The Quiet Revolution That Is Rendering Us Illiterate
What are we to make of this smackdown, all of us who thought AI would never sound profound or witty? Will the writing of books cease to be a human endeavor?
Arts & Letters
The Elected King of Black America or the Black King of Progressivism
“A Dream Deferred” is a thoughtful book, especially for those who lived through and remember Jesse Jackson’s presidential runs. Abby Phillip gives us Jackson warts and all, the maddening egotism and opportunism, and the rumors of infidelity. Informed, highly readable, and even exciting at times as she recounts the thrills of the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.
The Senate Leader as the Master Political Mechanic
Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is famously terse and inscrutable and likes it that way. But the senior senator from Kentucky is a more complicated figure, and his successes as a legislator and leader are just part of what makes him an intriguing subject. Michael Tackett captures McConnell in all his complexity.
The Year in Briefest Review: Four Picks
This long strange year yielded some gems....
The Dubious Joys of Bad Movies
“Why,” I asked my husband, “would anyone want to waste time watching a bad movie?” “Because it’s fun,” he replied, as though this should be obvious. “No. A good movie is fun, even if it is wrenching. A bad movie is just sad. Pathetic, even. An insult to filmmaking. It…
The Most Haunting, Nagging, Maddening Exchange from Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections”
Few of us as Americans believe honestly that we are equal in democracy. We only believe that it is better to believe so, rather than do so through policy and programs that will result in strife and arguments. Equality, or as de Tocqueville expressed it, the quality of being “almost the same,” exists mostly in our collective imagination. But if it does not reside, there it might not live anywhere at all.
It Is Not You, Patti Smith, but Clearly Me
Sometimes we come across news reports so sad, photographs so jarring, or art and speech so moving, that we know we should, could, or might cry or scream in response. But we cannot. Instead, we cry or scream because we know we cannot, or will not, cry or scream. On some level, this means that Patti Smith has penetrated my soul despite assertions to the contrary. Perhaps that is what makes her “punk.”
Fredrik Backman Foils the Critics (and Me)
He understands “the impossible human experience of just trying to get through the day with everyone you love being somewhat OK at the end of it.”
Anatomical Specimens Share a Scone
Wanting answers, we create reductions: I am. She was. The administration will.
The Rise, Fall, and Uneasy Redemption of the Hit King
Kostya Kennedy’s Pete Rose is a tour de force display of journalism, top-flight writing, and excellent research. It is rich in biographical details, yet it is not meant to be a biography in the typical sense, a comprehensive cradle-to-grave account of a life. The book is more of an exploration of Pete Rose as a celebrity athlete, his rise, his fall, and how he has managed both, or how managing his failures hinges entirely on how well he can throw around the weight of his accomplishments.