The Independent Scholar

The Independent Scholar - May 5, 2026

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In this week's issue:

  • ARCs of R.F. Kuang's next novel trigger a backlash over two pages featuring an Israeli pianist — and a viral thread arguing the real problem is that readers no longer understand what fiction is for
  • A new Hebrew press in Berlin, named after Herzl's utopian novel, argues that the State of Israel doesn't own the Hebrew language — and is bringing that argument to American bookstores in September
  • ~140 workers at the University of Chicago Press have formed the UCP Workers Guild
  • Leila Slimani at the Prado on the obsession with being right; Gustavo Gutiérrez on why poverty is, for theology, an act of love

    • Into it we go.

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    The Independent ScholarBy Julia Murphy