“A critic considers the strange moral pressure we feel to read to the very last page.”
literary criticism
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Essays & Criticism, Story
Bully for You
Women with power have the capacity to silence women with less — and they wield it. Why can’t they see that?
Posted inNonfiction
Reading Lessons
You never stop learning how to read — probably because you also never stop forgetting how to read.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
Joan Didion and the Nature of Narrative
Assessing Joan Didion’s legacy reveals a fascination with the nature of narrative that often supersedes the author’s subjects.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Shakespeare’s Genius Is Nonsense
Literary critics and cognitive scientists are finding common ground through the study of Shakespeare’s revolutionary use of language.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Fiction Confidential
Before he became the patron saint of every tattooed-chef-in-a-gentrifying-neighborhood, Anthony Bourdain wrote novels. What can they tell us about the man behind the bad-boy persona?
Posted inFiction, Nonfiction, Quotes
Obama by the Books
In Vulture, book critic Christian Lorentzen suggests we dispense with terms like “postmodern” and “postwar” when discussing novels, and instead analyze them relative to the presidential administrations under which they were released. What will we mean when someday we refer to Obama Lit? I think we’ll be discussing novels about authenticity, or about “problems of […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
In Defense of Facts: What Is the Essay?
When does fact become fiction? William Deresiewicz on essays, embellishment, and the slippery slope of “truthiness.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Considering the Novel in the Age of Obama
Have “postmodern” and “postwar” have become outmoded as classifications for novels? Lorentzen suggests it’s more useful to look at trends in fiction relative to the administration they were released under. During Obama’s, he says, novelists looked to answer questions of authenticity. During Trump’s, he anticipates dystopian narratives.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Rise of The Gender Novel: It’s Complicated
At The Walrus, Casey Plett calls for more depth in transgender characters in contemporary literature, arguing that cisgender authors writing sympathetic, yet trope-laden transgender narratives might be doing more harm than good. To get it out of the way: the Gender Novels fail to communicate what it’s actually like to transition. Their portrayals of gender-identity […]