I have been surprised lately when I mentioned Zweig to a few friends, and realized that few people were reading him now–he was once the one of the few authors translated into Chinese and I remembered devouring his fiction when I was sixteen.
The book, The world of Yesterday, was published in 1943, and was a memoir about Europe in early 20th century, yet it is not a personal tale. Rather, it is a memoir about history and culture, and I’ve learned so much about the world Zweig presented to his readers, and also I have noticed–sharing the melancholy and despair sometimes with Zweig–that the world we have today is not much different from the world of yesterday, and so many lessons are yet to be learned.
]]>Quite separate from the debate over the death penalty and what crime warrants it, the practice of removing organs from the bodies of executed prisoners raises ethical questions: are these donations made voluntarily or under duress? To what extent does such organ harvesting encourage miscarriage of justice? Also — and perhaps you’re surprised that fifthestate even asks – under what conditions are the organs removed, before or after death? A witness account of one such public execution held nearly 30 years ago in 1978, given to fifthestate by writer Yiyun Li, makes it necessary to at least pose this question.
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