Guernica Magazine

Life on Mars

Rachel Kushner's new novel, The Mars Room, is a study in empathy. The post Life on Mars appeared first on Guernica.
Photograph by Lucy Raven Photograph by Lucy Raven

“There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.” So said John Bradford, a 16th century British chaplain, as a line of poor convicts filed past him toward their executions. Over the centuries, the phrase has become personalized to whomever is speaking, i.e. “There, but for the grace of God, go I,” and has come to embody empathetic thinking. For Bradford, living in the volatile Age of Reformation, that empathy was no doubt based in a genuine fear of being executed. Not long after becoming the chaplain to the reformer King

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