Mona Simpson

1 month ago | cultofmac.com | Luke Dormehl |Mona Simpson |Steve Jobs

March 18, 1991: Steve Jobs marries 27-year-old Stanford MBA Laurene Powell. The couple’s friends and family attend the wedding, which takes place at Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park in central California. Steve Jobs meets Laurene PowellJobs met Powell in October 1989, shortly after the NeXT Computer debuted. He gave a lecture at Stanford Business School, titled “View From the Top.”Powell, a graduate student in the business school, arrived late for Jobs’ presentation.

Sep 3, 2023 | books.substack.com | Mona Simpson

Xiao Jiang, Early Spring in February (2022). Courtesy of KarmaA great reading experience can be like a love affair or a journey—it lives on in memory and in our lives, it touches the way we understand our own decisions, how we fall in love, and the way we approach our work. Social scientists claim that human beings are biologically prone to overvalue endings; be that as it may, every writer knows that there is nothing more important than her book’s close.

Aug 27, 2023 | books.substack.com | Mona Simpson

Book Seven is a full of internal battles, tension, and excruciation. We watch multiple plots George Eliot has set in motion develop to their climaxes. And the author seems to set herself one private challenge, a radical change from the previous hundreds of pages. It’s clear by now that Lydgate and Rosamond are at war.

Aug 20, 2023 | books.substack.com | Mona Simpson

Consider this little-cited paragraph:Of course, as a servant who was to be told nothing, he [Pratt, Casaubon’s butler] knew the fact of which Ladislaw was still ignorant, and had drawn his inferences; indeed, had not differed from his betrothed Tantripp when she said, “Your master was as jealous as a fiend—and no reason. Madam would look higher than Mr. Ladislaw, else I don’t know her. Mrs. Cadwallader’s maid says there’s a lord coming who is to marry her when the mourning’s over.

Aug 14, 2023 | books.substack.com | Mona Simpson

George Eliot had the most equivocal of minds. We’ve noticed that she sees pride as the most dangerous human quality, with the power to keep those in its grip from each other, from community, and from love. She has the capacity to chop down every character’s fondest vision of him or herself, challenge their pride, ironize their most prized vanities.