---
title: "Best of 2018: culture"
date: "2018-12-21T12:38:05+00:00"
modified: "2018-12-21T12:38:05+00:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2018/12/21/best-of-2018-culture/"
post_id: 6833
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Best of 2018: culture

 ![An abandoned school in Pripyat, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster](https://newhumanist.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/chernobyl1.jpg "An abandoned school in Pripyat, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. From Cal Flyn's piece for our spring 2018 issue.")An abandoned school in Pripyat, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. From Cal Flyn[The dark side of nature writing](/articles/5331/the-dark-side-of-nature-writing)

The recent renaissance in nature writing also revives an overlooked connection with fascism. Richard Smyth explores.

[How the 1980s fashion boom shaped our turbulent present](/articles/5369/how-the-1980s-fashion-boom-shaped-our-turbulent-present)

Elizabeth Wilson on two new books about 1980s fashion magazines, which reveal the conservative politics lurking beneath radical looks.

[Take the power back](/articles/5388/take-the-power-back)

British theatre is thriving with new ideas and voices. As Samira Ahmed explains, we have more diverse commissioning and casting to thank for it.

[Empire’s new ruins](/articles/5355/empires-new-ruins)

David Wearing argues that the writer and musician Akala has become an essential voice in Britain’s debate on race, class and identity.

[The enduring appeal of Armageddon](/articles/5305/the-enduring-appeal-of-armageddon)

Cal Flyn asks: why is our popular culture so obsessed with the end of the world?

[How Orwell gave propaganda a bad name](/articles/5325/how-orwell-gave-propaganda-a-bad-name)

Today, we associate propaganda with totalitarian states – but, writes Huw Lemmey, it also enables people to challenge power from below.

[How Spotify’s algorithm is transforming pop](/articles/5310/how-spotifys-algorithm-is-transforming-pop)

Spotify offers fans unparalleled access to music – but is it flattening culture into an incentivised blandness? Alex Macpherson explores.

[The moral of the story](/articles/5390/the-moral-of-the-story)

“The Good Place” is an unlikely sitcom about ethics. Caroline Crampton asks: how did it get so popular?

[Warp-speed capitalism](/articles/5279/warp-speed-capitalism)

Yiannis Baboulias on the latest sci-fi, which imagines what society will look like if we colonise space – a universe in which might is right and there are no good guys.

[Rediscovering Britain’s avant-garde](/articles/5298/rediscovering-britains-avant-garde)

Ann Quin is the latest author from the English literary avant-garde to undergo a modern reappraisal – and, writes Juliet Jacques, it is long overdue.

[*Read our top 10 long reads*](/articles/5399/best-of-2018-long-reads)

[*Read our top 10 interviews and columns*](/articles/5401/best-of-2018-interviews-and-columns)