Sept. 15, 2023 | For Alasdair MacIntyre, doing moral philosophy from the margins is a necessary condition to seeing things clearly... more »
Sept. 14, 2023 | In today’s novel, identity can be leveraged only to confirm that fiction speaks from experience; confession trumps imagination... more »
Sept. 13, 2023 | Hunting for lost books. It’s possible to find them on the internet, of course, but that robs us of one of the things that gives life purpose... more »
Sept. 12, 2023 | Slow songs used to inspire slow dancing. Now they are more commonly the soundtrack for the sad and lonely... more »
Sept. 11, 2023 | The case of the Crusoe Cabana. Why a lawsuit over a Miami nightclub hinged on the testimony of a scholar of 18th-century literature... more »
Sept. 8, 2023 | When it comes to DEI, it’s Ron DeSantis or Robin DiAngelo, whitewashing or wokeness — and nothing in between. There’s a better path... more »
Sept. 7, 2023 | What gives authority to a literary critic? Wit, discrimination, judgment, and advocacy, for starters. Merve Emre elaborates... more »
Sept. 6, 2023 | Andrea Long Chu: “White Teeth remains by far the best thing [Zadie] Smith has ever written; what bad luck to have done it by 24!”... more »
Sept. 5, 2023 | "Stories are indispensable, nourishing and delightful,” says Ian Leslie. “They are also attacks on the rational immune system"... more »
Sept. 4, 2023 | With the right input, ChatGPT can write a strong college essay. Is this the end of take-home writing assignments?... more »
Sept. 1, 2023 | What is the responsibility of art criticism? Is it directed at social justice? Enriching one’s sense of identity? Surrendering to the mysticism of art?... more »
Aug. 31, 2023 | Cold War liberalism was a catastrophe for liberalism, and yet its cause is championed again and again... more »
Aug. 30, 2023 | In a culture devoted to work, leisure is a lofty, slippery goal. Its fulfillment requires the cultivation of habits... more »
Aug. 29, 2023 | “We are keen to nestle into a nice category,” says Matt Feeney. “This is a lot of things besides funny, but it’s also funny”... more »
Aug. 28, 2023 | “ChatGPT and identity politics are two sides of the same coin — both represent bankrupt versions of what literature is and is meant to do”... more »
Aug. 25, 2023 | Iris Murdoch on Simone Weil’s notebooks: “To read her is to be reminded of a standard”... more »
Aug. 24, 2023 | Flaubert, the ultimate perfectionist, wrote at five words per hour, the legend goes. Perhaps he was just prone to distraction... more »
Aug. 23, 2023 | Why do we turn to psychoanalysis? For Adam Phillips, “the patient goes to an analyst to find out why he has gone to an analyst”... more »
Aug. 22, 2023 | Covid, climate change, geopolitical drama — we’re living in a “polycrisis,” we’re told. But is that just short for “history happening”?... more »
Aug. 21, 2023 | In his Confessions, Saint Augustine lamented having not enough time to figure out how to live. He, like us, is of two minds about leisure... more »
Aug. 18, 2023 | “Gen Z-ification,” “S.U.V.-ification,” “old man-ification” — we live in convoluted times, beset by the “-ification” of everything... more »
Aug. 17, 2023 | A tale of two Naomis — Klein and Wolf. The appearance of one’s double is paranoia-inducing. Especially when she's paranoid... more »
Aug. 16, 2023 | The impoverishment of our interracial imagination: Social events are now marred by white anti-racists seeking “uncomfortable conversations”... more »
Aug. 15, 2023 | The twin pillars of Gen X identity are authenticity and irony, accompanied by the belief that rock and roll will never die... more »
Aug. 14, 2023 | Dissident scientists historically have faced ostracism, censorship, and worse. As the Covid lab leak saga shows, little has changed... more »