I am a regular contributor to the Danish newspapers Weekendavisen and Politiken Historie. I write essays about literature, cultural history, and the ancient world.
A black angel, from a manuscript of the Medieval alchemical treatise Aurora Consurgens that I wrote about for Weekendavisen.
Loathin’ n’ lovin’
Danish. I begin my review of Harald Voetmann’s new translation of Catullus with a close reading of poem no. 16: a rape joke that deconstructs itself to establish the difference between fictional persona and real author, combining a sophisticated literary self-reference with a genuinely shocking vulgarity. That’s Catullus in a…
Medieval merriment
Danish. In a review of Kåre Johannessen’s book about leisure and amusement in the European Middle Ages, I argue that Johannessen’s fascination with play is an example to be emulated. Historians often explain premodern diversions in instrumental terms—as physical training or forms of subtle social control—but this reading of fun…
A clash of Cleo’s
Danish. Weighing in on the controversy surrounding the 2023 Netflix docudrama about Queen Cleopatra, I briefly trace the history of her malleable, adaptable image, arguing that the queen’s legacy became a confluence of contradictions: she gathers in one figure East and West, sex and death, power and decline, excessive masculinity…
Before the Flood
Danish. Are Danish museums prepared for the coming climate catastrophe? In this article, I survey the plans that Danish cultural institutions have made to protect their cultural heritage against extreme weather phenomena and social unrest over the coming decades, drawing a parallel between the situation we face today and the…
Long Ovid?
Danish. In a review of a new Danish publication of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, I connect the all-pervading change that is the subject of the genre-busting “epic” with the profound, violent transformation that Ovid himself lived through, from his birth one year after Caesar’s assassination to his own death in political exile…
The first Danish novel
Danish. In 2023, the first Danish novel, Den beklædte sandhed (The Veiled Truth), celebrates its 300th anniversary. Virtually forgotten today, the novel was written by a woman, Anna Margrethe Lasson, who was an ardent defender of women’s place in literary culture. A roman-à-clef with concealment as both its form and…
A revolution in cuneiform
Danish. The recently launched portal of the Electronic Babylonian Literature projected, led by Enrique Jiménez, is a huge advance in the study of cuneiform cultures. The digital framework has allowed philologists to place fragments so small that humans would be unlikely to ever identify them; and while the fragments themselves…
To leave on read
Danish. In my eleventh entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I discuss the peculiarly modern feeling—created by “read receipts” on messaging apps such as WhatsApp—of knowing that your words have been read, but not yet responded to. This state of communicative limbo gained a new intensity for me some two years ago,…
Modes of flow
Danish. For a review of Anders Søgaard’s poetical and postmodern retelling of the Iliad, I argue that Homer’s epic can be read as a flurry of interconnections. The epic pursues a wealth of different associations to push the plot restlessly on: the movement of weapons, words, people, objects, eyes, memories,…
A perverse Hegelian
Danish. For a review of a recent Danish translation of Judith Butler’s Bodies that Matter, I give an overview of Butler’s philosophy before focusing on their gender theory. I frame Butler’s philosophy through a line from Frames of War, “I remain, perversely, a Hegelian,” arguing that Butler takes Hegel’s idea…
Translating Taoism
Danish. The American author Ursula Le Guin published a free English translation of the Daodejing, the philosophical foundation ofTaoism, the Daodejing, and that translation was then translated into Danish. In this essay, I first review the strange and beguiling world view that emerges from the Daodejing, and then ask what…
The best ventriloquist
Danish. What impact will ChatGPT – and the similar programs that are bound to be released in the coming months and years – have on literature? To answer this question, I first explain the technological developments behind the program, focusing on word embeddings, which allow the algorithm to recreate meaning,…
Truth and adultery
Danish. I review the history of Heloïse and Abelard, including the stormy story of their affair, Abelard’s contributions to philosophy, and Heloïse’s influence on that philosophy, as well as her own critique of gender norms as expressed in the letters that the lovers exchanged many years later. I single out…
Closure in times of crisis
Danish. In my tenth entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I discuss the Danish word afklaring, roughly translatable as “closure.” Like it’s English counterpart, afklaring denotes a sense of calm and acceptance in relation to a pain either experienced or (more strongly so in Danish) expected. After unpacking some of the forms…
Monkeys v. robots
Danish. A selfie taken by a monkey and a comic book drawn by AI clash in a historic copyright case. In deciding whether art created by AI image generators can be awarded copyright, the USPTO is drawing on a surprising legal precedent: the case of Naruto, a crested macaque who…
A very Freudian reading
Danish. For a New Year’s rundown of Danish literary events in 2022, I wrote about “the year’s most Freudian reading experience.” Being the child of two authors has many blessings, as well as a few notable downsides. Among the latter is having to read sex scenes written by your parents.…
In search of lost crime
Danish. The article traces the forgotten origins of crime fiction in medieval Persia. Crime fiction as we know it today consists of two fused elements: crimes and clues, typically in the form of a murder and a series of material remains whose meaning is revealed by a hyper-intelligent detective. It…
Thoughtfully thoughtless
Danish. In my ninth entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I draw on Peter Adamson’s Don’t Think for Yourself to explore the concept of taqlid from Arabic philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence. Taqlid refers to a thoughtless reliance on the words of others, as opposed to ijtihad, thinking and examining for oneself. Medieval…
Nobel and No-bel
Danish. In this brief piece, I argue that the last three winners of the Nobel prize in literature (Louise Glück, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Annie Ernaux) have a striking resemblance to the three authors who have consistently topped the bookmakers’ lists (respectively, Anne Carson, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Michel Houellebecq). Since…
Apricot & countenance
Danish. I wrote the first and the last entry for the literary encyclopedia ORD. The first entry discusses the rich cultural connotations of the apricot and the fascinating history of its name: the word apricot began in Latin and was then loaned through Greek, Arabic, and Old French, in a…
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