Jessica Lee Jernigan: Work

Mark Kurlansky on a Year That Rocked the World

The French movement in 1968 was, to a considerable degree, fueled by satire. De Gaulle was such a caricature of himself. He really made himself an easy target for witty revolutionaries.

MK: You know, I've been thinking about that. My Italian publisher asked me to write an introduction to their edition, and I've been wondering why the world paid so much attention to, and remembered, the French movement, but not the Italian movement? The Italian movement did more over a longer time; they shut down Italy, they lasted longer, but they didn't have de Gaulle as a foil.

I mean, you know, there is no Left in France anymore. There's no anything because they're all bored with their leaders. But de Gaulle, whom you could criticize for many, many things, was not boring. He just could really piss you off. Read more...

A Practical Kind of Hero: Caroline Alexander on William Bligh and the True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

Which of the men who took part in this journey and its aftermath intrigued you the most?

Caroline Alexander: I was intrigued by William Purcell, the Bounty's carpenter, because he reminded me so much of Chippy McNish, Shackleton's carpenter on Endurance. Both were bloody-minded sea lawyers, utterly fearless of authority, both gave their commanding officers a hard time—and both at the end of the day proved loyal to them. Read more...

What You Have Will Save You: Elaine Pagels on the Gospel of Thomas

As you explain in your book, Jesus, for John, is a uniquely divine being—the way, the truth, the water of life—and salvation requires belief in Jesus. What is Jesus for Thomas?

Elaine Pagels: Well, you see that in Thomas belief is never asked for and the only time it's mentioned—when the disciples seem sort of desperate and they say, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you"—Jesus doesn't answer them. So, this gospel comes from someone or some group for whom believing in Jesus is not the point. Read more...

Being Human: Michael Newton on Feral Children

Did writing this book fundamentally change your own conception of what it is to be human?

Michael Newton: There are two answers to that. In the course of thinking about the issue philosophically, as I wrote the book, I came to the conclusion that being human meant being social—that we are by nature an artificial animal—and that human life exists in society. I was also aware that I'd reached at the end the point that the carers and educators of these children had reached at the beginning—and that these children, although clearly human, didn't fit the definition.

The second answer is that increasingly I began to see that the question didn't matter: Clearly, these children are human, and we know a human being when we see one, no matter what physical or psychological damage they've undergone. And I began to feel that being human is something we do with other people, not a solitary thing, but a relationship—that it exists in an exchange of care, kindness, connection, a reciprocal sense of another's presence—in other words, in love. Read more...

Are You a Real Woman? Consulting the Experts with Lynn Peril

So, fighting communism isn't just about keeping the house clean, but it's about sexuality, too—the right kind of sexuality.

Lynn Peril: The history of sex education in the United States is really interesting. In the 1840s and the 1850s, you'll see sex manuals that talk about how important it is for both partners to have pleasure. And then there was a big religious revival, and after that it's all about reproductive sexuality. I have some absolutely killer sex manuals from the turn of the century that talk very, very specifically about when and how married couples—of course, only married couples would be having sex—should have relations. Sex is all about breeding the healthiest, most beautiful, most intelligent children possible. Read more...

Reconsidering the Corset with Valerie Steele

Do continental feminists have different views on fashion?

Valerie Steele: Oh, yes. In Britain and America, Protestant, middleclass culture—shaped, in part, by Puritanism—has always said that fashion, by its very nature, is elitist and duplicitous, that clothing should be simple and utilitarian, a mirror of the individual's true self. Historically, fashion has been vilified—like theater and art—as something false. Whereas in Catholic Europe—in France, in Italy—and in Russian Orthodox culture, it's much more accepted that fashion is a mask. Fashion is part of a persona that you put on and present to the world—something like what the Italians call la bella figura, when you're obviously trying to put your best foot forward. The fact that clothing may exaggerate how beautiful, how rich, we are, that it might lie—it's just one aspect in the construction a public self. Read more...

Away with the Fairies: Angela Bourke on the Burning of Bridget Cleary

You mention in your book how fairy stories are used to maintain social order in the face of extremity, and the primary example you offer is the use of fairy stories to obscure—and deal with—infanticide. It was exceptional that Bridget was an adult.

Angela Bourke: That's why I thought the story was so interesting and why I started to think about it in political terms. I mean, obviously, infanticide is political as well, if you take the word political very broadly. Fairy legends can account for the death of infants whether by infanticide or by stillbirth or by some of the awful illnesses that newborn babies got in the time before modern medicine, but an adult is much more active in the society she lives in than a baby is. Read more...

Questioning Matriarchy: Cynthia Eller on the Myth of a Gynocentric Past

There are cultures about which we know a great deal—ancient Greece, Japan—in which veneration of female deities does not translate into status for women. Why do matriarchalists believe that prehistoric societies that worshipped goddesses were necessarily environments in which women are equal to men or superior to men?

Cynthia Eller: You're right, it's no secret that goddess worship doesn't automatically produce societies that treat women with respect and give them opportunities equal to those offered to men. The examples you mention—ancient Greece and Japan—are good ones, and of course there are others, too. The way matriarchalists get around this problem is that they see ancient Greece and Japan not as examples of goddess worship per se, but of goddess worship as it has been corrupted by "the patriarchy." Read more...