Most Recent Posts

On his grandmother's faith and political beliefs

"What [a] tormenting situation, to be an intellectual woman of her generation and grow up with this enormous identity, but it was an identity founded on belief that she couldn't sustain. She was violently secular. She loved culture and she loved books and all sorts of things that Jews care for, but she couldn't believe in the Jewish God, or any God, and she felt terrible about it.

"She felt enraged that other people didn't see the obviousness all at once, but she substituted, I think, at some point, other kinds of beliefs — belief in ... humanism, and I think if she was at any point seriously a Communist ... that was a belief. And as anybody who studied the history of communist movements knows ... it's analogous [to religion]; it draws passion out of people and sometimes irrational passion.

"So all of these things are muddled up for her. And maybe some of those later beliefs become disappointed, violently disappointed, as well. Other gods die: The god [of] literature fails her, the god of socialism fails her.

" ... I was very interested in the book in writing ... about someone who was so into so many kinds of theoretical freedoms. She embraced such diversity. ... Diversity was heroic to her."

On growing up on a commune where nudity was common

"You shouldn't overlook the human ability to partition things and make special categories and create exemptions.

" ... For me there were the typical teenage fascinations with the mysteries of the bodies of the girls I was going to school with, where to glimpse a bra strap might've blown my mind. And at the same time, I'd go home and I'd go up to my dad's studio and sit there with him and draw from a naked model for a few hours. But that was art; that was another thing.

"Or I might take a shower with my cousin at her commune because they had a group shower and that was interesting to me, too, and probably titillating. But I kept these things very tightly organized in order to function. So each thing was its own separate reality."

The Record

Jonathan Lethem On The Song That Puts The Fear Into 'Fear Of Music'

On the character of Douglas, whose unexpected death brings the friends together

"Douglas is one of these characters who turns up who has what you might call limited charisma, or charisma limited to a particular circle of people, but with ambitions for it to be broader. ... Ned and the others, too, in each of their own ways, were susceptible to the antic opposition persona presented.

"... [They'd] fallen under a spell and gotten with a kind of unstated program, an oppositional program, opposition to the culture."

On Ned's wife, Nina, who is trying to get Ned to have a baby with her

"The problem for Nina with Ned is that he's been brought along to the point of being willing to do it. But she wants him to want to do it, and that means embracing the possibility of the child living in a decent world, a happier world, a better world, a world that would be [nurturing] and decent. ... He's struggling with the feeling."

Read an excerpt of Subtle Bodies

Monday's Labor Day holiday shortened our week, but there was no shortage of news in the tech space. Herewith, our weekly roundup to help catch you up.

ICYMI

Over the airwaves, the week started with news of Microsoft's purchase of Nokia, and Steve Henn discussed the implications on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. NPR's Jeff Brady explored the Amish and their relationship with technology, concluding that it's complicated.

This week on All Tech, your favorite post featured I Forgot My Phone, the short film that so aptly shows our cultural obsession with our ubiquitous smartphones. A marketing data company launched a site to let you see all the income, biographic and shopping history data that marketers have about you. We wondered about the curious Craigslist market for empty iPhone and MacBook boxes. The Weekly Innovation pick was the Case Coolie, a cooler sleeve for your beers that doesn't require ice. Just in time for tailgating!

The Big Conversation

Another week, another set of revelations about government monitoring of citizens. A story jointly published by The New York Times, ProPublica and The Guardian uncovered the National Security Agency's extensive efforts to break into encrypted communication online. The stories were based on the documents released by Edward Snowden. Reuters, meanwhile, reported that the U.K. government asked The Times to destroy its Snowden material.

The Times also reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has access to a larger set of phone records than even the NSA, and German news outlet Der Spiegel reported (from the Snowden documents) that the NSA spied on Al-Jazeera.

What's Catching Our Eye

TechCrunch: Pew: 86 Percent Of U.S. Adults Make Efforts To Hide Digital Footprints Online; Fear Of Creeping Ads And Hackers Outweighs Spying

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released one of its studies this week on anonymity, privacy and security online. TechCrunch sums up some of the key privacy and security findings.

The Washington Post: Jeffrey Bezos, The Washington Post's next owner, aims for a new "golden era" at the newspaper

The Amazon founder and new owner of The Post spoke to his paper about his plans. " 'We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient,' he said. 'If you replace 'customer' with 'reader,' that approach, that point of view, can be successful at The Post, too.' "

The Wall Street Journal: Forgot Something? Tokyo Cabs Want to Make Sure You Don't

A Tokyo taxi company plans to equip its cabs with cameras to record images of the back seat before and after a passenger enters. "If a passenger leaves the car forgetting an item that wasn't there before getting in, the system sounds an alarm," The Journal says.

It sounds like something out of a sitcom; in this case, the original British television version of The Office: job seekers being compelled to dance for a chance at a sales position at a U.K. electronics retailer.

Applicant Alan Bacon, who hoped for a position at a Currys Megastore in Cardiff, was made to do "rubbish robotics in my suit in front of a group of strangers" to the French electronic duo Daft Punk's "Around the World."

Bacon was quoted by The Mirror as saying that "another middle-aged guy looked upset as he danced to a rap song."

"Everyone thought it was a joke. But they were serious," Bacon said.

The applicant said he'd spent the week before the interview researching the company "and looking forward to being able to express myself and talk about what I love doing."

Instead, it might have made more sense for him to hit the nightclubs and brush up on the latest moves.

"It was degrading, but I am desperate for work, so I just smiled and got on with it," Bacon said, adding that he told his father it was "like a scene out of The Office."

Currys Megastore issued a statement Thursday apologizing for the hiring incident:

"We are extremely disappointed that one of the management team at the store in question did not follow our official recruitment processes.

"We are extremely sorry to those interviewees impacted; all are being asked to attend another interview where they will be given a proper opportunity to demonstrate how they can contribute to our business."