own shadows. By unravelling the truth about the City of Dawn and the mystery behind Maes and Walkers deaths, he somewhat busts the myth about the very idea of utopia and the search of perfectionrevealing its dark and often extremist underbelly. The line between utopia and dystopia is often thin, he warns. Writing the book was a cathartic process for Kapur and Graft , as it helped them decipher the tumult of their own unusual childhood.

Children of utopias are like exiles, writes Kapur. Having grown up with the illusory promise of an ideal society, they grasp the impracticability of that vision as adults. Yet, a part of them clings to that promise and they never stop hoping. Its hard to eradicate the vision of a better dream once it inhabits your dreams, he writes.

For more than a decade, Kapur and his wife spoke to a number of Ashramites and Aurovilians, who shared their memories and experiences. The books extensive research also includes other documentary sources, such as Johns original letters and diaries as well as material from the Auroville Archives, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The book also truly brings alive the 1960s counter-cultural and hippie movements, filling the readers mind with images of its idealists, dreamers and romantics, all part of a great adventure to remake human society and build a new world.

Better to Have Gone: Love, Death,and the Quest for Utopia in AurovilleBy: Akash KapurPublisher: ScribnerPages: 352Price: Rs 699

Excerpt from:

The enigma of Auroville - The New Indian Express

Park Seo Joon is the latest star to grace the cover of fashion magazine Marie Claire!

During the photo shoot, the actor managed to pull off both classy and casual looks that showed his sophisticated and trendy side.

Park Seo Joon is busy filming various movies, like Dream (working title) and Concrete Utopia. The actor also recently went toEngland to film The Marvels,the upcoming sequel to Captain Marvel.

Concerning the new challenges he takes as an actor, he commented, I tend to trynew things even if its just a little, and I choose characters andprojects that I will be able to express well. I want to try all the rolesthat I can do well at my current age.

Park Seo Joon also expressed his desire to become a better person. He shared, When I hear that people gained strength after seeing myproject, I feel proud, and when I realize that I could have a good influence on someone, I have a stronger sense of responsibility. I always think that I should think about whether Im on the right path and how I should be a better person for those who watch my projects.

Park Seo Joons full interview and pictorial will be released in the December issue of Marie Claire.

Check out Park Seo Joon in the film The Divine Fury:

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Park Seo Joon Shares His Thoughts About Taking On New Roles And Becoming A Better Person - soompi

If youre a progressive, you might think that its no problem identifying the right side of history. Anything that promotes social justice is on the right side. Any innovation that promises to conquer the limits of human nature is on the right side. Anything that expands the empire of rights is on the right side.

President Obama was particularly fond of distinguishing the right side from the wrong side, invoking the phrase over and over in his weekly addresses. His political opponents, as a rule, were on the wrong side. Republicans could use Leninist language too, albeit ironically, as when Ronald Reagan used to claim that various statist policies would eventually be left on the ash heap of history, consumed by fire and brimstone like the cities of the plain.

Being on the right side of history is a way of thinking about the future that descends from Hegel via Marx. The future, inevitably, is going to be better than the past, perhaps after a revolutionary struggle, and those who stand in the way of utopia will be condemned by history. Progressives who think in this Marxoid way seem not to realize that historians will not always be on the same side of history as most of them now are. Future historians may someday, perhaps quite soon, reject the whole idea that history has a right side.

Real historians know that historiographic models change along with history.We know that since the ancient Babylonians human beings have imagined their histories to unfold in many different patterns. Graeco-Roman antiquity, for example, saw history as a tragic cycle rather than as a shining path to an illimitable future. Empires rose, empires fell; another empire would inevitably take the place of the current one. Precise predictions of the future were difficult, too, since you never really knew where you were on the cycle. The Roman historian Sallust in the first century b.c.was sure Romes ruin was imminent. He was off by only five hundred years. Machiavelli, who knew better, was skeptical that you could ever tell whether your own republic was rising or declining.

Since the Renaissance, Western models of historical change have been more upbeat. The Renaissance itselfin the person of Flavio Biondo, the great historian and papal officialinvented the concept of a Middle Age, a period of some centuries when barbarism reigned before the humanist Revival of Antiquity. The medieval period, as Christian humanists like Erasmus saw it, was a dark valley between the twin peaks of antiquity and the present.

In the early modern period, historians and philosophes switched the Golden Age from antiquity to the future. The French Enlightenment saw a future where science and reason triumphed over superstition; the Scottish Enlightenment believed that economic and political freedom could usher in a new and higher civilization. Both models assumed that present times, with their comparative ignorance and unfreedom, would recede backward into a medieval period of darkness and barbarism as humanity advanced. Better not be barbaric or superstitious or history would condemn you.

Lately Ive been toying with the idea that the champions of woke could wake up one fine morning and find themselves to be medieval. Polite opinion would regard them as backward and uncivilized. Their jargon would sound in educated ears like the jabbering of barbarians. Implausible? History never unfolds the way we think it will, but heres one possible scenario.

Lets assume, a decade hence, that current trends in American K-12 education have continued and intensified. Educators adhering to the successor ideology in public schools and prestige private schools go on teaching a caricature of American history, no dissent allowed. They prohibit the study of Western civilization, alleging that it is an instrument of white supremacy. Most literature written before the year 2000 is banned. Children continue to be trained by DEI consultants and are required to attend politicized courses in ethnic studies, such as those recently imposed on California schools. Even mathematics is pressed into the service of eradicating Old Think. Any genuine, open-ended search for truth and self-knowledge continues to be discouraged. Students dont need to think for themselves; their teachers already know what they should think. Any desire to distinguish oneself, to acquire honor and merit, is suppressed as an affront to equity.

Now lets assume that the classical education movement continues to grow and mature into a parallel educational system, as seems to be happening at present. The trend of parents choosing homeschooling or hybrid schooling over district public schools, or classical schooling over woke private schools, intensifies. Currently classical schools educate about 2 percent of K-12 students; classical homeschooling and hybrid schools account for another 2 percent. Lets assume that these alternatives continue to expand at the current rate and, ten years hence, are educating, say, 10 percent of school-aged children and teenagers.

How are the two populations of high school graduates going to compare after a decade of independent development? The graduates of woke K-12 education are going to be incurious ignoramuses. Even if they possess a lot of raw intelligence, they will be intellectually torpid because a system of schooling that aims at indoctrination must smother natural curiosity and a sense of wonder about the unknown, the spring of all true education. They will lack creativity because knowledgeknowledge inside your head, not merely retrievable dataprovides the raw material of the imagination.

Meanwhile, children brought up in classical schools will know stuff. They will have a much fuller grasp of the amazing story of America. Having taken courses about Western civilization, they will have a grasp of the broad sweep of history, and they will be able to compare Western achievements fairly with those of other civilizations. They will have been brought up on a rich diet of Western art, architecture, music, and literature. They will have been taught that good character is a persons most valuable possession. They will have been taught logic (the art of reasoning) and rhetoric (the art of eloquence and persuasion).

So ten years from now, which group of high school graduates will constitute the elite? I dont mean the credentialed elite, but the true elitethe young men and women with the best characters, the best skills, and the best, most creative minds? I think we know the answer to that question.

If it seems fanciful that a new elite could arise beyond the control of the present oligarchy, consider what happened in the early Renaissance. Back in the fourteenth century, the followers of Petrarch came to believe that the education offered in Italy was too rigidly vocational. Schools taught literacy and accounting; universities taught law and medicine. (Only a tiny minority in the religious orders studied theology.) Law schools taught litigiousness and avarice rather than justice; the science of the medical schools was a learned ignorance. The dog Latin used in schools was utilitarian and full of jargon, lacking beauty and a personal voice. The Christian humanists who followed Petrarchs lead founded a new kind of education: the humanities, which taught eloquence, good character, and a command of great literature. Within seventy-five years of Petrarchs death, that education had conquered the schools of Italy. Those educated in the humanities constituted a new elite; they had true nobility, not a nobility based merely on inherited social rank. History was no longer hurtling downhill; it was on an upward trajectory toward a new Golden Age.

Real educational revolutions are rare, but they are possible. A day may well come when a new elite that deserves the name will regard their woke peers, possessing credentials but no virtue, with a mixture of pity and disgust. History will once again have waved its magic wand and declared that the evil age we have been living through was an age of barbarism. Maybe, just maybe, in the future of America there lies not some woke utopia but a Renaissance of the Western tradition.

James Hankins is a professor of history at Harvard University.

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How to Be on the Right Side of History | James Hankins - First Things

One of the biggest all-star lineups ever will celebrate the 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees this weekend. The ceremony filmed October 30 in Cleveland, Ohio, and now airs this Saturday, November 20, on HBO and HBO Max.

The event clocking in at 3 hour and16 minutes honors Foo Fighters, The Go-Gos, Jay-Z, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Tina Turner in the performer category. Kraftwerk, Charley Patton and Gil Scott-Heron were chosen for early influence induction. LL Cool J, Billy Preston and Randy Rhoads were honored in the musical excellence category. Clarence Avant received the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

King had been previously inducted as a songwriter. Turner is now a solo artist inductee after going in with Ike Turner the first time around.

While the order of inductions was different during filming, here is the complete rundown of every performer and presenter for the HBO telecast on Saturday.

Carole King inducted by Taylor SwiftTaylor Swift Will You Still Love Me TomorrowJennifer Hudson Natural WomanCarole King Youve Got a Friend

LL Cool J inducted by Dr. DreLL Cool J Go Cut Creator Go and Going Back to CaliLL Cool J and Eminem Rock the BellsLL Cool J and Jennifer Lopez All I HaveLL Cool J Mama Said Knock You Out

Randy Rhoads inducted by Tom Morello (video tribute only)

Billy Preston inducted by Ringo Starr (video tribute only)

Tina Turner inducted by Angela BassettH.E.R. and Keith Urban Its Only LoveMickey Guyton Whats Love Got to Do with ItChristina Aguilera River Deep, Mountain High

Clarence Avant presented with the Ahmet Ertegun Award by Lionel Richie

Todd Rundgren inducted by Patti Smith (video tribute only)

Charley Patton inducted by Gary Clark, Jr. High Water Everywhere

Kraftwerk inducted by Pharrell Williams (video tribute only)

The Go-Gos inducted by Drew BarrymoreThe Go-Gos VacationThe Go-Gos Our Lips Are SealedThe Go-Gos We Got the Beat

Gil Scott-Heron inducted by Common (video tribute only)

In Memoriam segment honoring Charlie Watts (The Rolling Stones), Hilton Valentine (The Animals), Sylvain Sylvain (New York Dolls), Michael Stanley, B.J. Thomas, B.B. Dickerson (War), Bob Moore, Ronnie Wilson (The Gap Band), Sarah Dash (LaBelle), Jim Tucker (The Turtles), Chad Stuart (Chad and Jeremy), Charley Pride, Mary Wilson (The Supremes), Pervis Staples (The Staple Singers), K.T. Oslin, Nanci Griffith, Phil Spector, Lloyd Price, Ronnie Tutt, Charles Connor, Roger Hawkins, Chuck E. Weiss, Paddy Moloney (The Chieftains), Joey Ambrose (Billy Haley and His Comets), Dennis Dee Tee Thomas (Kool and the Gang), Brian Travers (UB40), Alto Reed (Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band), Danny Ray, Pee Wee Ellis, Biz Markie, Shock G (Digital Underground), MF Doom, Chick Corea, Prince Markie Dee (Fat Boys), John Ecstasy Fletcher (Whodini), Bruce Swedien, Chucky Thompson, DMX, Mike Mitchell (The Kingsmen), Leslie West (Mountain), Dusty Hill (ZZ Top), Ralph Schuckett (Utopia), Robby Steinhardt (Kansas), Alan Lancaster (Status Quo), Jeff Labar (Cinderella), Joey Jordison (Slipknot), Alan Cartwright (Procol Harum), Tim Bogert (Vanilla Fudge), Jim Steinman, Herbie Herbert, Walter Yetnikoff, Lee Scratch Perry, Bhaskar Menon, Russ Thyret, Marsha Zazula, Billie Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker, Hal Ketchum, Bunny Wailer (The Wailers), Joe Long (The Four Seasons), Jay Black (Jay and the Americans), John Lawton (Uriah Heep), Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep), Rupert Neve, Malcolm Cecil, Al Schmitt, Graeme Edge (Moody Blues), Jamie Oldaker, Kenny Malone, Ron Bushy, Rusty Young (Poco), Paul Cotton (Poco), Gerry Marsden (Gerry and the Pacemakers), Don Everly (The Everly Brothers)

All I Have to Do Is Dream Brandi Carlile

Jay-Z inducted by Dave Chappelle

Foo Fighters inducted by Paul McCartneyFoo Fighters Best of YouFoo Fighters My HeroFoo Fighters EverlongFoo Fighters and Paul McCartney Get Back

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2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Every performer and presenter for Saturdays HBO ceremony - Goldderby

Hilary Mantel

In the 1990s Musa Okwonga was a Ugandan scholarship boy at Eton, the school that turned out scores of politicians as well as Bertie Wooster and Captain Hook. His memoir, One of Them (Unbound), sheds light on the present disconnect between those who govern and those who suffer the consequences.

Claire Keegans novel, Small Things Like These (Faber & Faber), wastes not a word in its depiction of a small Irish town guilty of collective blindness about the nuns who run a training school for young women. Keegan is an exquisite writer, who can enclose volumes of social history in one luminous phrase.

Ian Rankin

Hyde by Craig Russell (Constable) is set in 19th-century Edinburgh, where a detective called Hyde must hunt a ghoulish, possibly occult serial killer while wrestling with demons of his own, including mood swings and blackouts. Its an ingenious slice of gothic that does something newwith the Jekyll and Hyde trope. Hyde is the bestScottish crime novel of 2021, according to the McIlvanney Prize, but I wont hold that against it

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In The Beresford by Will Carver (Orenda Books) a maze-like boarding-house becomes a scene of carnage as the tenants are dispatched in grisly fashion one by one. What is going on and who can bring an end to the bloodshed? Carver writes in the tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd, but with added grue. Shocking, compulsive and persuasive. Its one hell of a ride for those of a mind to jump aboard.

Bernardine Evaristo

Joelle Taylor has produced one of the most astonishing and original poetry collections of recent years. C+nto & Othered Poems (Westbourne Press) is a partly autobiographical exploration of the lives of butch lesbian counterculture. It challenges imprisoning notions of womanhood by celebrating and foregrounding those who face a hostile society when they are only being true to themselves.

Also taking us into new literary territory are two impressive debuts. Poor by Caleb Femi (Penguin) zooms in on the lives of young black men on the south London housing estate of his own childhood; while Caleb Azumah Nelsons first novel, Open Water (Viking), is a short, poetic and intellectual meditation on art and a relationship between a young couple, which also has Peckham and south London as its primary backdrop.

Ed Smith

I read Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones (Head of Zeus) and The World According to Colour by James Fox (Allen Lane) in tandem it was like watching two great and complementary half-backs in rugby. Jones drives his story upfield. Empires come and go, religions form and break up, ideas clash and mingle 1,100 years, 16 sweeping chapters, 700 pacey pages, and. . . hes done it, arms aloft, hes scored under the posts. Masterly, muscular and direct Gareth Edwards in full flow.

In contrast, Fox glides into intellectual spaces; colour becomes a philosophical feast astrophysics, the origins of civilisation, a palette of moral associations. Though dazzling, everything has a point: when Fox shoots, he scores. You never see it coming, then suddenly all the pieces fit together as though they were meant to be Barry John, running into space.

Philip Pullman

In 2009 Iain McGilchrist published The Master and His Emissary, a densely researched and entirely thrilling examination of the difference between the two kinds of thinking typical of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Now comes his new book, The Matter with Things (Perspectiva Press), which takes that basic idea much further and demonstrates, with an immense range of learning and beautifully clear prose, how important it is to be aware of the whole and not merely the parts, how analysis should come after insight and not before it, how right-hemisphere thinking, with its openness to experience, is a better guide to reality than the narrowly focused, rule-based way the left hemisphere regards the world.

I have spent a decade absorbing the vision of McGilchrists previous book; I shall be happy to spend the rest of my life with this one, and still be learning things when I get to the end.

Damon Galgut

Most of my reading is retrospective, which is to say I dont read a lot of stuff thats been recently published. I like to wait for the dust to settle. But Claire Keegans new novella, Small Things Like These (Faber & Faber), is absolutely exquisite. Her work is exceptional.

I really liked Burntcoat by Sarah Hall (Faber & Faber). I think shes a marvellous writer. She used the scenario of an unnamed plague and the lockdown it sets up to create a psychological mystery. Were probably going to get a whole new genre of Covid fiction opening up, and Hall is right at the vanguard.

Marina Warner

As we lived isolated in lockdown, I found Kazuo Ishiguros Klara and the Sun (Faber & Faber), about an Artificial Friend destined for a slow fade, uniquely poignant as well as prescient. The pandemic cut short the run of The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree (Camden Arts Centre London), but the curators, Gina Buenfeld and Martin Clark, produced a feast of a book exploring the visionary tradition across continents and centuries. In Swirl of Words/Swirl of Worlds: Poems from 94 Languages Spoken Across London (Peer), the poet and editor Stephen Watts draws us into hear the citys magnificent hubbub.

David Hare

Ninth Street Women (Back Bay) is 700 pages long, so you need lots of time not just to read but also to think. Mary Gabriel recreates that extraordinary moment in the 1950s in Greenwich Village when Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning and Lee Krasner were all young painters who came upon unforeseen fame and fortune. The book is both entertaining and inspiring.

Raven Leilani, in her debut novel Luster (Picador), makes fun of super-smart people being perverse. Im not sure I wholly understood her intent, but oh my goodness, the writing is beautiful.

John Gray

The book that engrossed me the most this year was Continents of Exile (Penguin Modern Classics), the 12-volume memoir of the Indian-born writer Ved Mehta (1934-2021), who lost his sight at the age of three after suffering from meningitis and went on to try to live as far as possible as a fully sighted person. The series seems to me one of the supreme works of modern autobiography. Much of it has to do with a sense of homelessness, but Mehtas story is full of the joy of life. I followed him through his early years with his family in India to a school for the blind in Arkansas, then to Pomona College in California, Balliol College, Oxford, Harvard and his 33 years as a writer for William Shawns New Yorker. Mehtas turbulent romances and years of psychoanalysis, his travails building a house on an island off the Maine coast and the hidden side of his father that came to light at a New York party complete an absorbing account of an astonishing life.

Mark Cocker

Great field guides are a rare species but at their best they are portals to a richer relationship with the rest of life. It is exceptional that two such groundbreaking books have appeared in a single year. Europes Birds: An Identification Guide by Rob Hume, Robert Still, Andy Swash and Hugh Harrop, and Paul Brocks Britains Insects: A Field Guide to the Insects of Great Britain and Ireland (both Princeton University Press) are models of compression, synthesising a mountain of fresh data in an easy-to-use format. But they are also beautiful to hold and to ponder and each is a glorious piece of political advocacy for its chosen organisms.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

I was proud of the shortlist we judges chose for the 2021 International Booker Prize, but there were books I loved that didnt make the cut. Among them were A Perfect Cemetery (Charco Press) a collection of haunting, witty stories by the Argentinian writer Federico Falco and Philippe Claudels Dog Island (Maclehose Press), a parable about modern migration that is also the kind of detective story that Mikhail Bulgakov might have written: visionary and darkly humorous.

My favourite novel of the year, though, is a re-issue, Elspeth Barkers O Caledonia (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). A book as outrageous and clever as its teenaged heroine, it is fiercely gothic, constantly surprising and wildly funny.

Mark Haddon

Ive been unwell for the past year and reading has been often impossible. Consequently I am more than usually grateful to the few books that drew me in and held me. The Prophets by Robert Jones Junior (Riverrun) is a gripping, luminous novel about the many tangled lives on a Louisiana plantation, centring on two enslaved teenage lovers, Samuel and Isiah. Reviews invoking Toni Morrison were absolutely justified.

The Idea of the Brain by Matthew Cobb (Profile) is a thrilling history of our rapidly expanding understanding of the brain, made even better by having no theoretical axe to grind. It also explores the fundamental role of metaphor in neuroscientific theory the brain is a system of hydraulics! The brain is a telegraph network! and the unique challenges faced when trying to understand an object that is like nothing else in the universe.

Jason Cowley

I admired the cool, restrained style of Katie Kitamuras Intimacies (Jonathan Cape), which probes the tangled emotional life of a young unnamed American-Japanese woman working as a translator at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. It is less a novel than an exercise in self-erasure, mysterious and compelling.

I loved Jonathan Bates Bright Star, Green Light (William Collins), a deeply romantic exploration of the work and parallel lives of John Keats and F Scott Fitzgerald, both destined to die young and both enraptured by beauty and beautys inevitable loss.

Ali Smith

Its quite hard to get hold of a copy of Eileen Agars memoir A Look at My Life (Methuen). It was published in 1988 and I read it this year when I couldnt get to London to see the Whitechapel retrospective of her work. But what a book. Spirited, funny, candid, as irreverent, textured and cornucopic as her art. It begins: Head first I tumbled out of my mother in December 1899. It ends: I hope to die in a sparkling moment. Agar makes a fleeting appearance, too, in Jennifer Higgies brilliant The Mirror and the Palette (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), which reveals an until-now hidden history of womens self-portraiture and is pretty cornucopic itself, a gift that keeps on giving.

But my book of the year is a debut, a slim collection of poetry called Forty Names (Carcanet) by the young Afghani poet Parwana Fayyaz. No one ever wanted to know/what the real story was. As clear as unruined water, as courageous as a poet can be in these times, as haunting as the brutal history it records and as marvellously summoned as the lives it celebrates, its a calm reclamation and a tour de force.

Nicola Sturgeon

Spanning the globe and a century, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (Doubleday) is an epic tale of daring and adventure. The character and determination of two fearless women, living in different times but connected by fate, is as inspiring as it is entertaining. I hugely enjoyed this novel.

I love everything Colm Tibn has written and The Magician (Viking) is another masterpiece. The rise of Nazi Germany and the horrors of the Second World War are viewed through the eyes and experiences of the complicated and multilayered writer and Nobel prize winner Thomas Mann. Historical fiction at its best.

Preti Taneja

Niven Govindens Diary of a Film (Dialogue Books) a novel about cinema, age, gender, fame and creativity infused with the spirit of Federico Fellini and Luca Guadagnino stole my heart this year. Set during an international film festival as a jaded director is about to launch his masterpiece and told in the first person as an extended conversation over a few nights it captures a sense of the fragility and intimacy of human endeavour, but also the silence and resilience needed to survive as a woman, a man, as lovers and as artists in a market-driven world. Lola Olufemis Experiments in Imagining Otherwise from the independent Hajar Press is also an extraordinary book written with compassion, fearlessness and determination to imagine a more equal world into being. A joy to read and to think with.

Jim Crace

William Palmers In Love with Hell (Robinson) is a masterful insiders account of how alcohol ruined and sustained the careers of 11 writers, including Kingsley Amis, Dylan Thomas and Jean Rhys (with whom I endured an intoxicating lunch in 1974). It is a both sad and joyful reminder of why the British pub is such a lure but also why, once trapped inside, it is mostly wise to stick to just a single pint. It also led me to the works of the greatest of all celebrants of bars and booze, Patrick Hamilton. Is there a kinder, wittier, sharper, tipsier novel than his wartime masterpiece, The Slaves of Solitude?

Alan Johnson

Its amazing how eruditely Robert Douglas-Fairhurst manages to illuminate our history through a microscopic focus on one brief period. The Turning Point (Jonathan Cape) transports us to 1851. The books principal subjects are Charles Dickens as he embarks on Bleak House, and the Crystal Palace, first assembled in all its sparkling glory for that years Great Exhibition.

Since the publication of Failures of State (Mudark) in March the governments maladroit handling of Covid-19 has been exposed by Dominic Cummings (willingly) and Matt Hancock (less so). No account can match this forensic analysis by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnot, who have presented us with a disturbing first draft of history.

David Reynolds

In Devil-Land: England under Siege, 1588-1688 (Allen Lane) Clare Jackson offers a bracingly revisionist view of our history in the century after the Armada. Viewed from across the Channel, Angel-Land during this century of succession crises, religious turmoil, civil wars, regicide and republican government looks like a failed state teetering between comedy and tragedy. You may not buy the whole argument, but after reading Devil-Land this sceptered isle and demi-paradise is unlikely to look quite the same ever again.

Paul Collier

The book that members of the Labour Party most need to read is The Dignity of Labour by Jon Cruddas (Polity). He understands why Labour has lost the trust of the working class: why isnt he in the shadow cabinet? Turning from politics to ideas, the new book that I have found most insightful for my current research is Matthew Cobbs The Idea of the Brain (Profile). It recounts how analogies between the brain and the fashionable technology of the era ours being the brain as a computer have repeatedly sent neuroscience down rabbit-holes.

Melissa Harrison

Literature lovers like me are fond of saying that reading promotes empathy; it feels true, though you might struggle to prove it. However, The Devil You Know (Faber & Faber) by the forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead with Eileen Horne has permanently recalibrated my empathy dial. As she helps offenders understand and take responsibility for their actions in the wake of terrible crimes, Adshead quietly, humanely shows us that people remain people, despite their actions.

In its aftermath I read Gordon Burns unforgettable Happy Like Murderers (Faber & Faber), about Fred and Rose West, and thought about the professionals tasked with working with them. I hope they were supported in turn.

Geoff Dyer

Harald Jahners Aftermath (WH Allen) is a transfixing account and subtle analysis of Germany after the Second World War has ended. A scrupulous investigation of the past, it reads, constantly, like a prelude to what is still unfolding. But the greatest joy this year has come from my belated discovery of the dark, light, unexceptional and exquisitely twisted world of Elizabeth Taylor, starting with A Game of Hide and Seek and Angel and continuing apace. A shame that the pretty and bland covers of the latest Virago reissues of this perennially under-rated writer do little to lure new readers into the skewed delights within.

Sue Prideaux

Locked down, I craved perilous adventure. Julian Sanctons The Madhouse at the End of the Earth (WH Allen) delivered. The Belgicas 1897 South Pole expedition is pure horror. Clueless captain, rat-infested ship frozen into the ice, scurvy, darkness, hunger, insanity. Last-ditch escape! Young crewmember Roald Amundsen assumes captaincy and dynamites a channel through the ice! No wonder he stuffed Scot. Terrific stuff.

So is Looking for Trouble (Faber & Faber), the memoir of the trailblazing war correspondent Virginia Cowles. Taking tea with Hitler, gossiping with Winston Churchill, eating reindeer with Finnish guerrilla skiing squads, reporting on everything objectively. Her writing is sparkling; her life, seen from envious lockdown, completely thrilling.

Rowan Williams

For me the choice is already made in any year in which a new book by Alan Garner is published. Treacle Walker (Fourth Estate) is very much in Garners late style spare and allusive (a wealth of folkloric hinterland), luminous and understated. Its about seeing and healing; any more by way of summary would be useless. Nigel Tubbss Socrates on Trial (Bloomsbury) is also about these things, and is also built mostly through dialogue. Its an impassioned challenge to the stupidities of current educational practice from the UKs best educational philosopher, and it nails the basic problem as lying in our obsession with property the myth of knowledge as something we own and trade. Human freedom is the liberty to learn, and, in the process, to be dispossessed of this fiction. Tubbs argues this with astonishing subtlety and nimbleness.

Colm Tibn

Derek Mahons The Poems 1961-2020 (Gallery Books), published a year after his death, displays a rich talent, formalist and casual, witty and melancholy, minimalist and expansive. Claire Keegans Small Things Like These (Faber & Faber), written with precision and rhythmic care, is a story about an ordinary life in a small place and slowly becomes a brave and piercing exploration of a most difficult public matter. The Works of Guillaume Dustan Volume 1 (Semiotext) contains three short, engrossing novels that centre on sharp and accurate descriptions of gay sex, the sensibility and inner world of the protagonist emerging richly, by implication. This is a great book for gay boys on winter nights.

Gary Younge

Nadifa Mohameds The Fortune Men (Viking) is an elegant portrayal of life in the racial, cultural hub of Cardiffs Tiger Bay in the early Fifties. Eschewing a simple morality play for complex vivid characters, it centres on the plight of Mahmood Mattan, who finds himself in the shadow of the hangmans noose for a murder he didnt commit. Amelia Gentlemans The Windrush Betrayal (Guardian Faber) sat on my shelf for far too long because I thought I knew the story. I didnt. At least, I had not sat with it beyond the news cycles for the length of time necessary to witness the full scale of the injustice unfold in a single narrative thread. A book that keeps you informed and makes you angry.

Joan Bakewell

The Gun, the Ship and the Pen by Linda Colley (Profile) is an account of how constitutions have come about through history and is written with Colleys usual erudition, insight and style. She transforms what sounds like the dry matter of paper documents into an enthralling account of how warfare, national identity and colonial exploitation follow each other in the emergence of constitutions across the world. A work of thrilling scholarship.

Spike: The Virus vs the People by Jeremy Farrar with Anjana Ahuja (Profile) tells how the news of Covid-19 first reached the worlds scientists, how the pandemic unfolded and how governments reacted and failed to cope. It reads like a thriller.

Colin Kidd

How many serious books on politics are pitch-perfect comic classics? Until this year I could think of only two: Edward Luttwaks Coup dEtat: A Practical Handbook and Christopher Hoods analysis of buck passing, The Blame Game. But these are now joined by Michael Wolffs Landslide (Bridge Street Press), an account of the last days of the Trump presidency. The humour in Luttwak and Hood derives from the authors wry subtlety of approach. Wolff, by contrast, is the vessel into which the Trump White Houses chaotic, Marx-brothers cast of panicked but competitively craven staff and hangers-on copiously leaks. Amid the anarchic din, however, Wolff demonstrates exquisite Groucho-like timing.

Frances Wilson

Two bespoke studies of literary prophets stand out this year. Alex Christofi describes Dostoevsky in Love (Bloomsbury) as a reconstructed memoir in which he blends Dostoevskys autobiographical fiction with his fantastical life. Crafted with novelistic skill, it is a book to fit the vast complexity of the man and his work. In William Blake vs the World (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), John Higgs argues that we have absorbed Blake into our national consciousness without having the faintest idea of who he was or what he believed in. Higgss mission, to return to the cockney visionary and his essential strangeness, is Blakeian in its singularity.

Ian Leslie

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders (Bloomsbury) consists of close commentaries on short stories by Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Gogol, based on a creative writing course he teaches. Saunders approaches the stories as a fiction writer, not a critic, gently illuminating their mechanics without diminishing their magic or mystery and crucially, the stories themselves are included. Saunders is warm, playful and acutely perceptive, and even when I disagreed with him I was grateful to him for making me pay such close attention to these inexhaustible works.

This year I re-read White Noise by Don DeLillo (Picador) and marvelled at its uncanny blend of ironic commentary on our media-saturated world with deeply felt lyricism about marriage and family. Above all, it made me laugh; few great novels are as funny.

Sandeep Parmar

Three books that redefine what life writing means this year are Stephanie Sy-Quias Amnion (Granta), Fred DAguiars Year of Plagues (Carcanet) and Preti Tanejas Aftermath (Transit Books, to be published in the UK by And Other Stories in 2022). Sy-Quias bold Knstlerroman mesmerisingly transports us across continents and through the longing of diasporas, arriving in England, a deep bone-knowing country/Albion. DAguiars electric prose vividly recounts a cancer diagnosis and treatment in the Covid year, a private suffering amid a collective one. Tanejas brave and haunting retelling of the terror attack at Londons Fishmongers Hall in 2019 intermingles a clear-eyed understanding of the roots of terror with personal stories of those involved.

Im also deep in Polina Barskovas Air Raid (Ugly Duckling Press), translated by Belarussian-American poet Valzhyna Mort, which retells the Siege of Leningrad with breathtaking interventions into history, silence and the violence between

Peter Wilby

David Kynastons On the Cusp (Bloomsbury), the latest volume in his marvellous series on post-1945 Britain, recalls the state of the nation in 1962 when the country was outside the EU but aspired to join. He skilfully captures the sense of new horizons being glimpsed as Britons struggled to escape the long shadow of the Second World War. And the state of the nation now? For that, I turned belatedly to Jonathan Coes novel Middle England (Penguin), published in 2018. Nothing has yet surpassed Coes evocation of the sour, restless, resentful mood that, in contrast to the spirit of the 1960s, led Britain to turn inwards.

Elif Shafak

Hassan Akkads Hope Not Fear (Bluebird) is an extraordinary story that deals with the urgent issues of our era, including the Syrian War, systemic torture and dehumanisation ongoing in countries where authoritarianism has taken hold. Akkad also takes on the tragedy of the refugee crisis, the pandemic and its social repercussions, and the layers of xenophobia, racism and inequality in societies. But it is also a story about resilience, renewal and humanism.

I also recommend Burning the Books by Richard Ovenden (John Murray), the director of the Bodleian Library. This fascinating and moving book should be read at schools and translated into languages all around the world. In a digital age that abounds with snippets of information, this is a glorious celebration of physical libraries and nuanced knowledge

Alexander McCall-Smith

A scientific meal this year: Richard Dawkins writes with admirable clarity and Jana Lenzov illustrates in much the same way. Their collaboration bears fruit in Flights of Fancy (Head of Zeus), a masterly investigation of all aspects of flight, human and animal. This is a beautifully produced book that will appeal across age groups. And as a second course, Madelaine Bhmes Ancient Bones (Greystone) is a gripping account of how early hominids may have evolved in Europe: a controversial thesis, but one that could change our ideas of where we came from.

Stuart Maconie

I began listening to Susanna Clarkes Piranesi (Bloomsbury) on audiobook at bedtime but soon found that it was simply too mesmerising, funny and strange to ever lull me to sleep. What begins as fantasy becomes, in a series of hints and echoes and rug-pulling revelations, a detective story, a satire and a witty take on male egoism. Daring and dazzling stuff.

Paul Morleys writing has been delighting and exasperating me since his NME work in the late 1970s. His biography of Anthony H Wilson TV presenter, music entrepreneur and evangelist, provocateur From Manchester with Love (Faber & Faber) is by far his best book; the narrative of the mans life keeps Morleys wildly digressive style taut(ish). It is not just a biog but the story of a citys history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure: the engaged working-class intellectual challenging the dominance of entitlement and privilege with wit and aesthetics.

Johanna Thomas-Corr

It was a wonderful year for novels about ugly mother-daughter relationships. Gwendoline Riley specialises in savage emotional reckonings and in My Phantoms (Granta) we hear the story of Bridget, who has been keeping her perpetually disappointed mother, Hen, at arms length ever since she left home. The dialogue is superb theres always a tragi-comic gap between what is being said and whats really going on. I love Rileys merciless wit. Jeremy Coopers Bolt from the Blue (Fitzcarraldo) breathes new life into the epistolary novel, with postcards charting 30 years of fraught relations between an earnest artist and her estranged mother, who is miles more interested in sex than art. Very little actually happens in either book and yet I was gripped by the way each depicts the psychological battlefield of mother-daughter relationships.

Daisy Johnson

Burntcoat by Sarah Hall (Faber & Faber) is a slim and beautiful masterpiece exploring art and relationships in a pandemic. I felt it surging over my head, lingering in my dreams, troubling me even when I wasnt holding it. Hall has always had my heart when it comes to writing about sex and isolation, but here she surpasses even herself.

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking) is another slight book which wrestles with relationships and art. The voice of the narrator feels almost Mrs Dalloway-esque as it moves around London, fluid and swift. Nelson has, with this novella, put down a new, exciting marker for what fiction can achieve.

William Dalrymple

Alex Rentons Blood Legacy (Canongate) is a moving, timely, well-written and strikingly thoughtful book that makes an important contribution to the growing debate about the horrors that accompanied Britains empire-building. Rentons remarkably honest analysis of his own familys slave plantation papers and the darkness they contain highlights our continuing failure to acknowledge the extreme toxicity of so much of our imperial history. It makes a good counterpart to Sathnam Sangheras brilliant Empireland (Viking) and, like it, reminds us how deeply impregnated the British present still is with our half-forgotten imperial past.

Better to Have Gone by Akash Kapur (Scribner) is a forensic reconstruction of two deaths set against the background of the flawed tropical utopia of Auroville. It is beautifully written and structured, deeply moving, and realised in wise, thoughtful, chiselled prose. In River Kings (William Collins), the Scandinavian archaeologist Cat Jarman writes about the Vikings with great skill, clarity and narrative drive. Rather unfashionably, Jarman likes her Vikings violent, and her tale replete with witches, human sacrifice, Greek fire and funeral orgies is at least as lively as any Netflix Viking romp, and a great deal more intellectually satisfying.

Philippe Sands

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Books of the year - New Statesman