We Failed Each Other Long Before AI
Introduced to a chatbot, people soon pour out doubts and questions they would not dare reveal to another human being. Why not?
Dispatches
Strange Days at the Soccer Jock Party Apartment
I could imagine generations of soccer players moving into this apartment with a coffeemaker, a fondue pot, a meat thermometer, what have you, then moving out and leaving it all behind. Since the landlord never inspected the place, there was no need for anyone to ever leave with anything that they did not want to take with them.
The Speculative Value of a Stolen Literary Bust
By the time it was gone, the change was subtle but unmistakable: one corner left without its figure, one pedestal left bare. But to understand why that absence matters, it helps to understand who Kate Chopin was and the stories she wrote.
The Uneasy Award of Divine Solace
I am not losing my faith. I am wondering where that religion truly is. Is this really the place where God Himself enters into physical form in our midst?
Keep the Award or Take It Away
Recognition is complex, often mixed with merit, institutional needs, and fair randomness. If I produce something of value and receive no “gold medal,” I am no longer discouraged by not getting any recognition. I know the work I have done. I know the growth I have experienced.
Ancient Splendor (and the Ambivalence of Its Ethics)
When you walk into the Saint Louis Art Museum’s new exhibit—Ancient Splendor: Rome in the Time of Trajan—the emperor himself greets you. His right hand is raised, index finger lifted: he is about to speak. The commanding air comes naturally to him; he rose through the army, suffering hardship…
What Do We Owe Our Dead?
In Elizabeth Finch, Julian Barnes’s character falls platonically in love with one of his teachers, a woman whose clarity and intelligence become his lodestar. After her death, he vows to overcome his habitual procrastination and research a historical figure he suspects she wanted him to write about. “To please…
American Pirates Plunder Folk Traditions to Provide New Pleasures
The new debut record by American Pirates of Bloomington, Indiana, “What a Friend,” artfully blends so many different kinds of folk music that it comes across as an anthology or a variety show, yet with kindred themes and a unifying sound.
Are You a Narrative Character or a Story Character?
I asked a friend which of two things she thought true: Are our lives narratives? Or are they many quick stories/events/incidents that pop up, one damn thing after another, which are tied together only by the meanings we assign?
Time to Turn Psychopathy Over to AI?
Something dark and sharp must live deep inside me, because when I read “There Are No Psychopaths,” I am disappointed.
Psychopaths explain so much. The twisted little smile that crosses someone’s face, quickly hidden, after they cause pain. The impulse, spreading fast these days, to watch the…