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September 2021 November 2021

October 2021

The Republic of Literature

From the novel Silverview

by John le Carré,

[Letter from Pulaski]

Minor Threat

MLB puts the farm system out to pasture

by Will Bardenwerper,

To Be a Field of Poppies

The elegant science of turning cadavers into compost

by Lisa Wells,

Harper’s Magazine welcomes reader response.

Email us about articles in the magazine.

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum number of children named Alexa who have legally changed their names because of it : 4

[Harper’s Index]

Ratio of residents to publicly available bathrooms in New York City : 7,258:1

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum percentage of federal funds for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure last year that went to roads, bridges, and highways : 15

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which the wealthiest neighborhoods in U.S. cities have more trees than the poorest : 65

[Harper’s Index]

By which the whitest neighborhoods have more trees than those that are the least white : 78

[Harper’s Index]

Number of additional trees needed to achieve an equitable distribution across U.S. neighborhoods : 522,000,000

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated portion of the contiguous United States affected by wildfire smoke on July 21, 2021 : 9/10

[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which monthly heat records are more likely to be set now than in the preindustrial era : 5

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated portion of new monthly heat records attributable to climate change : 4/5

[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which the earth’s heating rate increased from 2005 to 2020 : 2.4

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which average nighttime temperatures have increased more quickly than daytime temperatures since 1951 : 37

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated number of Americans it takes to produce enough carbon dioxide to cause one temperature-related death : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum amount that FEMA has spent to cover the funeral expenses of COVID-19 victims : $804,000

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Americans who have “zero confidence” in the health-care system’s ability to handle a future emergency : 45

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of Americans who would agree to live in a colony on Mars for the rest of their lives : 1/4

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase since 2015 in the amount of money raised annually by space startups : 174

[Harper’s Index]

Average number of annual spacecraft launches from 2015 to 2019 : 381

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Americans who developed a new hobby during the pandemic : 59

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of those Americans who have successfully monetized that hobby : 48

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of U.S. cryptocurrency holders who are men : 74

[Harper’s Index]

Chance that an office space in Manhattan is available for lease : 1 in 5

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which open-plan offices have been found to decrease face-to-face interactions : 70

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of Americans who think their productivity would improve or remain the same if they worked four-day weeks : 3/4

[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which Americans would prefer working four-day forty-hour weeks to five-day forty-hour weeks : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage decrease last year in the hours worked by the average European : 4.5

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase in the rate of police resignations from April 2020 to March 2021 compared with the previous year : 18

[Harper’s Index]

Chance that a U.S. election official feels “unsafe” in his or her job : 1 in 3

[Harper’s Index]

That he or she is concerned about death threats : 1 in 5

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of local U.S. election officials who plan to resign or retire before the 2024 election : 22

[Harper’s Index]

Number of state immunization managers who have left their jobs since the COVID-19 vaccine became available : 10

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase last year in the volume of cardboard used to ship goods directly to households : 38

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change in the number of babies named Alexa since the launch of the Amazon product : -79

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum number of children named Alexa who have legally changed their names because of it : 4

[Harper’s Index]

Ratio of residents to publicly available bathrooms in New York City : 7,258:1

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum percentage of federal funds for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure last year that went to roads, bridges, and highways : 15

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which the wealthiest neighborhoods in U.S. cities have more trees than the poorest : 65

[Harper’s Index]

By which the whitest neighborhoods have more trees than those that are the least white : 78

[Harper’s Index]

Number of additional trees needed to achieve an equitable distribution across U.S. neighborhoods : 522,000,000

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated portion of the contiguous United States affected by wildfire smoke on July 21, 2021 : 9/10

[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which monthly heat records are more likely to be set now than in the preindustrial era : 5

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated portion of new monthly heat records attributable to climate change : 4/5

[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which the earth’s heating rate increased from 2005 to 2020 : 2.4

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which average nighttime temperatures have increased more quickly than daytime temperatures since 1951 : 37

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated number of Americans it takes to produce enough carbon dioxide to cause one temperature-related death : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum amount that FEMA has spent to cover the funeral expenses of COVID-19 victims : $804,000

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Americans who have “zero confidence” in the health-care system’s ability to handle a future emergency : 45

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of Americans who would agree to live in a colony on Mars for the rest of their lives : 1/4

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase since 2015 in the amount of money raised annually by space startups : 174

[Harper’s Index]

Average number of annual spacecraft launches from 2015 to 2019 : 381

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Americans who developed a new hobby during the pandemic : 59

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of those Americans who have successfully monetized that hobby : 48

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of U.S. cryptocurrency holders who are men : 74

[Harper’s Index]

Chance that an office space in Manhattan is available for lease : 1 in 5

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which open-plan offices have been found to decrease face-to-face interactions : 70

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of Americans who think their productivity would improve or remain the same if they worked four-day weeks : 3/4

[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which Americans would prefer working four-day forty-hour weeks to five-day forty-hour weeks : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage decrease last year in the hours worked by the average European : 4.5

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase in the rate of police resignations from April 2020 to March 2021 compared with the previous year : 18

[Harper’s Index]

Chance that a U.S. election official feels “unsafe” in his or her job : 1 in 3

[Harper’s Index]

That he or she is concerned about death threats : 1 in 5

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of local U.S. election officials who plan to resign or retire before the 2024 election : 22

[Harper’s Index]

Number of state immunization managers who have left their jobs since the COVID-19 vaccine became available : 10

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase last year in the volume of cardboard used to ship goods directly to households : 38

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change in the number of babies named Alexa since the launch of the Amazon product : -79

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum number of children named Alexa who have legally changed their names because of it : 4

Readings

[Essay]

The Mourning After

by Maggie Nelson,

[Excuses]

Winner Fakes All

[Craft]

End Rhymes

by Michael Robbins,

[Musicology]

Heaven or St. Louis

by Patricia Lockwood,

[Day Job]

Chamber of Secrets

by Sophie Calle,

[Entrepreneurship]

Publish or Perish

[Correspondence]

Negative Thinking

by Jonas Mekas,

[Color Theory]

Tangled Up in Blue

by Benjamín Labatut,Translated by Adrian Nathan West,

[Uniform]

Pump Action

[Fiction]

Colored Angel Levine

by John Edgar Wideman,

[Poem]

White Serpent

by Nelly Sachs,Translated by Joshua Weiner,

Relationship, a painting by Andrew Cranston, whose work was on view in June at Masterpiece London Art Fair.

© The artist. Courtesy Karma, New York City, and Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Weltlandschaft, a painting by Emma Webster, whose work is on view this month at Alexander Berggruen, in New York City.

Courtesy the artist and Alexander Berggruen, New York City

The Courtier, a painting by Julien Nguyen, whose work was on view in August at Matthew Marks Gallery, in New York City.

© The artist. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City

Relationship, a painting by Andrew Cranston, whose work was on view in June at Masterpiece London Art Fair.

© The artist. Courtesy Karma, New York City, and Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Weltlandschaft, a painting by Emma Webster, whose work is on view this month at Alexander Berggruen, in New York City.

Courtesy the artist and Alexander Berggruen, New York City

The Courtier, a painting by Julien Nguyen, whose work was on view in August at Matthew Marks Gallery, in New York City.

© The artist. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City

Relationship, a painting by Andrew Cranston, whose work was on view in June at Masterpiece London Art Fair.

© The artist. Courtesy Karma, New York City, and Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Letters

Continental Divide

by Thomas Chatterton Williams,

[Harper’s Index]

Harper’s Index

[Letter from Pulaski]

Minor Threat

MLB puts the farm system out to pasture

by Will Bardenwerper,

[From the Archive]

Paradise Lost

by A. Bartlett Giamatti,

To Be a Field of Poppies

The elegant science of turning cadavers into compost

by Lisa Wells,

The Big Frieze

Cartoonist Ben Garrison’s MAGA in winter

by Dan Brooks,

Good Mother

Custody and care in the shadow of colonization

by Sierra Crane Murdoch,

“Put on the Diamonds”

Notes on humiliation

by Vivian Gornick,

The Republic of Literature

From the novel Silverview

by John le Carré,

Three Poems

by John Keene,

New Books

by Claire Messud,

The Last Cigarette

On Italo Svevo

by Sigrid Nunez,

Status Anxiety

Has Jonathan Franzen found the key?

by Alan Jacobs,

Placeholders

See the solution to last month’s puzzle here

by Richard E. Maltby Jr.,

Findings

by Rafil Kroll-Zaidi,

A skull previously thought to belong to Cleopatra’s sister was found to be that of an Italian boy with a deformed jaw.

The collapse of the Qing Dynasty was driven by the quadrupling of its population and consequent rural impoverishment, an overabundance of qualified applicants for elite academic degrees, rising costs and trade deficits, and falling productivity, which were variously associated with internal unrest, opium imports, and the depletion of silver reserves.

Men can rate the facial attractiveness of women without paying attention, but women cannot do the same for men; gay men find the faces of purportedly fertile women and men more attractive; adolescents and adults both rate the faces of children younger than 4.6 years old as more appealing than those of older children; and body odors associated with fear quicken the visual processing of others’ facial expressions of fear.

The collapse of the Qing Dynasty was driven by the quadrupling of its population and consequent rural impoverishment, an overabundance of qualified applicants for elite academic degrees, rising costs and trade deficits, and falling productivity, which were variously associated with internal unrest, opium imports, and the depletion of silver reserves.

Men can rate the facial attractiveness of women without paying attention, but women cannot do the same for men; gay men find the faces of purportedly fertile women and men more attractive; adolescents and adults both rate the faces of children younger than 4.6 years old as more appealing than those of older children; and body odors associated with fear quicken the visual processing of others’ facial expressions of fear.

Illustration by Fausta Kingué Microfiche

Past Issues

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