Culture | The sports pageAs a golfing experiment it has failedPhotograph: Getty Images Oct 4th 2024FOR THREE YEARS, much that has happened on the fairways and greens of men’s professional golf has been ignored. Scottie Scheffler, an American golfer, has won seven events on America’s PGA Tour so far this year, including the Masters, and pocketed an Olympic...

Culture | “Unleashed” and mildly unhingedHis new book is full of revelations, but none of the sort readers actually wantPhotograph: Getty Images Oct 4th 2024I t was 2008, during the global financial crisis. Boris Johnson was mayor of London. The political situation was tense; scrutiny was intensifying. Or, as Boris puts it in his memoir, “POW POW POW!”—first...

Culture | From witchcraft to wokeOver thousands of years humans domesticated themselves Oct 4th 2024Trial by boiling water was not as bad as it sounded. In medieval Europe, those accused of grave crimes might be ordered to plunge an arm into a bubbling cauldron to retrieve an object. If they were scalded, that was God’s way of revealing their guilt....

Culture | The next big thingThe rise of South Korean books about burnout has taken the world by stormPhotograph: Reuters Oct 3rd 2024The country that gave the world popular bands such as BTS and hits such as “Parasite” and “Squid Game” is now exporting something slower-paced. The publication of “Marigold Mind Laundry” in America and Britain this month...

Culture | No passing fadMuseums and collectors now want what were once panned as commercial images for their wallsPhotograph: Vasilina Popova/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Oct 3rd 2024ELTON JOHN had just finished a stint in rehab. Without the fog induced by drink and drugs, he found he was able to look at the world with “clear eyes”. So when David Fahey, a gallerist,...

Culture | Back StoryNo magic potion or friendly giant can resolve this tension, as a new play showsPhotograph: Getty Images Oct 3rd 2024Perhaps, in the squeamish spirit of the times, the Royal Court Theatre in London should have put on two versions of “Giant”, a blistering new play about Roald Dahl—one that quoted his bigoted remarks about Jews, the...