The Almost Unbearable Burden of Belonging
What to become? Dissident or emigrant? Move abroad?
The Mixed Legacy of James Ellroy
His writing became Ellroyian—telegraphic, fast-paced, and intellectually cynical.
Consumer Confusion
Does the Meta-Birkin seriously compromise consumers’ ability to separate the NFT from the real Hermès bag?
A Novelist’s Reflections on Useful Fictions
by
Alan Jacobs
Posted on February 16, 2023
Image: The central illustration from the dust jacket of the 1927 Knopf edition of Lud-in-the-Mist; public domain.
Hope Mirrlees is interested in what happens if the power of Fairyland cannot be wholly excluded.
Love and Mr. Lincoln
Posted on February 14, 2023
Image: A cousin of Ann Rutledge declared that this young lady looked very much like Lincoln’s first sweetheart; THR illustration/Shutterstock/Library of Congress.
What if Ann Rutledge had lived, and she and Lincoln had married?
All Ben’s Boys
Posted on February 10, 2023
Image: From left: Katharine Graham, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward, Howard Simons, and Ben Bradlee discuss Watergate, 1973; Mark Godfrey/TopFoto.
An institution entering the last of its salad days while still running on the fumes of its preening self-importance.