Art and Culture - Quillette (Page 20)

The Accomplishments of Black Conservative Thought

As a black conservative man, I will add one final note. None of the points made in this essay—about the over-hyping of victimhood in modern America or the cultural issues in working-class black and white communities—is meant to imply that racism does not exist.

Wilfred Reilly

19 Jul 2021 · 7 min read

A Toast to Randolph Bourne

There is much we can learn from Bourne, not only from his joie-de-vivre, his ideas about cultural diversity and disability, but perhaps most of all, from his toughness, his willingness to criticize associates.

Russell Jacoby

19 Jul 2021 · 7 min read

Historical Racism Is Not the Singular Cause of Racial Disparity

The popular vision of race in America seems to be incapable of breaking the gridlock that places the fate of black Americans in the hands of white society and then condemns that society to the wasteland of history.

Samuel Kronen

17 Jul 2021 · 26 min read

The Black Panthers march in New York City in protest of the trial of co-founder Huey P. Newton.

The Strange Rehabilitation of the Black Panther Party

Isn’t it a little late for the rehabilitation of the Black Panther Party (BPP)? After all, the organization that first caught the public’s attention in 1969 was already in its death throes by the early 1970s, beset by internal splits, criminal prosecutions, and violent faction-fighting. Yet, five decades

Ronald Radosh

13 Jul 2021 · 18 min read

Huxley, Burroughs, and the Church of Scientology

Like it or not, hidden within those influential texts are the bizarre jargon and lunatic assertions of a mendacious madman.

David S. Wills

6 Jul 2021 · 13 min read

Blessed Are the Sense-Makers

Years from now, if anyone looks at a line graph (in the OED or Google dictionary) tracking the frequency with which a word is mentioned in print, they may notice the current affinity for the word “narrative.” An already overworked word (by virtue of its abstractness), it is now almost

Jared Marcel Pollen

5 Jul 2021 · 11 min read

A Conversation with Daniel Elder, the Choral Music Composer Who Was Cancelled for Opposing Arson

If you’re willing to endure the painful trial of self, you will be better for it in the end. And, with enough of us, the world will be better, too.

Quillette

22 Jun 2021 · 9 min read

The Purposeless Society

Without faith or nation, there is no greater whole beyond the individual.

Sam Ashworth-Hayes

13 Jun 2021 · 9 min read

To Skate—Perchance to Soar

Skateboarding is simple and complex, pointless and transformational.

Damian Platt

26 Feb 2021 · 16 min read

Death of an Old-Fashioned Clown

Willard was a kind of Holy Fool even among fools.

Simon Evans

21 May 2020 · 7 min read

As Common Sense Returns to the Gender Debate, Radicals Set Upon Their Own Allies

The entire argument was about whether one particular trans ally had become too famous at the expense of more worthy and authentic competitors.

Jonathan Kay

20 May 2020 · 12 min read

The Purpose of Imaginative Fiction

“What’s it about?” is usually the first question we ask when someone recommends a new book, and it’s the wrong question.

Elena Shalneva

27 Apr 2020 · 9 min read

COVID-19 Betrays America’s Curdled Cult of Optimism

A philosophy of optimism was central to the flourishing of the American project. But it’s also useful to consider whether insisting that success and greatness lie around every corner can become a maladaptive response to problems that are complex and brutal.