"The disorder of crates wrenched open"

Albert unpacks books and revisits a classic Walter Benjamin essay; reader responses to last week's post about language wars in Taiwan; book club updates

Dear all,

Michelle here. We’ve been in Taiwan for exactly a month!

Many of you have written asking how we’re faring. I regret to report that Albert grows more youthful-looking by the day: his complexion has brightened, his cheeks slimmed. It must have something to do with homecoming. Turns out the West was bad for his skin. Mine, meanwhile, is blotchy from scratching at mosquito bites (they love new blood, an auntie informed me), and I look haggard, unwell, a little lost. “Pretty soon people are going to ask me if I’m your mother,” I complained, sneezing, which is my default mode these days—I’m allergic to something in the air, or maybe to the dust from the seventy-three boxes that just arrived from France.

“Objectively, I’m average-looking,” I continued. (This is just how I talk, don’t worry.) “But in the U.S. I got an extra attractiveness point for being an Asian woman. Objectively you’re good-looking but in the U.S. you lost points for being an Asian man. So we were basically equal. H…