Mastodawn

Content is cheap now. Meaning is the scarce part. The video argues AI can crank out words, but it may not organize ideas coherently from its personal experiences into something it actually cares about. Writing essays is proposed, even if it is slow and a bit uncomfortable. Suggested platforms: X and Substack. https://youtube.com/watch?v=3rNqNvwNcrM&si=Cmxq0JsyiE2gDs8x #Writing #Essays #MeaningMaking #AI #Substack

I'm begging you to start writing essays (even if you hate writing)

YouTube

Longreads 2d ago

"I was certain secret doors existed in real life, and spent a lot of time looking for them." Today, Longreads has an excerpt from "Make Believe" by Mac Barnett, the US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Don't miss it! https://longreads.com/2026/05/05/mac-barnett-childrens-books-make-believe/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social #literature #books #reading #libraries #essays #picturebooks #kids #adults #longreads

The Secret Door

"When we read, we make believe. We aren’t duped or ensorcelled. Deep down we decide. We make ourselves believe."

Longreads

Jarvis Coffin 2d ago

https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/burn-drag-split-stack/
#writing #essays #firewood #rural #newhampshire #monadnock

Burn, Drag, Split, Stack

A pile of wood—branches and brush, or full-grown timber—imposes its presence. It can stop a truck.

jarviscoffin.com

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Petra van Cronenburg 2d ago

@ratika Could depend on how you write them. I'm writing nearly only non-fiction. #Essays or #features can be a medium of telling stories, of getting a 'painting' of your ideas. There's 'narrative non-fiction', often used e.g. in #natureWriting. A great writer like Robert McFarlane writes fascinating stuff about the Underworlds or rivers, you can't stop reading, it's positive. But you become aware of the problems and people trying to find solutions. It's the storytelling that helps.

Jarvis Coffin 3d ago

https://www.jarviscoffin.com/going-out-with-the-ranger/
#writing #essays #fordranger #newhampshire #monadnock

Going Out with the Ranger

My goal is to go out with the Ranger. Not in it, mind you—which would serve no one—but out together as we shift down, tow less, and go slower uphill.

jarviscoffin.com

Stephen L. Thompson May 1

The Moon Before Mars: Why returning to the moon makes more sense than rushing off to Mars. #Essays concerning our #Future on the #Moon.
https://books2read.com/b/bWkXOq

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Moon Before Mars: Why returning to the moon makes more sense than rushing off to Mars by Stephen L. Thompson

Paria sans portefeuille Apr 30

"I want to examine a different aspect of #Israel’s genocidal onslaught on #Gaza: its significance as a ‘world event’, an epochal turning point that also serves to reveal, and so to signify, the nature of the times. I aim to do so in a register that will range between the political, the social, the philosophical and the personal."

#NancyFraser on the epochal significance of the #GazaGenocide

https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii158/articles/nancy-fraser-gaza-as-world-event
#Palestine #politics #philosophy #essays

Nancy Fraser, Gaza as World Event, NLR 158, March–April 2026

The global reverberations of Israel’s destruction of Gaza, understood as world event—an epochal turning point which serves to reveal the changing nature of the times. Philosophical, political and personal reflections on the rise of a new philosemitic McCarthyism in Germany and the US.

New Left Review

T. R. Shankar Raman Apr 27

My #book #thewildheartofindia is now out in #paperback! A revised edition, with some new #essays and a lovely new cover by Sartaj Ghuman. Do take a look! Available in a number of #indiebookstores like #Higginbothams (photo) and #Champaca (link)
https://champaca.in/products/the-wild-heart-of-india-nature-and-conservation-in-the-city-the-country-and-the-wild

#nature #wildlife #conservation #naturewriting #ecology #NaturalHistory #india #Books #WestlandBooks

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Assoc for Scottish Literature Apr 27

👆 “Signs & Wonders” is one of 47 pieces of Morgan’s prose – journalism, book & theatre reviews, essays & lectures, drama & radio scripts, forewords & afterwords – collected in EDWIN MORGAN: IN TOUCH WITH LANGUAGE, ed. John Coyle & James McGonigal

8/14

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/edwin-morgan-in-touch-with-language/

#Scottish #literature #essays #EdwinMorgan

Longreads Apr 24

In the latest edition of our Top 5:

—Death traps (The Believer)
—Derring-do detectives (The New York Review of Books)
—Drivel inspection (The Drift))
—Deforestation? Not in my back yard! (In These Times)
—Dissonance appreciation (The New Yorker)

https://longreads.com/2026/04/24/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-607/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#longreads #top5 #reading #writing #essays

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Deaths in donation bins, the Hardy boys, MAGA slop, billionaire playgrounds, and nostalgia for the complicated.

Longreads