Fan Service vs Geek Service
From the Iliad to Mission: Impossible, creators have wrestled with the question of how much universe-building is too much.
Stewart Slater
· 9 min read
Art and Culture
A collection of 773 posts
Gonzo Bros
Twenty years after his death, what Hunter S. Thompson’s legacy—or lack of it—tells us about literature and manhood in our current moment.
Frank Celia
· 29 min read
Literary Prozac
Matthew Gasda’s new novel unfolds in a haze of empty dialogue and overwrought introspection.
Brad Strotten
· 7 min read
Theatre of Blood
Seduction and submission in the work of the Marquis de Sade.
Yuki Zeman
· 19 min read
Playing with Helpless Dead Puppets
‘Ragtime,’ E.L. Doctorow’s forgotten novel of Progressive Era New York, is a reminder of how much American politics have changed over the past century.
Josh Allan
· 9 min read
It’s No Longer 1937...
Disney’s awful new Snow White adaptation fails to recreate or even understand the story it is trying to tell.
Charlotte Allen
· 18 min read
Heterodox Radical
A new collection of Murray Kempton’s articles reveals a thoughtful journalist whose politics were difficult to categorise.
Ron Capshaw
· 8 min read
Podcast #288: Enforced Ideological Conformity Among British Artists
Dancer and choreographer Rosie Kay talks to Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about the three radioactive political topics that can derail an artist’s career.
Quillette
· 1 min read
The Best Kind of Political Art
Chimamanda Adichie’s new novel is refreshingly defiant of liberal orthodoxies.
Holly Lawford-Smith
· 7 min read
The Zero-Sum Squid Game
What the Korean hit gets wrong about capitalism and right about government.
Ilya Levine
· 9 min read
Religious Reasoning
The first and largest mistake Douthat makes in his new book is to argue that faith and rationality are mutually supportive.
Graham Daseler
· 15 min read
How The Blues Brothers Saved American Music
The Blues Brothers (1980) fostered a renewed appreciation of some of the best music America has ever produced.
Jacob Bielecki
· 12 min read
Plotting Lives of Quiet Contentment
Modern literature’s tiresome preoccupation with misery and victimhood is neglecting whole swathes of the human experience.
Mallory Young
· 7 min read
The Art of Social Engineering
When British sculptor Thomas J Price explains that his “strategy of inclusion” will counter the “endless stream of limiting tropes and identities for Black people,” he is inadvertently mimicking totalitarian injunctions.
Julia Friedman
· 6 min read
Feelings, Facts, and Our Crisis of Truth
What we lose when the rigour of science and journalism gives way to an aural and visual narrative culture.
Claire Lehmann
· 7 min read