Long Read
The Good Death—Cancel Culture and the Logic of Torture
Cancellation is a public execution, during which a person is pilloried and destroyed. But while we have become used to the cycle of manufactured outrage that preludes every cancellation, the desperate public apologies, and the devastating consequences for the people whose lives are ruined, we are often at a loss
Play Anything—The Case for Colorblind Casting
A few years ago, I wrote an article about authenticity in acting. The inspiration for the piece came from actor Jeffrey Tambor, who was then playing the lead in the show Transparent. As he collected an Emmy for Outstanding Lead in a Comedy series, Tambor told the audience at LA’
The Social Science Monoculture Doubles Down
Over the past 18 months, a number of significant events have occurred that were interpreted through two entirely different worldviews: COVID–19 lockdowns; rise of the BLM movement; the riots and violence in major cities; the US election process and its aftermath; and vaccine safety. Many influential commentators believe that
Twilight of the Satyrs
I. On April 18th of this year, Blake Bailey, 58, the author of Philip Roth: The Biography, was abruptly dropped by his literary agency, the Story Company. His book had been published on April 6th, and climbed to the top of the bestseller lists. But then allegations emerged that while
Why It’s OK to Speak Your Mind
The following is an excerpt from Why It’s OK to Speak Your Mind, by Hrishikesh Joshi. Routledge, 196 pages. (March 2021) The division of cognitive labor Modern society is only possible because of the division of labor. Without division of labor, the most we could achieve is a very
The Incoherence of Gender Ideology
Diamonds still cut glass regardless of your word for “diamond,” and “cut,” and “glass.” ~Ken Wilber Truth matters. Words matter. What is objectively the case matters. And insofar as our words and concepts can be about the objective world at all, then the shared set of words and meanings that
Listening to Literature—What We Gain and Lose with Audiobooks
I couldn’t finish Ulysses. This was 1994, the year after I’d graduated from Arizona State University with an English degree, and the year that my rock band started providing a living from playing gigs in Tempe. Both of these events left me divorced from a reading
The Philologist, the Iraqi Girl, and Me
I hadn’t bargained on the climate, especially not in the summer and especially not on the coast. That didn’t stop me from going ahead and doing what every self-respecting American college kid visiting Israel, such as Bernie Sanders, did back then—a stint of physical labor on a
