yoko.cool / Recently read

Storytellers
Mo Yan, Outlook India

For a writer, the best way to speak is by writing. You will find everything I need to say in my works. Speech is carried off by the wind; the written word can never be obliterated.

This is actually the acceptance speech by the 2012 Nobel Literature Laureate. It was probably translated, but I was so moved by it that I bought his Nobel Prize-winning book, The Garlic Ballads. So far, it is devastatingly heartbreaking, and sometimes I’ll be reading it and find that my brow is knit in stitches.

The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race
Jared Diamond, Discover Magazine
Diamond argues that the development of agriculture, generally believed to be one of humanity’s most progressive turning points, actually is the cause of the disease and social inequality that plagues us today.

Graphic Design Criticism as a Spectator Sport
Michael Bierut, Design Observer
Fantastic insight on the levelled playing field of design criticism in a time where re/branding feedback is immediate, reactionary, swarmlike, and neophytic (ooo look at me use that word).