What else I've been reading in March 2026
Early Emmanuel Carrère, Korean Confucianism, theories of justice, and more
This is one in a series of monthly posts that round up the (mostly non-city-related) books and essays that also figure into my reading life.
Books
Emmanuel Carrère, L'Amie du jaguar (1983): Before turning pro, Carrère taught French in Surabaya, Indonesia. He set much of this first novel there, although whether it's set anywhere at all becomes an open question by the end. Possibly too maddening for English-language readers.
Edward Y. J. Chung, Korean Confucianism (2015): Broad and uncritical, as much English-language writing on Korea has been (”like licking the rind of a watermelon,” to borrow a local expression), but his view of the Confucian engine that is the modern Korean mother was notable to me.
Michael Sandel, Justice (2009): Big in Korea, due in part to Sandel's "Habeodeu" association. Brings back college political philosophy class memories. I'm glad to see that he isn't convinced by Rawls, and that he endorses Alasdair MacIntyre (whom I really should read myself).
Essays
“What was shunned in other public venues found an outlet in soccer stadiums. That was where historical wrongs could be ritually avenged and raw nationalism celebrated, sometimes in a carnival spirit.”
"Here was someone who reacted very violently to anyone who tried to tell him what to do. At the same time, his grand contribution to the world was a piece of software that told people what to do."
"Ce que James L. Brooks filme, c'est justement cette impossibilité de la scission franche entre la famille et la politique."
“He was a Westerner, white trash, didn’t go to college, and worst of all, was a California phenom, a national success, the literary darling of the young. The long knives were well due in making an appearance.”
"The industries producing the discourse about AI displacement are among the industries most exposed to AI. The people writing the stories are writing about themselves."
“Longtemps, on reprocha à Simon Leys d’avoir eu raison trop tôt, d’avoir voulu dessiller des thuriféraires aveugles, d’avoir décrit la dérive totalitaire d’un régime trahissant la Révolution, plongeant dans le culte du Grand Timonier.”
“Many parties and braais must have taken place in Cape Town’s southern suburbs over the years, in academic households such as this one, with the conversations focusing on Coetzee; some, perhaps, on his actual work.”
“The sigh from the provinces is the Hello Kitty ketamine raver, the dispensary cashier in the Korn T-shirt, the TikTok cosplayer dancing in the parking lot, the VTuber with a day job in a suburban office park.”
"La coesistenza delle macro-forme polivalenti di romanzo e saggio, o più genericamente di narrazione e riflessione, attraversa la storia letteraria degli ultimi due secoli."
“With one misstep, one slip off balance, the invitation to think becomes instead a theater of gesture, a drama of recognition and vengeance playing out in a space that appears to be free but reveals itself to be cryptically or tacitly authoritarian.”
"We didn’t save culture from mediocrity, we just privatized the commons and called it curation. The middle wasn’t glamorous, it wasn’t 'optimized.' Nobody was writing manifestos about it. It was the place where most people actually lived."
"Susciter le pathos fantastique et en montrer les ressorts fictifs vont de pair chez Carrère : on ne jouit jamais autant du récit d’horreur qu’en dévoilant au sein du livre ses effets sur le lecteur."