Last Week This Week 4-24-16

Wrath /ræθ/ noun

            1
:  strong vengeful anger or indignation
 (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical effect)

            2
:  retributory punishment for an offense or a crime: divine chastisement
        

On WBT

David James weighs in on the German government's decision to prosecute comedian Jan Böhmermann and tells us why it's perfectly okay to mock a dictator.

WBT Friends

Matthew Komatsu reviews Brian Castner's new book, All the Ways to Kill and Die. My favorite line: "If there is risk inherent to the structure of All the Ways We Kill and Die, it is that its polygamous marriage of imagination, memoir, and reportage runs the risk of throwing off a genre-monogamous reader." Based off of the rest of the review, this is a risk I'm willing to take.

Adrian Bonenberger writes for Forbes on Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko and Putin's latest mistake. 

Editor’s Recommendations

Advocacy

Congratulations to The Marshall Project, for their recent Pulitzer Prize. If you are at all interested in racial and criminal justice, subscribing to their daily Opening Statement newsletter is a necessity. 

Politics 

An article decrying how smug and condescending liberals have become, and if we're honest in our introspection, the editors at WBT can't claim innocence of the same vice at times. 

Bill Moyers discusses the problem of stone-age brains trying to figure out democracy (and perhaps proves the point of the above Vox link—you decide). 

The New York Times on how Clinton could win the nomination and lose the election. 

Masculinity 

Remember the God-awful Tucker Max? Well, supposedly he's moved on from humiliating women and now wants to raise a family. Read Amber A'Lee Frost at the Baffler to find out whether "Dick-Lit" has truly changed its ways.

A former professor of Adrian's writes about class fragility in America, and the comment section is BRUTAL.

Birthdays

Friday was Shakespeare's birthday. Read our favorite Shakespeare scholar, Stephen Greenblatt, on why Shakespeare's "cakes and ale" were always subversive and how Shakespeare's plays have become an unlikely weapon against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Fiction

Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer wins the Pulitzer Prize! Check out WBT's take on the The Sympathizer's literary and historical importance (with respect to war literature) and then buy the book. 

Prince

Prince passed away. In his honor, grab some pancakes and check out Prince's favorite Dave Chapelle skit.