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“Student of Desire” asks a question many women wonder about: Do men value looks or intelligence in a woman? Its corollary is the... Read More

A faculty group calling itself “Uncivil” recently criticized the people leading civility and pluralism programs that encourage... Read More

An assault on free speech is unfolding in France. On Tuesday, a judge placed Michel Houellebecq, one of the country’s most significant... Read More

The sudden death of Gary Fisketjon is a major loss for the literary world. He was, certainly, one of the very last of his kind: the superstar... Read More

If Alysa Liu wasn’t a figure skater, she might be a stunt performer. Or a skier. Maybe a snowboarder? Surfing is on her list of things... Read More

I grant a certain pride of place in my well-stocked inventory of troubled predilections and ill-advised affections for American folk music.... Read More

Catherine Liu, Professor of Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine, is best known for her pandemic-era University of Minnesota... Read More

What do we worry about when we worry about the “end of work”? Recent advances in so-called artificial intelligence have led to a... Read More

Austin, Texas It isn’t unusual for the University of Texas at Austin to run an experiment. In addition to being a football powerhouse... Read More

In my free time, I sometimes work on a “State of Contemporary Literature” essay (SCLE). This kind of essay is never about... Read More

WHEN THE ASH SETTLES on the literal and figurative conflagrations of the last decade, perhaps we will finally disavow the fanciful notion... Read More

The film Dune: Part Three is about to hit theaters this Christmas. If the film remains faithful to the Frank Herbert books it is based on, it... Read More

In the final scene of Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men (1976), Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, played by Robert Redford... Read More

In the spring of 1874, Fyodor Dostoevsky had just resigned from a backbreaking sixteen-month stint as editor in chief of the conservative... Read More

Mario Vargas Llosa: A Life might seem like a bland title for a biography, until it dawns on you exactly how much living the man did. He... Read More

It’s worth considering why publishers so wish short story collections were novels. Agents and editors often say this is because short... Read More

One of the leitmotivs of my writing here has been that the narrative frameworks through which technological developments are apprehended and... Read More

In 1937, at the tender and messianic age of 33, the Polish author Witold Gombrowicz published his first and most famous novel, Ferdydurke.... Read More

Old faces — some seem to crease and crumble as we watch — were a specialty for Richard Avedon (1923–2004), the photographer... Read More

Michel Houellebecq is in trouble again. Prosecuted in 2002 for insulting Islam, he was acquitted. After Soumission, the novel many of his... Read More

The skin between Harold Rogers’ thumb and forefinger is chapped and several shades lighter than the rest of either hand. When he slings... Read More

No one warned me, when I became a parent, about all the apps that would colonize my phone: the app for the baby monitor where I could gaze at... Read More

There’s a clamor in the culture to show off one’s literary bona fides. The “intellectual” has gained a heightened... Read More

Coming home from London this past summer, I wanted a comfort watch to knock a couple of hours off the flight. One option was About A Boy, a... Read More

On the first Saturday after news broke that college football was moving to a paradigm-shifting 24-team tournament, fans booed the mention of... Read More

In 1991, a Finnish graduate student in computer science named Linus Torvalds sent a brief announcement to an online discussion group, saying... Read More

My colleagues and editors are sick of hearing me say it, but I believe it with my whole chest: The actor playing James Bond should never be... Read More

This summer, Festival America, a four-day event that is not in America, released its trailer—a supercut of iconic imagery spanning the... Read More

“I’m out of a job,” Denis Villeneuve said, jokingly. Hours earlier, Villeneuve had signed off on the IMAX 70-milimeter... Read More

Only in retrospect is history inevitable. While the fighting is going on, there is no guarantee that Napoleon will lose the Battle of... Read More

In a harbor before dawn, a hundred fishing boats prepare to leave in the dark of the morning. Nets are checked, and ropes loosened. As the... Read More

Can you empathize with someone who committed an unspeakable act? Can you imagine yourself as a perpetrator? Can you see yourself in a... Read More

“This won’t surprise you,” Lillian Fishman begins, “but a lot of my feelings about how sexuality works are at odds... Read More