“Closer to the office, the local hearth, Starbucks on Forty-second and Sixth, even has a sign that reads, “Friends are like snowflakes: beautiful and different.” This thought seems so comforting, so improving and plural-minded, that one begins to wonder whether it is truly so. Are snowflakes really different—or, rather, how different are they, really?”
“All Alike” is a beautiful meditation on the life cycle and individuality of a snowflake, inspired in large part by Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley’s dazzling photographs from the turn of the century. Adam Gopnik provides the perfect window into a classic metaphor, and the venue for a deliberation more relevant now than ever.
Originally published as the December 2019 dispatch
Adam Gopnik is an American writer and cultural critic whose work explores the interconnections between art, literature, politics, and everyday life. He is the author of celebrated works such as Paris to the Moon and The Real Work. His writing examines the ideas and experiences that shape modern societ through elegant prose and observations.
Gopnik was born in Philadelphia and raised in Montreal, where he studied at McGill University before becoming a writer and critic. He has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1986, and served as its art critic. He has received multiple National Magazine Awards and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting.
