Walter Benn Michaels: What’s His Deal?
The literary critic Walter Benn Michaels challenges the prevailing trends of postmodernist theory.
How Linguists Are Using Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary continues a long history of recording low-brow language. It’s also a repository of a specific kind of internet immaturity.
The Man Whose Face Got Stuck Like That
No one could have predicted Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s turn to the bizarre.
Mary Pickford Knew Not to Take the First Offer
When the 17-year-old actress auditioned for her first film, director D.W. Griffith offered her $5 a day. That wasn’t good enough for Mary.
Alfred Stieglitz’s Art Journal
"The best one can say of American art criticism is that its CLEVERNESS OFTEN CONCEALS ITS LACK OF PENETRATION," Alfred Stieglitz wrote.
Selling Toys with the Sailor Moon Transformation Sequence
From her nails painted glossy red to the tiara appearing on her forehead, if you time it out, the transformation in Sailor Moon lasts 40 seconds.
“Meet John Doe” Shows the Darkness of American Democracy
Meet John Doe, Frank Capra’s 1941 drama, carries forward the populist themes of his other movies, only with a much darker premise.
The Allure of the Millionaire Family Drama
The reason we put aside our personal dislike of rich TV families, people we might deeply resent if they were real, is two-fold.