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Category: Essays
What if the Attention Crisis Is All a Distraction?
What’s awkward about this whole debate is that, though we speak freely of “attention spans,” they are not the sort of thing that psychologists can measure, independent of context, across time. And studies of the ostensible harm that carrying smartphones does to cognitive abilities have been contradictory and inconclusive. Read more
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How a Book About Bees Scandalized Europe
On July 8, 1723, a book was put on trial. The Grand Jury of Middlesex County Court, in England, was presented with a work that corrupted public morals to such an extent that it might “debauch the nation.” Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees was said to recognize no evidence of God’s influence or providence in the world; it attacked all the decent institutions of society — politicians were derided, the clergy were slandered, and universities mocked; and, most offensive of all, it attempted to “run down religion and virtue as prejudicial to society, and detrimental to the state … and to recommend luxury, avarice, pride, and all kind of vices, as being necessary to public welfare.” The book claimed that vice ought to be pursued because the immoral activities of individuals can generate an overall economic benefit for society as a whole. Vice was not only necessary but desirable. Like Milton’s Lucifer, its author seemed to declare: “Evil, be thou my Good.” Read more
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The Plagiarism Plot Is Having a Moment. Copy That.
You could assemble an entire library of contemporary work fixated on literary imitation, appropriation and theft. Read more
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‘The Magic Mountain’ Saved My Life
When I was young and adrift, Thomas Mann’s novel gave me a sense of purpose. Today, its vision is startlingly relevant. Read more
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How Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon
“A historical novel has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 12 out of the last 15 years, and historical fiction has made up 70 percent of all novels short-listed for these three major American prizes since the turn of the 21st century. Today, writers like Colson Whitehead, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, and Hernan Diaz are less interested in the way we live now than the way we were.
But this generation of prize-winning novelists is different from their forebears in another major way—they’re a lot less white. American literature’s overwhelming turn toward the historical past has both motivated, and been motivated by, the increasing recognition of Black, Asian American, Latinx, and Indigenous writers in the literary field. Over the past five decades, writers of color have been celebrated, prized, and canonized almost exclusively for the writing of historical fiction: narratives of war, immigration, colonialism, and enslavement that span generations and honor previously disregarded histories. Of the top 10 most-taught novels by writers of color published after 1945, eight are works of historical fiction. Of the 54 novels by writers of color to be short-listed for a major American prize between 1980 and 2010, all but four are works of historical fiction. Read more
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Can a Book Save Your Life?
The mega-bestselling author Matt Haig and the limits of the therapy novel. Read more
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The Misfit Wisdom of Harry, Barry and Larry
Harry Crews, Barry Hannah and Larry Brown were part of a Southern writers’ movement that centered dissidents and outsiders. They’re still worth reading. Read more
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Does America Still Care About Authors?
Once upon a time, writers were celebrities; now, the role of the public intellectual has gone up in smoke. For one novelist, a glamorous trip to France showed what literary life back home could be like. Read more
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50 Years Ago, ‘Jaws’ Hit Bookstores, Capturing the Angst of a Generation
The novel became the beach read of the summer, with the shark at its center embodying the unease of an era of political and social upheaval. Read more
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