Oct. 2, 2023 | “The violence of death had the appearance of a strange generosity.” Rachel Cusk explores grief, loss, and the ugliness of change... more »
Sept. 29, 2023 | The key to understanding connections among ancient texts? Nicander, an obscure Greek poet who wrote mostly about snakes... more »
Sept. 28, 2023 | “The strength of a reading public is the result not of the free circulation of ideas in itself, but rather of the careful, even microscopic, study of those ideas by readers”... more »
Sept. 27, 2023 | “Less wedlock means more woe.” Pundits think marriage is the solution to almost everything. It’s not that simple... more »
Sept. 26, 2023 | Most scholars view John Donne’s poem “The Flea” as clever, witty, and erotic. For Katie Kadue, it’s a rape joke... more »
Sept. 25, 2023 | Today’s public intellectuals dumb down ideas and pander to their readers. Their snobbish, alienating tone is unmistakable... more »
Sept. 22, 2023 | Simone de Beauvoir held fast to the ideas of freedom and reciprocity, as well as to the idea that women would not always be the Other... more »
Sept. 21, 2023 | In 1942 Jorge Luis Borges and Werner Heisenberg were a world apart in every way. They still converged on the same idea... more »
Sept. 20, 2023 | “You’re nobody until somebody hates you,” Tom Wolfe told his daughter. By that metric he was a great success... more »
Sept. 19, 2023 | “Impressive, patched, gilded and preposterous.” What do the clothing, decor, and stylistic choices of the Bloomsbury set mean?... more »
Sept. 18, 2023 | “If some writers are hypersensitive to critique, there must be others who are hypersensitive to praise”... more »
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 »