Culture | Johnson

Losing native languages is painful. But they can be recovered

In “Memory Speaks”, Julie Sedivy explores both experiences

MEMORY IS UNFAITHFUL. As William James, a pioneering psychologist of the 19th and early 20th centuries, observed: “There is no such thing as mental retention, the persistence of an idea from month to month or year to year in some mental pigeonhole from which it can be drawn when wanted. What persists is a tendency to connection.”

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Remembrance of times past”

Russia’s roulette: The stakes in Ukraine

From the January 29th 2022 edition

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