Inside the October 2024 Issue
Barry C. Lynn on the antitrust revolution, Andrew Cockburn on Hindu nationalism in American politics, Matthew Shen Goodman on the Asian-American conservative, fiction from Solvej Balle, and more.
October 2024
[ E S S A Y ]
The Antitrust Revolution
Liberal democracy’s last stand against Big Tech
By Barry C. Lynn
“Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple have disrupted almost every economic and political balance in the Republic. They have amassed the power to shape and determine how we speak to one another and share news and information. Even how we think, dream, and perceive our place in the world. These are the absolute sovereigns of our age, the masters in the middle of us all.”
[ L E T T E R • F R O M • W A S H I N G T O N ]
The Hindutva Lobby
How Hindu nationalism spreads in America
By Andrew Cockburn
“Had there ever been doubts about the significance of the Hindu community in American politics, they have surely been allayed by the tumultuous events of this year’s election cycle…There can be little doubt that this community, endowed with wealth, organization, and potent political connections, will continue to grow in influence, becoming its own political bulldozer.”
[ M I S C E L L AN Y ]
The Fever Called Living
On the plight of environmental-illness refugees
By Evan Malmgren
“Artificial electrical fields disrupting our internal power grids does make a kind of intuitive sense: we are bioelectric beings; our cells conduct delicate electrical currents that mediate our nervous systems, facilitate our thoughts, and enable our bodies to move at will. Electricity, once a universal animating life force, is now directed in ways totally alien to our evolution.”
[ A N N O T A T I O N ]
Permanent Spots
An encounter with early New York graffiti
By Michael Shorris
“Letterforms, like spoken dialects, were regional: Manhattan’s were plain and unadorned, while Brooklyn’s tended toward cursive; artists in the Bronx preferred bubble letters, while those in Queens embraced angular, geometric designs. Taggers in upper Manhattan shared a style called Broadway Elegant, defined by its compressed, vertical letterforms.”
[ R E P O R T ]
Demographics vs. Destiny
The dawn of the Asian-American conservative
By Matthew Shen Goodman
“Amid the cottage industry of fretting over fickle moderates and outré conservatives of color, Asian Americans can fall by the wayside. Some of this might be chalked up to our statistical newness. It’s obviously unlikely that the immigrant millions who have joined the demos—Asian and otherwise—would all obediently vote for Democrats. Which is to say: it was inevitable that conservatives among us would someday reveal themselves.”
[ F I C T I O N ]
Day 121
By Solvej Balle
Translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland
“I have got used to the sounds, to the gray morning light and to the rain that will soon start to fall in the garden. I have got used to footsteps on the floor and doors being opened and closed.”
[ R E V I E W S ]
Nuance and Nuisance
On the Village Voice
By Ed Park
“The Voice became many things to me: a place of drudgery and triumph and endless office politics, a writing school, a talent pool, my crucible and passport. For all its flaws, it is still the most diverse place I’ve ever worked.”
D E P A R T M E N T S
[ I N • M E M O R I A M ]
a farewell to the longtime editor of Harper's Magazine
[ E A S Y • C H A I R ]
By Matthew Karp
[ T H E • H A R P E R ‘ S • I N D E X ]
[ R E A D I N G S ]
and more...
[ F R O M • T H E • A R C H I V E ]
By Saul Nelson
By Dan Piepenbring
[ P U Z Z L E ]
By Richard E. Maltby Jr.
See the full table of contents