Jonathan Lethem Takes Inventory Of Literature’s Enormous Fake Pharmacy

“The current generation of fictional drugs, rather than bubbling up from nature’s underworld, parachute into stories and novels from the corporate-technological top down. The recent nightmare drugs — for they are, exclusively, nightmares — are pharmaceuticals. … The self’s integrity is under assault not by illicit indulgences but by capitalism’s imperative to market us shiny neurological upgrades — and by our complicit desire to be thus reworked.” — The New York Times Book Review

The Complicated Story Of Frankincense And Myrrh

The plant-based aromatics are known to most people through the story of the Three Magi and the Christ Child, and frankincense is known to some through the incense used in some churches, but both substances have histories that go back to pre-Christian antiquity. In fact, over the centuries, even Christianity’s relationship with the pair has been ambivalent. — Aeon

Deborah Zall, Who Portrayed Great Women In Solo Dance Works, Dead At 84

“Ms. Zall was known for vivid portrayals of women drawn from history, including Mary Queen of Scots and the French author who wrote under the pseudonym George Sand, as well as fictional characters, like Amanda Wingfield from Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie. Lean, small of stature and angular of build, she gave performances that were praised for their commitment and focus.” — The New York Times

Ah, That Simpler Time When Children Made Their Own Toys …

Rebecca Onion: “In mid-December, as I struggled to keep my own toy purchases under control, the idea of 19th-century children constructing their own playthings — probably by the fire, while calmly listening to their mother playing the piano — is eminently appealing. But as with many things in the history of childhood, children’s toy-making was less idyllic than it seems.” — Slate

The Biggest Streamers In Europe Brace For Content Quota Regulations

Here it comes, specifically for Netflix and Amazon, but others will be affected too: “The crucial clause in the E.U.’s audiovisual media services directive states that member states ‘shall ensure that media service providers of on-demand audiovisual media services under their jurisdiction secure at least a 30% share of European works in their catalogues and ensure prominence of those works.'” – Variety