Weekend Reading
Writing worth reading - 16th/17th December 2023
In the Shadow of the Holocaust by Masha Gessen
“In the late nineteen-nineties and early two-thousands, when many of these memorials were conceived and installed, I visited Berlin often. It was exhilarating to watch memory culture take shape. Here was a country, or at least a city, that was doing what most cultures cannot: looking at its own crimes, its own worst self. But, at some point, the effort began to feel static, glassed in, as though it were an effort not only to remember history but also to insure that only this particular history is remembered—and only in this way.…”
Depth of Field by Janet Malcolm
“Struth went on to tell me of his elaborate preparations for the portrait of Elizabeth and Philip. He studied old photographs and found most of them wanting. He saw the technical mistakes, “what should not happen”—notably their distracting backgrounds. He visited Buckingham Palace and decided it was too cluttered. When the gilded green, red, and white drawing rooms at Windsor Castle were offered, he selected the green room (the white room was “too tired” and the red room “too much”) and spent a day there making test shots…”
She Messed Up Amazon’s Website. Now She’s One of Its Leaders by Sebastian Herrera
“Today, Tomay is in charge of a crucial part of Amazon that is in its busiest period right now: She oversees businesses and technology at the company’s “last mile” delivery unit—the logistics business that gets packages through the final steps on their way to customers’ doorsteps. It’s a chokepoint that will help determine whether Amazon is successful during the make-or-break holiday season.…”