Notes on the alleged decline of readingS ome people lament the disappearance of the spotted owl from our forests; others sport bumper stickers boasting that they eat fried spotted owls. It appears ...

Discussed in this essay: Collected Works, by Charles Portis. Library of America. 1,105 pages. $45. N ot long before Charles Portis visited Buckingham Palace in the summer of 1964, having secured a ...

I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon. A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended ...

From Professor at Large, which was published last month by Cornell University Press. It must have seemed some kind of risk to request a sermon from a man once so ...

Scenes from the Palestinian uprising1973- 1987- 21st century American Chris Hedges Gaza Strip Intifada Jewish-Arab relations Palestinian Arabs Personal narratives Social conditions ...

Notes on humiliationT he first time I understood humiliation as world-destroying was the morning I watched the World Trade Center evaporate from a street corner in Greenwich Village and found myself ...

What a sensible idea of Ashbery’s, I thought, and modest—to direct attention away from himself. It also worked to his own benefit; he was more interested in exploring these other poets and ...

COVID-19 and the new science warsI nvoking science and data to resolve ethical and ideological controversies obscures the values and interests of particular groups and policymakers. Anyone governing ...

The ecstatic cult of Nicolas CageDiscussed in this essay: Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career, by Keith Phipps. Henry Holt. 288 pages. $27.99. L ast fall, hoping to draw ...

I n May 1941, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, along with several dozen other members of the European intelligentsia in exile, gathered in a Santa Monica living room for a belated celebration of Heinrich’s ...

Against “relevance” in artB ecause these battles are still being fought, I hesitate to articulate the ways in which I think our use of the word “relevant” is distorting our appraisals of art. But I ...

A life without foodT he last time I ate real food, actually chewed and swallowed, was six years ago. During those final meals, I ordered a pastrami sandwich, a pork-belly bun, and vegetable soup. The ...