George Orwell’s father was a civil servant of the most dismal variety: He helped oversee opium production for the British Raj, in India... more »
Articles of Note
Humanist vs. non-humanist battles can feel narrow and academic. But the political and cultural stakes are enormous... more »
New Books
“At a moment when everything in America seemed to be accelerating, Thoreau … came up with a counterproposal: slow down”... more »
Essays & Opinions
Given its sub-disciplines and broad range of schools and methods, Jonathan Kramnick poses a question: What unites literary studies?... more »
Articles of Note
How to make it in the art world? Anna Weyantand the occupational hazards of being young and successful... more »
New Books
Memoir, autotheory, the personal essay — today’s first-personalism is a dark mutation of literary style, holds Anna Kornbluh... more »
Essays & Opinions
What to make of Anthony Hecht, whose erudite and elegant writing produced bitter, creepy, sexist poetry?... more »
Articles of Note
When a scientist lopped off the heads of worms, he discovered a new possibility: You don't need a brain to be intelligent... more »
New Books
A Lower East Side gallerist: “The art world is the way it is because not everyone has access to it”... more »
Essays & Opinions
For Andrea Long Chu, writing is like flirting. “A lot of people think that when you flirt, you are trying to get the person to like you. This is wrong.”... more »
Articles of Note
Goodbye, “Cooper’s hawk.” The American Ornithological Society has decreed no birds will be named after people. How come?... more »
New Books
Rachmaninoff in America. In contrast to many of his peers, Rachmaninoff is the one who left Russia but stayed Russian... more »
Essays & Opinions
The divisive Alan Watts. Was he a sophisticated distiller of Eastern philosophy — or an unlettered, alcoholic dilettante?... more »
Articles of Note
The language of Scotland was not English, but the Germanic-infused Scots, which fell out of favor in the 17th century... more »
New Books
Thomas Hardy is celebrated for his portrayals of women, leaving even him baffled at how he alienated the women in his life... more »
Essays & Opinions
Is the distinction between large language models and human creativity one of degree or fundamental difference?... more »
Articles of Note
What happened to David Graeber? Late in his career he seemed ready to reject or severely qualify his radical anarchism... more »
New Books
J.L. Austin brought a piercing clarity to his discussions. Among philosophers at Oxford, he wasn’t alone... more »
Essays & Opinions
Sontag, seriousness, and the freedom to be funny. Why writing a novel, The Volcano Lover, felt so transgressive and wild... more »
Articles of Note
Bored with concrete and steel, architects are backing away from ultra-modern design. But classical design has the same flaw: predictability... more »
New Books
Russians in space. “The pantheon of cosmists includes numerous thinkers who propounded the preposterous as indubitable”... more »
Essays & Opinions
Tyranny of the QR code. Digitization is killing paper playbills and theater tickets — and our memories of Broadway will suffer... more »
Articles of Note
If listening to the same songs year after year sounds boring, get ready: That’s where we’re heading... more »
New Books
Lou Reed loved misery – he embraced it, wallowed in it, and made the rest of us dance to it... more »
Essays & Opinions
British explorer Alastair Humphreys exchanges the Arctic ice for his local neighborhood. Cue the “microadventure”... more »
New Books
Frantz Fanon, foremost theorist of anticolonial struggle, was a subtler thinker than many of his contemporaries... more »
Essays & Opinions
AI and literary style. Adam Kirsch wonders: Will we appreciate writing that is aesthetically coherent but chronologically incoherent?... more »
Articles of Note
Twenty-five uninterrupted hours of Moby-Dickbeing read aloud might seem hellish. To participants, it’s paradise... more »
New Books
"The schism between ‘woke’ and more traditional left-wing attitudes reflects more than a divergence over style or tactics”... more »
Essays & Opinions
Why write criticism? For Greil Marcus, it’s to achieve the effects of art — the same sense of mystery, awe, and surprise... more »
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