The Deformist Tendency
A new book presents a cogent diagnosis of the ills plaguing American society, but also reactionary prescriptions for ameliorating them.
Brian Stewart
· 8 min read
Art & Culture
A collection of 855 posts
Because the Night Belongs to Lovers
Love is transformative—and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare is clear-sighted about the fact that that transformation can be for the worse.
Iona Italia
· 8 min read
Another Tiresome Trans-Activist Power Play
The campaign to strip novelist John Boyne of his Polari Prize longlist honour shows that gender extremists still seek to control progressive arts subcultures—even as mainstream society rejects their illiberal movement.
Allan Stratton
· 9 min read
Detonation Days
Garrett Graff’s new book provides the story of America’s quest for the bomb with a valuable human quality without sacrificing the epic sweep.
Ron Capshaw
· 10 min read
His Satanic Majesty Retires
A tribute to the man who helped to revolutionise modern rock music and reality TV.
Dave Thompson
· 12 min read
The Mediocrity Feedback Loop
If leading media critics don’t expect much, filmmakers won’t deliver much.
Charlotte Allen
· 15 min read
Deprograming Patriotism
‘The Technological Republic’ is a searching indictment of a culture that has lost sight of its metaphysical horizons and now seeks an escape from history.
Brian Stewart
· 11 min read
It Don’t Worry Me
Robert Altman’s ‘Nashville’ is fifty.
Matt Hanson
· 7 min read
Disco Inferno
Disco Demolition Night was an early episode of culture and counterculture being saddled with far greater political significance than they deserved.
George Case
· 10 min read
The Art of Not Quite Listening
Ian Penman has published an eccentric new book about Erik Satie, a French surrealist composer and celebratory nuisance with a tiny oeuvre and massive influence.
Thomas Larson
· 9 min read
Hell in North Germany
A riveting new book by American historian Lynne Olson re-examines the story of Ravensbrück, the Nazis’ notorious concentration camp for women.
Ron Capshaw
· 12 min read
Purity, Profit, and Politics
How journalism exchanged the duty to inform for an ethic of customer satisfaction.
Steve Salerno
· 23 min read
Creative Writing in the Age of Trump
The assumption that once drove creative writing—that interior life deserves as much respect and interest as the latest bump in relations at the White House—no longer obtains.
Daphne Merkin
· 8 min read
Joys Known Only to the Insane
In Hereditary and Midsommar, Aster's characters search for their place in the world—and can only find it by embracing evil.
Samuel Kronen
· 11 min read
The Forgotten Ford
Before Han Solo and Indiana Jones, there was another Harrison Ford, a star of silent cinema.
Christian Kriticos
· 15 min read