It’s much girlier than the last one, but I love the red rose and the orange background.
A fantastic lecture by Anikó Imre at Annenberg
Anikó Imre gave an amazing lecture last night at the Annenberg school at Penn. In honor of the spy shows that she was talking about, some of us professors got together and did a faux Charlie’s Angels/James Bond pose. From left to right are Marwan Kraidy, me, Anikó Imre, Jack Bratich, Peter Holquist, and Kevin M. F. Platt. Academics occasionally have fun, too!
Weird to see my words in Dutch...
Many thanks to Charlie Magazine for running an except of Waarom vrouwen betere seks hebben onder het socialisme. The book has now officially launched in the Netherlands.
Reading Krupskaya
I have been asked to write an introduction to a new reprint of Nadezhda Krupskaya’s Reminiscences of Lenin, and I am very much enjoying the mental time I get to spend with the young Bolsheviks in exile.
The German media coverage begins...
The requests are starting to come in and I am bracing myself for a new onslaught as Suhrkamp prepares for the launch of the German version of the book on October 27th. This short piece is from der Freitag last week: https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/eine-hervorragende-einheit
In Memoriam: Sonja Luehrmann - 1975-2019
I was absolutely devastated to learn of my colleague’s death from cancer last week at the age of 44. She was an amazing anthropologist, a prolific scholar, the mother of three young children, and a dear friend. The world is a much dimmer place today.
The breathtaking beauty of the Maine coast...
I made it out to Land’s End in Harpswell before leaving Maine. There are certainly some things I miss about that state, and being so close to the ocean all of the time is definitely one of them.
Spotted in South Station in Boston in the Non-fiction section of the book kiosk
The Spanish Cover of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
Coming in November from Captain Swing Libros in Spain: Por qué las mujeres disfrutan más del sexo bajo el socialismo. Y otros argumentos a favor de la independencia económica'
Maine!
Enjoying the late summer in Maine
Lunch at the Seadog in Brunswick
In conversation with Ruth Behar! →
I was able to have a lovely conversation with the anthropologist Ruth Behar on AnthroPod, the Podcast of the Society for Cultural Anthropology": “Anthropologists as Public Intellectuals: Ruth Behar in Conversation with Kristen Ghodsee.”
A new cover for the Dutch version
I’m so thrilled for the Dutch translation of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism or "Waarom vrouwen betere seks hebben onder het socialisme,” and love their cover redesign.
Summer Reading: Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani
Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto – Aaron Bastani
I just loved this book. Well written and exciting, with lots of thought-provoking arguments. For all fans of Andrew Yang, Bastani’s text is a must read.
“Despite the claim that Marx favoured violent revolution, the truth is he never believed that transition beyond capitalism would be an exclusively political process – something so simple to achieve as to merely require replacing one group of rulers with another. It certainly entailed class struggle and the working class gaining political power, but it also needed new ideas, technologies, and social relations.”
“Liberal ends, specifically the individual being uniquely placed to determine their path in life, are impossible without communist means. The possibility of most people finding happiness and meaning is impossible as these things are commodities – subject to profit rather than need.”
Summer reading: Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman
A thoughtful exploration of Universal Basic Income, 15-hour work weeks, and open borders with lots of data and examples. Although I have some issues with UBI, I liked Bregman’s energy and pragmatism, and I can see why he was invited to Davos to speak with the oligarchs.
Some nice quotes:
“If you were the GDP, your ideal citizen would be a compulsive gambler with cancer who’s going through a drawn-out divorce that he copes with by popping fistfuls of Prozac and going berserk on Black Friday” (pg. 105-106)
“The targets of our performance-driven society are no less absurd than the five-year plans of the former USSR.” (pg. 122)
“[T]he real crisis of our times, of my generation, is not that we don’t have it good, or even that we might be worse off later on. No, the real crisis is that we can’t come up with anything better.” (page 11)
On page 41, Bregman explains that Richard Nixon’s Family Assistance Plan got definitively canned in 1978 because that found evidence (later proven wrong) that the FAP resulted in 50% more divorces. “A basic income, evidently, gave women too much independence.”
25th episode of A.K. 47
I’m a little over halfway to my goal of 47 episodes. But boy, I had no idea that podcasting was such hard work. Much respect to those that do this every week.
GQ Russia
I had no idea the Russians had translated my interview with Sophia Benoit for their national version of GQ Magazine. A friend just sent me the link.
Berlin at dawn
So I could not sleep last night and I decided to take my good camera and go out onto the streets of Mitte for some classic scenes in the hour before sunrise (5:15). It’s my last day in Berlin, and I will certainly miss this place.
Spotted in Dussmann!
I was in Dussmann’s English language bookshop yesterday, and I was so thrilled to find this on the non-fiction table.
Berlin days
The first couple of days in Berlin have been amazing so far. I am sinking deep into the history of the DDR, and trying to better understand the transition after 1989. I met with my brilliant German editor at Suhrkamp on Thursday, had dinner with my dear friend Susan Neiman on Friday, and have hit the Berlin Trödel markets hard this weekend.
In front of a portrait of August Bebel in Prenzlauer Berg.
Berliner Dom by night
DDR-era bust of Marx purchased in the Weissensee trödelmarkt for 3 euro
Two new typewriters from the trödelmarkt: An Olympia Traveller de Luxe and a Prvileg.
the Plaza of the 9th of November 1989