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
· 9 min read
Art and Culture
A collection of 719 posts
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.
Daphne Merkin
· 5 min read
My Former Life as a Radical
They believe in the perfectibility of man in their own image: a combination of unscrupulous optimism and narcissism.
Gerfried Ambrosch
· 11 min read
By Seeking ‘Safer Spaces’ for Actors, We’re Creating a Hostile Environment for Art
I honestly have no idea why any actor would want to appear in a serious play featuring protagonists who are not, in some way, “screwed up.”
Sky Gilbert
· 8 min read
Confessions of an Equity-Industry Propagandist
It was my job to turn a regressive sow’s ear into a progressive silk purse.
Janet Mackay
· 8 min read
Remembering Roger Scruton, Defender of Reason in a World of Postmodern Jackals
Scruton did not entertain petty prejudices, and had no wish to tell anyone how to live or who to love.
Barbara Kay
· 8 min read
Religious Progressivism
It is not only religious “zealots” who get obsessed about good and evil. All human beings do.
Colin Turfus
· 7 min read
Sheep and Mirrors: On Being Social
What is it about other people that bestows such joy, such comfort, such indispensable meaning on our lives?
Emma Wilkins
· 13 min read
Racial Slurs and Deferential Condescension
We are effectively being told that, at this truth-seeking institution, it is inappropriate for us to utter certain indisputably true statements, because the value of truth is trumped by the emotional states of one or another demographic.
Matthew Small
· 5 min read
Free Speech Matters, Even When it’s Not Protected by the First Amendment
As chilling effects go, “I would speak out, but I don’t want to risk going to jail” is not all that different from “I would speak out, but I don’t want to risk losing my friends and my livelihood.”
Jason Richwine
· 6 min read
The Bigotry of Environmental Pessimism
The “Lorax” view of environmental problems as a consequence of greed has always been wrong and depressing.
Michael Shellenberger
· 8 min read
Theoterrorism versus Freedom of Speech—A Review
Not only had Carrell hurt the feelings of the Iranian people, but he had hurt the feelings of Muslims all over the world. There would be consequences.
Rumy Hasan
· 8 min read
Memories of Life at Kingdom Hall: An Alberta Schoolgirl Waits for Armageddon
Paradise was as real to us as a memory—and even though it wasn’t something concrete, our minds were already there in it.
Amber Scorah
· 10 min read
The Case for Nabokov
An even moderately careful reading of Lolita should make it quite clear that it’s anything but a “celebration” of child rape.
Cathy Young
· 13 min read
Policing the Creative Imagination
If sensitivity readers become a publishing institution, they will only incentivize more cautious, conservative, and ideologically homogenous books.
Craig DeLancey
· 9 min read