The daily digest from Literary Hub opens with a historical note on the 1899 publication of Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, followed by an exploration of the aromatic history of book collecting. The issue also features Megan Mayhew’s examination of “analog minds” and the reading life of John Elder.
In the craft and criticism sections, readers can find an analysis of Olivia Manning’s novels and the real people behind her lightly fictionalized characters. Ry Herman searches history for queer fairy tales, while Hannah Katznelson argues for the necessity of literary judgment in The Hedgehog Review.
Ilan Stavans contributes a letter to emerging translators, stating that they are “archeologists of our verbal reservoir, recognizing what words belong to which epoch,” rather than parrots repeating lines in a new tongue. The history section introduces Erika Mann, the journalist whose coverage of the Nuremberg Trials brought her face to face with Nazi war criminals.
Advice for writers includes strategies for managing self-doubt, noting that shifting focus away from the self is the only escape from low self-esteem. In the fiction section, an excerpt from Kit de Waal’s new novel, Sweet Pea, describes a character named Paulette taking the 61 bus into town and then the number 18 going north.
Additional articles include Chris Saltmarsh’s report on the UK’s censorship of pro-Palestinian thinkers, a JSTOR Daily piece on the roots of cringe, and Jill Lepore’s commentary on the sci-fi fantasies of tech billionaires in The Walrus.