21st Century Literature discussion

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Question of the Week > What Are Some Of Your Favorite Essays? (1/15/23)

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message 1: by Marc (new)

Marc (monkeelino) | 3475 comments Mod
Do you have favorite essays or essay collections? Share with us some of your favorites (they do not need to be from the 21st century).


message 2: by Vesna (new)

Vesna (ves_13) | 235 comments Mod
For me, Umberto Eco's essay "Ur-Fascism" towers above all political essays I've read:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995...


message 3: by Daniel (new)

Daniel Shindler | 61 comments That is a great share, Vesna. I have never read this and just skimmed it to get a sense of the essay.


message 4: by Vesna (new)

Vesna (ves_13) | 235 comments Mod
Daniel, in the latter part of the essay he identifies 14 features of what he calls "ur-fascism", not to be missed.

I could access it on the NYRB but just in case it's paywalled, here's another link:
https://sites.evergreen.edu/political...


message 5: by Daniel (new)

Daniel Shindler | 61 comments Thanks. There was no paywall.


message 6: by LindaJ^ (new)

LindaJ^ (lindajs) | 2548 comments This book of essays was recommended by a young friend and I found them to be very enjoyable - Impossible Owls: Essays by Brian Phillips


message 7: by Lark (new)

Lark Benobi (larkbenobi) | 731 comments I don't seek out essays to read, usually, but here are some I love:

"The Taming of the Shrew" by Konrad Lorenz. I can't find it online but it's in the essay collection King Solomon's Ring: New Light on Animal Ways

"The Brown Wasps" by Loren Eiseley
https://members.tripod.com/nature_wri...

"Against Interpretation" by Susan Sontag
https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...

"Stranger in the Village" by James Baldwin
https://www.janvaneyck.nl/site/assets...


message 8: by Tracy (new)

Tracy (tstan) | 76 comments Anything by my two favorite essay writers:
Joan Didion and James Baldwin

And who can forget A Modest Proposal?


message 9: by Robert (new)

Robert | 530 comments I went through a phase of reading essay collections. Some of my faves:

The moronic inferno - Martin Amis
Junk Mail - will Self
Salman Rushdie - imaginary homelands

More recent:

Things are against us - Lucy Ellmann
Notes to self - emilie pine
Nothing is more real than nothing - Daniel James eat Al


message 10: by Marcus (new)

Marcus Hobson | 88 comments I loved Suppose a Sentence by Brian Dillon for making me look at just how much we can get out of only a handful of words.
My Review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... has a few direct quotes.


message 11: by LindaJ^ (new)

LindaJ^ (lindajs) | 2548 comments Tracy wrote: "Anything by my two favorite essay writers:
Joan Didion and James Baldwin

And who can forget A Modest Proposal?"


Definitely Joan Didion.


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