September 16, 2019
What Makes a Character Human?
It’s been almost twenty years ago now since James Wood penned (metaphorically speaking, of course, since I’m sure he used a computer) his famous critique of a genre of literary […]
May 2, 2018
Omniscience, Paranoia, and Postmodern Fiction
Broadly, there are two diverging traditions evident in contemporary fiction. The first is often called “realism” and is today most notably evangelized by the critic James Wood, who in his […]
August 14, 2015
Mix tape: Marquez’s remains, a letter from Ferrante, and the John Green book generator
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s remains have been returned to Cartagena, Colombia. This city is not just the author’s birthplace, but also the setting of Love in a Time of Cholera. His […]
July 6, 2014
Djoker in Five. Roger That.
What a week for Novak Djokovic! Did you hear that he’s getting married? Also, he won the Gentlemen’s Singles Championship at Wimbledon. Against the great Roger Federer. (I may need […]
November 18, 2013
Of Blogs and Bobbleheads
About ten years ago, a friend offered to buy me a custom-made bobblehead doll for my birthday. The question, then: Who did I want? Whitman seemed too obvious (I have […]
August 10, 2013
Kindness and Attention (Part Two)
George Saunders’ year of wonders, which began with a New York Times Magazine cover story and has gone on to include a bestselling book and a much-discussed graduation speech, will […]
August 5, 2013
Kindness and Attention (Part One)
The commencement speech that George Saunders delivered at Syracuse University a few months ago has been making the virtual rounds, and it’s easy to understand why. Saunders warms up the […]
July 26, 2013
Distant Lands, Close Quarters
When I put my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to bed at night, the last thing I tell her is “I love you a lot.” The “a lot” feels crucial—not as an intensifier […]
December 9, 2012
Short Takes: By the Letter, By the Draft
August Wilson: “Blues is the bedrock of everything I do. All the characters in my plays, their ideas and their attitudes, the stance that they adopt in the world, are […]
September 20, 2012
Mix Tape: Supermodel Novelists and Politician Poets
There is, in Vogue’s September issue, an 18-page photo feature “depicting a handful of actors, artists, models, and writers posing as [Edith] Wharton and her circle.” So why are male […]
September 6, 2012
Mix Tape: Inventors, Masters, Starters of Crazes
Will the old writing you’ve disowned—the poems full of mixed metaphors, the stories you never knew how to end, the essays that seem to fall flat—follow you around forever? And, […]
September 4, 2012
Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: An Interview with D. T. Max
What follows is a brief conversation with DTMax which occurred the 23rd of August at 4:30pm EST, and though the details aren’t critical, I insert them here simply for the […]