Marie Antoinette: Figure of Myth, Magnet for Lies
Marie Antoinette was not entirely innocent in her lifetime; in fact, she was guilty of many extravagances.
Matthew Fraser
· 15 min read
Art and Culture
A collection of 830 posts
Death of an Old-Fashioned Clown: An Obituary of Fred Willard
Fred Willard was a kind of Holy Fool even among fools.
Simon Evans
· 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
· 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
· 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.
Daphne Merkin
· 5 min read
No, COVID-19 Is Not a 'Disaster for Feminism'
It often seems like it’s mostly feminists who disparage female work and praise so highly the world of corporate and professional success.
Marilyn Simon
· 7 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
Laws and Values
Scott Z. Burns’s political thriller ‘The Report’ is a careful examination of the CIA’s interrogation methods.
Michael J. Totten
· 10 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
In Praise of Renoir's Male Gaze
Renoir’s nudes are the evidence of a tirelessly hopeful soul struggling against the dingy reality of the modern world, with its modern industry and its modern warfare, that turns all human flesh into disposable objects, without joy or humanity.
Marilyn Simon
· 8 min read