Clocks, Calendars, and Schedules
April 10, 2023
David M. Henkin— In the ever-changing world of white-collar labor, it is the small touches that signal dystopia. Much of the enduring resonance of Mike Judge’s 1999 classic comedy film… READ MORE
Tag: American literature
The Letters of Sydney Taylor
July 20, 2021
Alexandra Dunietz— Would Sydney Taylor, author of the All-of-a-Kind books, have had a Facebook page? I usually avoid counterfactual history, but while helping June Cummins with research on Taylor, I… READ MORE
A Poem for Spring
March 25, 2021
Spring officially arrived this past weekend, bringing with it the reminder that roughly one year has passed since the United States first entered lockdown. Maya C. Popa’s poem, “Spring,” recalls… READ MORE
Deep Reading to Stay Alive
October 19, 2020
Harold Bloom— In what sense does deep reading augment life? Can it render death only another hoyden? Most literary representations of death do not portray her as being particularly boisterous…. READ MORE
Nothing is Where I Work
October 14, 2020
Eileen Myles— The second detail pertaining to the invite I received to give this talk is that I have been living in an apartment in New York for forty-two years… READ MORE
Donald Trump and the Great Gatsby
April 8, 2020
Greil Marcus— The following advertisement appeared in Elite Traveler, Spring 2013: The Trump International Hotel & Tower New York pays homage to The Great Gatsby—the film adaptation of the iconic… READ MORE
Why We Read
August 8, 2019
Azar Nafisi— Reading is like Alice running after that white rabbit, because she is curious; she wants to know more about a talking rabbit. She is prepared to take the… READ MORE
The First Professional American Novelist
April 26, 2017
Wayne Franklin— It’s a good story, but will it sell? It’s the rare young writer who doesn’t fantasize about the best seller that would make her career. The truth of… READ MORE
What Makes Moby-Dick a Classic?
October 18, 2014
The first edition of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick came out in London as The Whale on this day in 1851. But what makes Moby-Dick, or any text, a classic and what do we… READ MORE
More Elections, Less Democracy