Plus: CO2; Maria Bamford; Chocolate
| Today in The New York Review of Books: Edwin Frank writes in praise of Amit Chaudhuri; Bill McKibben breathes carbon dioxide; Andrew Katzenstein laughs with Maria Bamford; and, from the archives, Kenneth Maxwell on chocolate. The sentences in Amit Chaudhuri’s A New World are acts of attention, as uncertain and unstable as life itself. There have been five great mass extinctions on Earth: four have been the result of carbon dioxide flooding into the atmosphere and raising the temperature. Maria Bamford’s wild and constantly inventive stand-up style relies on her never flinching from the most difficult realities. New Subscriber Benefit!Subscribers are now able to share unlocked versions of our articles with friends, family, and social media channels. When signed in to your account, look for this gift box icon in any of our articles. Free from the ArchivesLet us think about chocolate for a change. In the Review’s September 19, 1996, issue, Kenneth Maxwell wrote about a new history of the plant-cum-delicacy that endeavored “to reconstruct from often very obscure sources, with some exciting archeological fieldwork and hieroglyphic deciphering, the remarkable passage of chocolate from its origins in the lowland jungles of southern Mexico to ‘Hershey’s Kisses’ and Cadbury’s ‘chocolate box.’” Along the way, we meet the Olmecs who domesticated the cacao plant; the Mayans and Aztecs who drank it, ceremoniously and otherwise; the Europeans who brought it back across the Atlantic (“typically, Columbus did not comprehend what he had seen” when he first confiscated chocolate from some unfortunate Mayans); the Italian nobleman who became—ack!—“one of the greatest chocoholics of all time”; and, finally, Nestlé, Hershey, and all the other industrialists who turned it into the sugary commodity we know today. “In Latin and most Romance languages caca, as in cacahuatl [the Aztec word for their cacao drink], is a vulgar word for feces. Chocolatl and chocolate, a neologism derived from a Maya and Aztec mix, had a more respectable sound. Philologists will doubtlessly argue over such derivations, but it is an explanation that would have been much appreciated by the Marquis de Sade, a chocoholic who became grotesquely obese during his long captivity, when, denied other outlets, he spent his time overindulging in all manner of chocolate delicacies, of which he was always demanding more from his loyal and long-suffering wife.” Weary of war and staring down the likelihood of an unjust peace, Ukrainian intellectuals are plotting out a road map for the future. If the movies are dead, why does Bi Gan’s Resurrection feel so alive? You are receiving this message because you signed up
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