Shakespeare in Love and Grief
It appears that people now find comfort in the idea that the life of even the greatest of writers is no more satisfying than their own.
Mallory Young
· 9 min read
Art and Culture
A collection of 820 posts
Strange Delight
Radley Metzger’s 1975 hardcore adaptation of a celebrated literary hoax is a vast improvement on the cynical source material.
Marilyn Simon
· 15 min read
Murder Most Foul
William J. Mann’s new book about the notorious Black Dahlia case is a valuable corrective to the cottage industry of speculative theories that proliferated after her murder in 1947.
Ron Capshaw
· 10 min read
Heir Jordan
Aaron Magid has written a timely biography of a consequential monarch.
Michael M. Rosen
· 8 min read
An Undisciplined Novel
Randa Abdel-Fattah’s latest novel is a heavy-handed parable designed to show that Islamist radicalisation in Australia is merely a myth invented by a racist establishment. In the wake of the Bondi shooting, this seems less believable than ever.
Imre Salusinszky
· 8 min read
God of the Yawning Gaps
It’s hard to believe in God when even very bright, thoughtful people can’t come up with good reasons why you should.
Graham Daseler
· 13 min read
A History of Morality Clauses
The century-old moral panics and persecutions by Anthony Comstock and the Society for the Suppression of Vice are echoed today by cancellation campaigns from the moralistic Left and Right.
E. Lily Yu
· 14 min read
A Different Kind of Palaver
What the Adelaide Writers’ Week fiasco reveals about the moral economy of cultural elites.
Juliet Moses
· 8 min read
Why Tech Is Feminist
Nature is sexist. Technology is the equaliser.
Zion Lights
· 7 min read
A Hardy Myth
A reply to Bruce Gilley.
Oliver Kamm
· 7 min read
Bodies of Evidence
When combined thoughtfully with traditional historical methods, analysis of ancient DNA can illuminate the lives, characters, and motivations of people long dead.
Patrick Whittle
· 11 min read
Authorship in an Age of Automation
The quiet erosion of responsibility in an age of machine-generated prose.
Kieran Beville
· 6 min read
The Women of January 6th
A new book details the conspiratorial thinking and dark histories of two Capitol rioters.
Claire Lehmann
· 7 min read
Stormclouds Over the Capitol
Mary Clare Jalonick’s oral history of the 6 January riot is an important corrective to the second Trump administration’s vandalism of the historical record.
Ron Capshaw
· 7 min read
Precipice of Collapse
Two new books about America’s justice system paint a bleak picture of a deeply divided country.
Ron Capshaw
· 8 min read