The Independent Scholar

The Independent Scholar - April 28, 2026

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In this week's issue:

  • Luke Dunne's LARB tribute to Alexander Kluge pushes back against the somber-sage obituary and recovers the flamboyant, sentimental filmmaker-theorist who refused moral seriousness
  • Romila Thapar at 94 — the doyenne of Indian historiography, her career-long battle against Hindutva revisionism, and a Psyche portrait that opens with grief
  • Hussein Aboubakr Mansour asks why there is no redemption in the Arabic novel — and argues the question implicates far more than literary taste
  • Taylor Lorenz ran a pangram analysis across the top 25 Substack bestsellers in every category to find out how much of the platform is actually written by AI

    • Plenty here. Dig in.

    ...more
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    The Independent ScholarBy Julia Murphy