Harper's Magazine

HARPER’S MAGAZINE, the oldest general interest monthly in America, explores the issues that drive our national conversation through such celebrated features as Readings, Annotation, and Findings, as well as the iconic Harper’s Index.

Harper’s Magazine

LETTERS

EASY CHAIR • Be Here Now

ART AND ARTIFICE • By Donna Tartt, from an introduction to the audiobook edition of J. F. Martel’s Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, which was released in May by Hachette Audio.

BODY OF CRISP • From comments published online and in media outlets upon the release of a TV commercial for the Italian company Amica Chips. The commercial depicts nuns eating potato chips in a mock sacrament of Communion.

HOT MESS • From letters by visitors who had taken objects from national parks in Hawaii, collected in the art book Ah Ah, by Ryan Thompson, which was published last month by The Ice Plant.

THESE LITTLE WORLDS • By Donovan Hohn, from an essay that was scheduled to appear in the Spring 2024 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly, Islands. The issue has been on hold since the magazine went on hiatus late last year.

THICKET • By Joy Williams, from Concerning the Future of Souls, which will be published this month by Tin House.

MATHOPOTAMIA • By Simone Weil, from a March 1940 letter to her brother, André, collected in A Life in Letters, which will be published next month by Harvard University Press. Translated from the French by Nicholas Elliott.

ODD ODDS • From a preprint study posted on the Cornell University open-access archive arXiv in October that was conducted by researchers at more than a dozen European universities.

THE BEST I CAN DO IS TO BE CONCRETE • By Diane Seuss, from a manuscript in progress.

THE APPROACH OF A DANGEROUS FATE • By Kevin Barry, from The Heart in Winter, which will be published this month by Doubleday.

TEARS AND PAIN • From messages seen in a video posted on social media in April by Karam Hassan. The messages were written by Palestinians on the walls of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Translated from the Arabic by The Cradle.

THE GODS OF LOGIC • Before and after artificial intelligence

“America’s most interesting magazine.”

METAL MACHINE MUSIC • Can AI think creatively? Can we?

A JANGLING NOISE OF WORDS

THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT • Among the ruins of Aleppo

SIGNS OF THE TIMES • The political history of the Olympic pictogram

THE DEAD ADMONISH • Facing the ghosts of resistance and exile

LIQUID PAPERS

“Every woman must be nourished by an inner reservoir of secrets . . .”

NEW BOOKS

YESTERDAY’S MEN • The death of the mythical method

DON’T GO THERE

FINDINGS