Prodigies
Sunday Reading: Prodigies
Photograph from GettyThe prodigy is an eternal source of fascination, and the course of a prodigy’s talent and life has been the stuff of extraordinary profiles in The New Yorker over the years.More from the ArchiveSign up for Classics, a twice-weekly newsletter featuring notable pieces from the past.In “Yuja Wang and the Art of Performance,” Janet Malcolm reports on the world-renowned pianist and delves into her early mastery of the instrument. In “How to Raise a Prodigy,” Adam Gopnik explores the source of exceptional precocity, asking whether extraordinary talent is, well, nature or nurture. In “Nerd Camp,” Burkhard Bilger visits the Center for Talented Youth and delves into the lives of gifted children. In “The Wall Dancer,” Nick Paumgarten portrays a young female rock climber, one of the best of all time in her terrifying sport. Finally, in “Hou Yifan and the Wait for Chess’s First Woman World Champion,” Louisa Thomas writes about the dazzling skills of a young girl who became a Grandmaster at fourteen and now navigates the male-dominated world of her game. Of Hou’s early lessons, Thomas writes, her teacher “sat Hou at a board and had her face his top pupils, all boys. They had studied chess theory; they knew how to checkmate with only, say, a bishop and a knight. Hou did not know endgames, but she beat most of them anyway. She was seven years old.”—David RemnickThe piano prodigy is known for the brilliance of her playing and for her dramatic outfits.Can achievement be engineered?How do you find America’s brightest kids, and what do you do with them for the summer?Ashima Shiraishi’s route to the top.For years, Hou was the only woman who stood a chance against the very best. But she had her own ambitions.The New Yorker offers a signature blend of news, culture, and the arts. It has been published since February 21, 1925.Read MoreBriefly Noted“Disrupted City,” “Q&A,” “Model Home,” and “Canoes.”On a Newly Translated Story by Yukio MishimaA conversation with John Nathan, a biographer of Yukio Mishima, who translated the story “From the Wilderness” in this week’s issue.Han Kang’s Experimental TouchFrom the daily newsletter: the first South Korean to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. Plus: the Saudi Princesses held captive, Donald Trump’s “bro-cast” tour, and Saoirse Ronan outshines “The Outrun.”Briefly Noted“The Barn,” “When the Ice Is Gone,” “Bright I Burn,” and “Gifted.”Men Versus Women in AmericaFrom the daily newsletter: Jia Tolentino on America’s gender war. Plus: what’s next for reproductive rights, reading “King Lear” during a hurricane, and Jesse Eisenberg’s bromance-Holocaust movie.David Remnick on Why Editorial Endorsements MatterFrom the daily newsletter: the importance of refusing complicity. Plus: Rachel Monroe reports on the attack on abortion care in Texas; the banality of online recommendation culture; and the Enlightenment’s great female intellect.Watch the 2024 New Yorker FestivalViewers can enjoy recorded events with Rachel Maddow, Atul Gawande, Liz Cheney, Sara Bareilles, and more.The Brothers Grimm Were Dark for a ReasonTheir version of “Cinderella” or “Rapunzel” could be disturbing. But turning Germany into a unified nation, they believed, meant unearthing its authentic culture.What We Can Learn from Alexei Navalny’s Courage in PrisonFrom the daily newsletter: the late Russian dissident’s upcoming memoir. Plus: war comes to Beirut; election static and panic; and the superficiality of “The Apprentice.”The Mordant Intimacy of Cécile Desprairies’s “The Propagandist”In her début novel, a historian of Vichy France tackles her family’s real-life collaboration during the Second World War.Dorothy Parker and the Art of the Literary TakedownHer reviews are not contemptuous, a common pitfall for her imitators. They are simply unbridled in their dislike.Andrew Marantz on Tuckerism and the American PublicFrom the daily newsletter: Tucker Carlson’s road show. Plus: Dorothy Parker’s literary takedowns; the aid workers risking their lives in Gaza; and what’s next for the labor movement?