Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for June 18, 2011
From Bachmann’s fundamentalist beliefs to the history behind 'The Story of O,' The Daily Beast scans the Web.
“Michele Bachmann’s Unrivaled Extremism”
Michelle Goldberg, The Daily Beast
Rep. Michele Bachmann's impressive performance at Monday's debate has catapulted her near the front of the GOP pack, but the radical roots of her ideology remain poorly understood.
David Eagleman, The Atlantic
Advances in brain science are calling into question the volition behind many criminal acts. A leading neuroscientist describes how the foundations of our criminal-justice system are beginning to crumble, and proposes a new way forward for law and order.
Suzy Hansen, Bloomberg Businessweek
Turkey is showing the world how a Muslim country in a turbulent region can achieve stability and prosperity. Will it last?
Mimi Swartz, The New York Times Magazine
Should therapists help God-fearing gay people stay in the closet?
Carmela Ciuraru, Guernica
Not many authors can boast of having written a bestselling pornographic novel, much less one regarded as an erotica classic—but Pauline Réage could. Forty years after the publication of the French novel Histoire d’O, the full truth about her multiple secret identities is revealed.
Jumpa Lahiri, The New Yorker
Notes from a literary apprenticeship.