The Dark Tangle of Alzheimer's by Natalie de Souza (The New York Review of Books)
Natalie de Souza reviews a recent book on the history of a complex disease. Ever since Emil Kraepelin, considered the founder of modern psychiatry, put Alois Alzheimer’s research into his textbook on psychiatry the research has been focused around the presence of this amyloid precursor protein in the brain of Alzheimer's patients. Most Alzheimer's drugs have been centered around preventing the buildup of this protein, although de Souza and the author of the book under review, Karl Herrup, wonder about the efficacy of this research. Complications around research funds, dubious FDA approvals, and oversimplification of dementia research paints a not pretty picture of the history of research on this ever increasing disease in our aging human population. De Souza notes however, that the Alzheimer's research being done at the moment seems to have shifted course, as of a year ago about one fifth of the drugs being tested were targetting the proteins.
Reimagining al-Andalus by Robyn Creswell (The New York Review of Books)
Starting with Borges's short story featuring the philosopher Averroës (aka Ibn Rushd, which is who Salman Rushdie's father, featured in the last two journals, adopted their name from), where the philosopher finds that the words tragedy and drama in Aristotle's Poetics are "opaque to the Arab". Creswell dives into the shifting history of the al-Andalus region through the work On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus by Eric Calderwood. Al-Andalus is the site of longing for a tolerant, multi-cultural Islamic caliphate, one imagines it like an America, with its New York City and San Francisco variants. Al-Andalus has a complex legacy. It is the subject of scholars who want to show that Muslims, Jews, and Christians peacefully coexisted for decades if not centuries, or to show that they did not. It was an influence, possibly cynical, for the Franco regime's oppression. It also lives on in “the Moroccan people’s attachment to the values of openness, moderation, tolerance, and dialogue.”
Open Secrets by Ava Kofman (The New York Review of Books)
Following the story of an NSA agent who found themselves on the receiving end of the surveillance state's force, Ava Kofman reviews a book about the post-privacy era in the US. The NSA agent, Reality Winner, was a whistleblower of some sorts, who gave information about Russian tampering with the election. Either because American's do not care, already figured, or some mix of the both, Winner found out only too late her illegal actions mattered so little. The book, however, privacy has changed, and that the book under review by Kerry Howley makes us feel how strange the world we live in is, something that you forget after awhile. Privacy no longer is not being seen from any physical eyes, but something like your words and actions not being able to be recalled, flux over substance.
Russian Exceptionalism by Gary Saul Morgan (The New York Review of Books)
Eurasianism, according to Morgan, is an attempt to root a philosophy or ideology in the Steppe. Over the years, Eurasianism has taken many forms in Trubetskoy, Jakobson, Savitsky, even Stalin, but it seems like it has stabilized in Aleksander Dugin. Dugin enjoys immense popularity and state approval, even among Putin it seems, who rambled on for half an hour in his Tucker Carlson interview in response to why he invaded Ukraine. Eurasianism has the particular difficulty of explaining how all of the people of the Steppe are "one", but also that the cause of the Eurasian is also the cause of every other people in fighting against Western liberalism (except, of course, Jews).
Clothes as Fresh as Salad by Zoe Dubno (The New York Review of Books)
The Jewish Museum in New York put on an exhbit around Gaby Aghion, an Egyptian Jew who revolutionized the fashion world in Paris. At a time when you had to be the upper class to get invited to shop, let alone afford coutoure, the other option was just poorly fitted mass made clothes, not very fashionable. Aghion inveted the idea "ready-to-wear" long before Yves Saint-Laurent, and was a major influence on Karl Lagerfeld, who described his years at Aghion's Chloé his "happiest, most carefree years". The exhibit was mainly about her brand Chloé and the influence in the fashion world around the years, taking away from the fact that Aghion's own rich personal life as an Egyptian Jew, living in Paris, members or associates of French and Egyptian communist organizations.
What Israeli Soldiers’ Videos Reveal: Cheering Destruction and Mocking Gazans (The New York Times)
Last journal, there was a Times investigation around the demolitions, raising suspicion that they served military purposes. This week, there was a new investigation showing the carelessness and immorality of many Israeli soldiers, taking joy in war crimes. Not to say the US is much better, Trump and his base considered Edward Gallagher, who posed (and sent the photo in email) with the dead body of a 17 year old ISIS prisoner, whom he apparently killed with his knife. Much of the military I imagine, and much of the center and left of America, are disgusted at this behavior. War crimes are not heroic or a laughing matter to some.
The Road to 1948 (The New York Times)
The headline piece for last weeks magazine at the Times was on how we got to 1948. It was very informative. A lot I did not know, although some of it trod familiar ground as other stories. What I have not seen yet anywhere were the Israeli terrorist organizations Irgun and Lehi, not to mention how these organizations, similar to the confederates in the US, given a pass and absorbed into the Israeli politic. In America, some say the failures of Reconstruction are the primary reason we are "stuck" politically speaking, a similar worry is here when two former Prime Ministers of Israel were high ranking leaders in terrorist organizations, and these organizations are the roots of the Likud party. Irgun also was in the Times before, when Albert Einstein labeled them fascist, right-wing, and terrorists.
The Supreme Court Should Get Out of the Insurrection Business by Akhil Reed Amar (The New York Times)
Amar has already submitted an amicus brief to SCOTUS around the upcoming court case, which had its arguments heard this week. Before the arguments, Amar wrote an op-ed outlining a path for SCOTUS to take, namely, to not get involved in the insurrection. Even though Amar thinks it is pretty clear that the constitution and the members of the court should should uphold Colorado, he thinks that the route to maintaining legitimacy and being anti-political is through a federalist-inclined ruling, drawing on the fact that we are not just one nation, but a nation of states.
New York City’s Housing Crunch Is the Worst It Has Been in Over 50 Years (The New York Times)
The Times had a few articles about housing in NYC this week. I have to find a new apartment with my girlfriend come June, wish me luck.