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“He’s sort of talking. He’s sort of distracting to me. He seems to be sort of talking to himself.”  With that... Read More

Gen Z men are sadder and lonelier than any generation before them—but damn, they look good while doing it. While previously men turned... Read More

Houston’s Energy Corridor neighborhood, named after the oil and gas companies that have planted their US headquarters along this... Read More

Within weeks of the lockdown orders — days, even — there were think pieces. The writers among us were frighteningly eager to... Read More

Great literature, and I suppose all art, ages well with time. Or maybe we age well with great art. Read More

For many years I’ve felt myself moved in the direction of the spirit. I can remember, when younger by a couple of years, thinking of... Read More

The two men in our circle were about what I expected. Both were readers of the blog LessWrong and worked for some kind of amorphous tech... Read More

Across the last half-century or so, Doonesbury has been one of those rare institutions that could always be counted on—even while the... Read More

Early in this volume of Robert Frost’s letters, he writes, “I know by heart a good deal of Keats’s poetry, but have to... Read More

There are few things stranger than reading a highly anticipated new book — in this case, Tracy Daugherty’s biography... Read More

The right has its own unwritten rules of political correctness. There are forbidden words, and while they might not be met with censorship,... Read More

I knew the joke version of Sylvester Stallone long before I encountered the real one. Specifically, I knew the Spitting Image puppet: a... Read More

The day after my second novel was published, I flew to New York City for an evening literary event at the Center for Fiction featuring myself... Read More

An hour after I was laid off, my former CEO held a seven-minute all-hands meeting to read a Claude-generated script about how leadership had... Read More

I never intended to collect Philip Larkin’s books. I just wanted to read them. There weren’t many back in the 1970s. Larkin had... Read More

I’m guilty of using the metaphor in a single way. As a critic, I’ve sometimes referred to works as being xeroxes of other, more... Read More

In 1996, the prolific underground filmmaker George Kuchar brought ten years of camcorder footage to the prestigious Robert Flaherty Seminar,... Read More

Fiction is full of novels that depict the murky intrigue, grubby treachery, and moral compromise of the world’s second-oldest... Read More

In January, I was introduced to an Anthropic employee who I was told was exploring a specific question: “Who should AI be?” I... Read More

No beating around the bush here, since the film itself doesn’t: Na Hong-jin’s Hope is extraordinary. Is it also ridiculous,... Read More

Sean Thor Conroe is a troll. This is either an under-commented-on aspect of his work and literary persona, or else so glaringly obvious that... Read More

Inside the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, DC, a colony of flamingos has gathered. Around 200 people are balancing on one leg with their eyes... Read More

When I broke up with my ex four-plus years ago, I had criteria in mind for the type of person I wanted to date next. Most of it I... Read More

On September 14, 1997, approximately two weeks before Seinfeld would triumphantly return to air for its ninth season, Larry David was... Read More

After a decade of Donald Trump’s chaos and cruelty, we might ask how literary fiction is responding. Readers, for their part, flocked... Read More

At the age of 29, Jacques Testard set up a publishing house because no one in publishing would employ him. Born in France and schooled in... Read More

All factories are alike; each unhappy worker is unhappy in their own way. For the British-born, Ireland-resident author Claire-Louise... Read More

At last, a climate crisis satire so smug and bombastic it makes Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up seem almost innocuous. Digger is... Read More

One of the most urgent questions facing society today is the potential impact of AI on education and labor markets. So it’s no surprise... Read More

People move forward. When children grow into adults, leave home, and start families of their own, they civilize and re-civilize the world... Read More

Matthew Adelstein is one of a small group of new public philosophers—a handful of young thinkers doing and perhaps performing... Read More

Cody Bellinger came up to bat with a chance to put the game away, but I was too busy trying to counter the chants from the surprisingly loud... Read More

We need a new dog. It’s time. It has been almost two years since the departure from this world of our previous dog, Lucy, who was with... Read More

Twenty twenty-six may be the year of “home.” In July, Americans celebrated the 250th anniversary of our homeland’s... Read More

Anyone who appreciates political ideas and music will open Martha Nussbaum’s The Republic of Love with a twinge of envy. Nussbaum is... Read More