The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads by Maria Popova

Storytelling and the Art of Tenderness: Olga Tokarczuk’s Magnificent Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Storytelling and the Art of Tenderness: Olga Tokarczuk’s Magnificent Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

“Tenderness is the most modest form of love. It is the kind of love that does not appear in the scriptures or the gospels, no one swears by it, no one cites it… It appears wherever we take a close and careful look at another being, at something that is not our ‘self.’”

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The Poetic Science of the Aurora Borealis
The Poetic Science of the Aurora Borealis

“And now commenced a display which baffles all description.”

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M.C. Escher on Creativity and Grasping the Largest Mystery Through the Immense Beauty of the Very Small
M.C. Escher on Creativity and Grasping the Largest Mystery Through the Immense Beauty of the Very Small

“What is that so-called reality; what is this theory other than a beautiful but primordially human illusion?”

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Nature Is Always Listening: The Science of Mushrooms, Music, and How Sound Waves Stimulate Mycelial Growth
Nature Is Always Listening: The Science of Mushrooms, Music, and How Sound Waves Stimulate Mycelial Growth

What playing music has to do with the happiness of the forest.

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Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska’s Poem “Love at First Sight,” Illustrated
Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska’s Poem “Love at First Sight,” Illustrated

“Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.”

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How the Eel Almost Became America’s Thanksgiving Food
How the Eel Almost Became America’s Thanksgiving Food

“At night, he came home with as many eels as he could well lift in one hand, which our people were glad of. They were fat & sweet.”

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How We Co-Create and Recreate the World: Octavio Paz on Sor Juana, Poetry as Rebellion, and the Creative Collaboration Between Writers and Readers
How We Co-Create and Recreate the World: Octavio Paz on Sor Juana, Poetry as Rebellion, and the Creative Collaboration Between Writers and Readers

“A work responds to the reader’s, not the author’s, questions.”

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Le Monde de la Mer: Stunning 19th-Century French Illustrations of the Wonders of the Sea
Le Monde de la Mer: Stunning 19th-Century French Illustrations of the Wonders of the Sea

Dive into “the world of the sea in its luxury and its agitations.”

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The Unphotographable: Jack Kerouac’s Soaring Diary Entry About Self-Understanding and the Elemental Vastness of the Windblown World
The Unphotographable: Jack Kerouac’s Soaring Diary Entry About Self-Understanding and the Elemental Vastness of the Windblown World

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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.”

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