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London Review of Books

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Tom Vanderbilt

On a recent flight from Salt Lake City to New York, the announcement came ‘to kindly lower the window shades so that other passengers may enjoy the in-flight entertainment programme’. I demurred, and my window soon seemed a searchlight sweeping through the dark cabin, disconcerting those passengers trying to enjoy The Notebook. Why settle for Hollywood pap, I thought, when they had the sublime at their disposal?

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Tom Vanderbilt is the author of Survival City: Adventures among the Ruins of Atomic America. He lives in Brooklyn.