Anywhere But Here
How might we write about this election if it were happening anywhere but the United States? A former reality star who sought to claw his way...
Don’t Wish for a Restoration
During the last few years—and increasingly during the last few months—Americans have more and more come to resemble the passengers on the steamboat Fidèle in Herman...
Rashly Filling the Void
In an essay about his landmark novel, Native Son, Richard Wright argued that while the racial identity of his protagonist was essential to the storyline, it...
China’s Clampdown on Hong Kong
As the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China approached, commentary in the English-language press about the future of the colony was written in...
Learning to Grieve
“Maybe I didn’t die properly,” says Jamie (played by Alan Rickman) in Anthony Minghella’s early film Truly, Madly, Deeply. “Maybe that’s why I can come back.”...
How Safe Is the US Election from Hacking?
In September, The New York Times reported on a concerning surge in Russian ransomware attacks against the United States, including “against small towns, big cities and...
An Incandescent Inanity
Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852), Russia’s greatest comic writer, thoroughly baffled his contemporaries. Strange, peculiar, wacky, weird, bizarre, and other words indicating enigmatic oddity recur in descriptions of...
Things as They Are
In 1966 the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective devoted to Dorothea Lange—its first-ever solo exhibition of work by a female photographer. Lange’s photographs have...
Where Health Care Is a Human Right
In 2004 the CBC—Canada’s publicly funded broadcaster—produced a TV competition called The Greatest Canadian, which sought to crown a national figure, living or dead, with the...
The Revival of Church Sanctuary
Midway through last year, half a dozen Latin American immigrants scattered across the United States received “notices of intent to fine” from US Immigration and Customs...
