Good morning. Did you know scrolling through videos will make you feel more bored? Break the cycle this weekend and read some good stories.
Here are my picks from around the Guardian this week.
1. Leaving Gaza
Hamada, a musician from north-west Gaza, was there when Israel invaded after the 7 October Hamas attack. He moved south to Khan Younis, then to Rafah, sharing updates with his friend Nahed – a diaspora Palestinian artist living in New York.
Rafqa Touma, Ariel Bogle, Nick Evershed, Andy Ball and Mostafa Rachwani have documented Hamada’s story using his WhatsApp exchanges, Instagram posts and voice messages to Nahed.
As they exchanged music, and updates about their families, Hamada found himself watching the destruction of Gaza’s cultural centres, including concert halls where he grew up performing. He tried to keep creating music – for himself but also to entertain and distract the displaced children around him.
Eventually, he escaped to Cairo – a bittersweet reprieve as the violence and loss continues in his homeland.
How long will it take to read: this interactive format offers a lot to take in – give it 10 minutes.
Further reading: journalist Plestia Alaqad wrote about the “deeply troubling” words from Peter Dutton after her own evacuation from Gaza; there’s also a great episode of our Full Story podcast exploring why Dutton wants to close the door to Gazan refugees.
2. Why Ireland has so many good writers
Kate McCusker went hunting for the secret to Ireland’s many Nobel laureates, Booker winners, millennial faves and generally fizzing literary scene.
What did she find? A lot of people pointed to the country’s endemic love of storytelling (“Everyone’s primed to be like: ‘wait til I tell you’”). There’s also the matter of seismic national changes in recent decades, “an arts council that cares about literature” (funding, oh so much funding), and “a culture of intergenerational benevolence”. Plus – libraries are a big deal, and everyone seems to have a lot of fun talking about books and making magazines together.
How long will it take to read: under five minutes
3. Plankton!
Basically, if there weren’t plankton, we would all be dead, is the upshot of Ferris Jabr’s long read.
These mostly microscopic creatures flow with the currents and tides, inhabit nearly every liquid environment on Earth (puddles! Even rain drops!), and make water look like it is alive.
“Thousands of tiny creatures – shaped like discs, rowing boats and boomerangs – were moving of their own volition. Some leapt through the water, flea-like, almost teleporting from one position to another. Others glided along like manta rays or bored ahead as though excavating a tunnel.” – Ferris Jabr, looking closely at water in a jar.
Lovely fact: the word “plankton” comes from the Greek planktos, for “wandering” or “drifting”.
Fun fact: A few large animals also qualify as plankton because they are “such listless swimmers” – like some types of jellyfish.
How long will it take to read: eight minutes
4. What do we do with East Germany?
Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos, translated by poet and critic Michael Hofmann, is one of the best books I’ve read in years. The story of a doomed affair in the twilight years of the east-west divide recently won the International Booker and has garnered huge praise – except in Germany, where, as writer Carolin Würfel explains, Erpenbeck is accused of romanticising the era and whitewashing GDR history.
But Würfel, who like Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin, takes issue with this particular strand of literary policing. Debates over the “real” story of reunification have a special urgency in the era of the AfD, she says. But there is also an uncomfortable and important truth: “there is no ‘your story, my story’ any more when it comes to East Germany.”
Her take: “What is forgotten in the current debate is that Katharina is a fictional character, and Erpenbeck is not a historian but a writer.”
How long will it take to read: about two-and-a-half minutes
Further reading: Kairos – it’s sublime.
5. Periods forever?
Would women be healthier and happier if they menstruated for ever, asks Amy Fleming. A question to give one powerful cramps.
“The idea,” Fleming writes, “is that by extending the working life of the ovaries, which impact systemic health from metabolism to bone and connective tissue quality to cognitive function and mood, women may have a better chance of staving off heart disease, dementia, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes and other conditions that can affect their health.”
Enter the scientists. And queue much debate, over more things that may or may not help women.
One expert’s view: “When you’ve got ageing parents, adolescent children, having proper periods again and worrying about getting pregnant is the last thing people need”.
How long will it take to read: less than five minutes.
I leave you with this photo of French star Alain Delon, who died this week and whose children, following years of drama, decided not to put down the dog he requested to be buried with. Bon voyage, “ice-cold angel”.
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