Anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing challenges the widespread view that globalization invariably signifies a clash of cultures, developing friction as a metaphor for the diverse and conflicting social interactions that make up our contemporary world. Tsing focuses on the rainforests of Indonesia, where in the 1980s and 1990s capitalist interests increasingly reshaped the landscape not so much through corporate design as through awkward chains of legal and illegal entrepreneurs that wrested the land from previous claimants, creating resources for distant markets.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Shooting an Elephant’
- While Orwell’s self-awareness is commendable, some readers may find his portrayal of the Burmese people overly passive, raising questions about perspectives that remain unheard in this narrative
Author: George Orwell
George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” relates his experiences of a police officer in Burma who is called on to shoot an aggressive elephant that has broken free from its handler.
However, the essay — first published in 1936, and thought to be autobiographical — quickly turns into a searing indictment of power’s corrosive grip, with the unruly creature becoming a metaphor for the absurdity of empire.
Orwell sets the stage with quiet tension: the heat, the hostile stares of the Burmese, and the weight of his uniform. He is a man trapped — despised by those he governs, yet bound to the system he serves.
When the elephant rampages through a village, the crowd’s expectation becomes a noose around his neck. Orwell’s prose, stripped of sentiment, lays bare the hollowness of authority. He does not pull the trigger out of duty, but out of fear of appearing weak in the eyes of the villagers.
The essay’s brilliance lies in its ruthless self-exposure. Orwell refuses to cast himself as hero or even victim. Instead, he is complicit, a puppet of imperialism, forced to enact its violence in order to maintain the illusion of control.
Yet, one wonders: Does his introspection absolve him, or merely sharpen the hypocrisy? The dying elephant, gasping for air, is not just an animal, but a truth Orwell cannot escape.
Unlike traditional anti-colonial critiques that focus solely on oppression, “Shooting an Elephant” exposes the trap facing the oppressor.
Orwell’s shame is palpable, his confession unflinching. There is no redemption here, only the sickening realization that power does not liberate, but enslaves.
While Orwell’s self-awareness is commendable, some readers may find his portrayal of the Burmese people overly passive, raising questions about perspectives that remain unheard in this narrative.
The elephant falls, but the real tragedy is that no one — not the crowd, the empire, or even Orwell — walks away clean.
The bullet that kills the elephant also shatters the myth of imperial righteousness. And in that destruction, there is a terrible truth: Tyranny corrupts both the oppressed and the oppressor, leaving both bleeding in the dust.
What We Are Reading Today: Republics of Knowledge
Author: Nicola Miller
The rise of nation-states is a hallmark of the modern age, yet we are still untangling how the phenomenon unfolded across the globe. Here, Nicola Miller offers new insights into the process of nation-making through an account of 19th-century Latin America, where, she argues, the identity of nascent republics was molded through previously underappreciated means: the creation and sharing of knowledge.
Drawing evidence from Argentina, Chile, and Peru, Republics of Knowledge traces the histories of these countries from the early 1800s, as they gained independence, to their centennial celebrations in the 20th century.
Miller identifies how public exchange of ideas affected policymaking, the emergence of a collective identity, and more. She finds that instead of defining themselves through language or culture, these new nations united citizens under the promise of widespread access to modern information.
What We Are Reading Today: The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting
- Focusing on brittle fracture and rock friction, this book will appeal to graduate and research scientists in seismology, physics, geology, geodesy and rock mechanics
Author: Christopher H. Scholz
A massive earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand recently. Humanitarians are struggling to deliver assistance.
Why do earthquakes happen? “The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting” offers a study on connections between fault and earthquake mechanics, including fault scaling laws, the nature of fault populations, and how these result from the processes of fault growth and interaction.
Focusing on brittle fracture and rock friction, this book will appeal to graduate and research scientists in seismology, physics, geology, geodesy and rock mechanics.
What We Are Reading Today: Thailand’s Political History
- Moving into the twentieth century, it traces the emergence of the Thai nation state, the large-scale investments in modern infrastructure
Author: B. J. Terwiel
“Thailand’s Political History” tackles some of Thailand’s most topical and pressing historical debates.
It discusses the development and evolution of the Siamese state from the early Sukhothai period through the fall of Ayutthaya to the rise of the Chakri dynasty in the late 18th century and its consolidation of power in the 19th.
Moving into the twentieth century, it traces the emergence of the Thai nation state, the large-scale investments in modern infrastructure.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘E.D.E.N. Southworth’s Hidden Hand’
- Southworth’s fiction tackled issues that were often considered taboo, including domestic violence, poverty and capital punishment
In her upcoming book, “E.D.E.N. Southworth’s Hidden Hand: The Untold Story of America’s Famous Forgotten Nineteenth-Century Author,” Rose Neal, who has a Ph.D. in English, revives the legacy of a now-obscure novelist who was once a household name.
Born in 1819, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte, Southworth — better known by her initials, E.D.E.N. — was one of the most prolific and widely read American writers of the 19th century.
Christened with a long name, Southworth once joked: “When I was born, my family was too poor to give anything else, so they gave me all those names.”
She would later shorten it to the distinctive E.D.E.N., under which she built her literary empire.
With more novels to her name than Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain combined, Southworth once captivated audiences with feisty heroines who rode horses, fired pistols, and even became sea captains.
Her most famous novel, “The Hidden Hand,” was so popular that readers named their daughters after its fearless protagonist, Capitola.
“Despite being one of the most beloved and well-known writers of the 19th century, as domestic sensational fiction declined in popularity, Southworth was entirely forgotten, as was an entire generation of women writers,” Neal writes. “For Southworth, it was partly because she had done so well at hiding her own progressive ideas. Nevertheless, she should be rediscovered and given her rightful place in American history.”
Southworth’s fiction tackled issues that were often considered taboo, including domestic violence, poverty and capital punishment.
Although she was raised in a slave-owning family, she wrote for The National Era, an abolitionist magazine, and encouraged her longtime friend Harriet Beecher Stowe to publish “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
She also supported the early women’s rights movement and advocated for better education and living conditions for those in poverty.
Neal’s journey to uncover Southworth’s story began unexpectedly as she pursued her master’s degree. She asked her colleagues whether they were familiar with this author she had unearthed. “They had never heard of Southworth or any of her novels,” she writes.
“How did a novelist as popular as Southworth slip into the dustbin of history?” she wonders.
With this biography, Neal pieces together Southworth’s story through her novels, letters and other documents, setting the record straight on a woman whose influence was far greater than history has acknowledged. Like her heroines, Southworth was bold, determined and ahead of her time.
The book comes out in May and is available for pre-order.
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