Posted on July 5, 2021 at 8:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it was fairly common that someone would hold up a novel — either from years ago or, eerily, from just months before — that seemed to predict the current chaos.
And if, when Jürgen Wertheimer heard about any of those books, he thought “told you so,” we wouldn’t judge him at all.
Wertheimer, a professor of comparative literature, successfully made his case to German officials years ago that literary trends could do more than help authors hop on bandwagons — they could help states predict which political tensions could morph into serious conflicts.
Head to the Guardian to learn how Wertheimer conceived of, pitched, and put into practice the "literary seismograph" known as Project Cassandra.
Related posts
Categories: Today in Books