Books and Ideas

Can a Novel Really Capture the Spirit of the Internet?

Can a Novel Really Capture the Spirit of the Internet? Can a Novel Really Capture the Spirit of the Internet?

Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts and the limits of literary fiction’s obsession with life online.

Feb 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace

Will We Ever Fully Understand Humans’ Impact on Nature?

Will We Ever Fully Understand Humans’ Impact on Nature? Will We Ever Fully Understand Humans’ Impact on Nature?

A conversation with Elizabeth Kolbert about her new book, efforts to “control the control of nature,” and how the climate beat has changed. 

Feb 3, 2021 / Q&A / Naomi Elias

Boy Corona

Boy Corona Boy Corona

after John Donne & for N. P.                       TENDER CROWN I have only these two hands with which to praise you, Bro…

Feb 3, 2021 / Poems / Meg Day

The Body, the State, the Border: On Cristina Rivera Garza

The Body, the State, the Border: On Cristina Rivera Garza The Body, the State, the Border: On Cristina Rivera Garza

Her fiction and essays illuminates how the language of violence is inherent to the disaster neoliberalism wrought in Mexico.

Feb 2, 2021 / Claire Mullen

Perverse and Unfair: The Radical Steps to Fix the Housing Crisis

Perverse and Unfair: The Radical Steps to Fix the Housing Crisis Perverse and Unfair: The Radical Steps to Fix the Housing Crisis

On the history of the single-family home in America, alternative modes of housing, and what it will take to fix the housing market.

Feb 1, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Marianela D’Aprile

Does Christopher Hitchens Need an Authorized Biography?

Does Christopher Hitchens Need an Authorized Biography? Does Christopher Hitchens Need an Authorized Biography?

Attempts by the former Nation columnist’s widow and literary agent to police a biography are both futile and short-sighted.

Jan 29, 2021 / Feature / David Nasaw

Charles Mills Thinks Liberalism Still Has a Chance

Charles Mills Thinks Liberalism Still Has a Chance Charles Mills Thinks Liberalism Still Has a Chance

A wide-ranging conversation with the philosopher on the white supremacist roots of liberal thought, Biden’s victory, and Trumpism without Trump.

Jan 28, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Lying Down

Lying Down Lying Down

Every body that hits the ground in Hell will get up should they choose it. There’s plenty of death and destruction but no dead. All ends are artificial, wishful thinking, and even…

Jan 27, 2021 / Poems / Dustin Pearson

Letters Icon

Letters From the February 8/15, 2021, Issue Letters From the February 8/15, 2021, Issue

No hope or change… An open question… It’s time… Fly high, comrade… Higher math…

Jan 26, 2021 / Our Readers

Rounding Up the Capitol-Mob Lawbreakers

Rounding Up the Capitol-Mob Lawbreakers Rounding Up the Capitol-Mob Lawbreakers

Their faces were there in the picture ID was the simplest of tasks. They shouldn’t have scorned Dr. Fauci For saying we must wear our masks.

Jan 26, 2021 / Column / Calvin Trillin

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