June 24, 2021 | A recurring pattern: Simone Weil acted solely on conviction — while in the background her parents made sure she survived her attempts to live out her ideals... more »
June 23, 2021 | Does having views typical of one’s time absolve one from the judgment of future generations? Consider the example of Winston Churchill... more »
June 22, 2021 | The hopeful pessimist. For half a century, Wendell Berry has been a portrait of how to live without despair when losing is likely ... more »
June 21, 2021 | Historical fiction has long been the fusty domain of mothballed characters using words like “Prithee!” No more ... more »
June 19, 2021 | For Charles Taylor, the politics of recognition were central to modern identity. Now concerns over online reputation risk supplanting that principle ... more »
June 18, 2021 | David Hockney has known only fame and adulation. Why? His images are bright, breezy, decorous, and a bit boring... more »
June 17, 2021 | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on those who “do not recognize that what they call a sophisticated take is really a simplistic mix of abstraction and orthodoxy”... more »
June 16, 2021 | In Joan Didion's writing, she doesn't quite tell us what she means. But we know how she feels... more »
June 15, 2021 | Art galleries and auctions can feel like intimidating, insular places. Here’s how to successfully buy art... more »
June 14, 2021 | Philosophy barely progresses, but what impedes it? Perhaps the solutions to the problems it takes on generate their own problems ... more »
June 12, 2021 | When a writer declines to such a degree as Naomi Wolf has, we need to ask: Was she always full of shit? ... more »
June 11, 2021 | Why have English departments fallen on hard times? Because professors stopped speaking the truth about literature ... more »
June 10, 2021 | Retrospectives at the Tate and the Met, a five-volume catalogue raisonné, many biographies: Is there anything left to say about Francis Bacon?... more »
June 9, 2021 | “The death of J. Hillis Miller, in February, marked the end of an astonishing period in American academic literary criticism” ... more »
June 8, 2021 | If theology, science, and philosophy once shaped souls, a new power has superseded them: HR, the central organizing power of society... more »
June 7, 2021 | A clock is not just a clock. It was created for social and political purposes, and it has a distinctive hold on our lives ... more »
June 5, 2021 | Rachel Cusk’s “tribute” to Mabel Dodge Luhan does not not so much update her story as erode its complexity ... more »
June 4, 2021 | For progressives, Foucault can no longer be “the ‘unsurpassable horizon’ of critical thought.” So what comes next? ... more »
June 3, 2021 | Coming out of a long depression, William James made a study of habits. The healthiest ones, he concluded, are those we manage to break... more »
June 2, 2021 | The antagonistic relationship between writers and critics has produced a rich literature of trolling. Both parties are vulnerable to humiliation... more »
June 1, 2021 | Conductors aren't quite unnecessary to an orchestra, but they're not as important as those baton wagglers would like us to think ... more »
May 31, 2021 | Thomas Nagel on moral intuition: Treating people decently is a vital part of our lives, regardless of the consequences ... more »
May 29, 2021 | Because the art world is loath to fully censor harmful works, a new tactic has emerged: “curatorial activism”... more »
May 28, 2021 | Book reviewing: An elegy. Ever since there has been literature, there have been critics. Now that’s in doubt ... more »
May 27, 2021 | Who's the 83-year-old muckraker who turned up a Chinese government operation at the University of Chicago? Marshall Sahlins... more »