If I go subatomic, will I desire a particular flavor of quark?

You have to know what you’re looking for—the charmer’s affinity for deep-red things, their seamless smiles

In the second episode of Critical Friends, Aisha, Dan, and Maureen discuss the role of trust in criticism: how it is built and lost, and how can the reader decide whether a particular piece of criticism is worth paying attention to?

Sometimes as I lie in bed, more-than-half asleep, I take a step that seems to be toward wakefulness—but I go astray. This feeling reminds me of circling a tree with one big stride. Just for a moment, I guess the dark woods disguise me from myself. When I find myself, I find myself restored: it wouldn’t be surprising if these absences were signs of some specific activity of neurochemical maintenance and repair. I feel sifted, like the leafy canopy sifts the sun into spangles.[1] Yet such moments are also glitches. They are slippages