News from Elsewhere

Rethinking public behavior in Hong Kong  

Most people find the filmed version of Deliverance, um … memorable, but the excellent novel it was based on—written by the (mainly) poet James Dickey forty-five years ago—can really be seen as an under-recognized classic of outdoor and adventure writing. A brief oral history of the book and making of the film is here. When the book turned forty, the New York Times‘ Dwight Garner wrote this piece on Dickey and the book’s influence.
 
This thoughtful Alice Gregory review of William Finnegan’s surfing memoir.

Ever wanted to learn to scythe? Community hay-baling in London this weekend on a site historically associated with growing crops for hay—an artist’s project that revisits what was once largely a social event replaced by mechanization. 

Tom Vanderbilt on how the color of food influences how we taste.

A fiber artist explores the ravaging effect of home foreclosures through quilts. 

Vanessa Bell’s biographer is surprisingly supportive of the BBC’s new mini-series, Life in Squares, chronicling the Bloomsbury Group. 

Everyone should watch Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Rose this week. 

—Eugenia Bell