The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

Nick Cave on Music, Mystery, and the Relationship Between Vulnerability and Freedom
Nick Cave on Music, Mystery, and the Relationship Between Vulnerability and Freedom

“There is more going on than we can see or understand, and we need to find a way to lean into the mystery of things…. and recognise the evident value in doing that, and summon the courage it requires to not always shrink back into the known mind.”

read article

The Temple of Flora: Stunning Illustrations of Flowers Inspired by Erasmus Darwin’s Radical Scientific Poem About the Sexual Reproduction of Plants
The Temple of Flora: Stunning Illustrations of Flowers Inspired by Erasmus Darwin’s Radical Scientific Poem About the Sexual Reproduction of Plants

“If thou art perfectly at leisure… walk in, and view the wonders of my enchanted garden.”

read article

The Woman Who Saved Native Song
The Woman Who Saved Native Song

“We understand the people better if we know their music, and we appreciate the music better if we understand the people themselves.”

read article

Reclaiming Our Human Potential in the Age of Technological “Progress”
Reclaiming Our Human Potential in the Age of Technological “Progress”

“People now use less than half their potential forces because ‘Progress’ has deprived them of the incentive to live fully.”

read article

The Otherworldly Wonders of This World: Stunning 19th-Century Natural History Illustrations of Lizards
The Otherworldly Wonders of This World: Stunning 19th-Century Natural History Illustrations of Lizards

From geckos to chameleons, a scaly journey down the hallway of evolutionary time through the portal of beauty.

read article

The Log from the Sea of Cortez: John Steinbeck’s Forgotten Masterpiece on How to Think and the Art of Seeing the Pattern Beyond the Particular
The Log from the Sea of Cortez: John Steinbeck’s Forgotten Masterpiece on How to Think and the Art of Seeing the Pattern Beyond the Particular

“Everything impinges on everything else… Everything is potentially everywhere.”

read article

How to Be a Swimmer in the Stream of Time: Poet, Painter, and Philosopher Etel Adnan on the Antidote to Disorientation and Isolation
How to Be a Swimmer in the Stream of Time: Poet, Painter, and Philosopher Etel Adnan on the Antidote to Disorientation and Isolation

“The definition of the soul is made of these places where you feel that the world came into being so that they could exist.”

read article

How to Be Un-Dead: Anaïs Nin and D.H. Lawrence on the Key to Living Fully
How to Be Un-Dead: Anaïs Nin and D.H. Lawrence on the Key to Living Fully

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.”

read article

Beethoven and the Art of Amends
Beethoven and the Art of Amends

“When friends are at variance, it is always better to employ no mediator, but to communicate directly with each other.”

read article

The Unphotographable: Richard Powers on the Majestic Mass Migration of Sandhill Cranes
The Unphotographable: Richard Powers on the Majestic Mass Migration of Sandhill Cranes

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)