Chess, Unlike War, is a Game of Perfect Information
The late poet Charles Simic was a chess prodigy who used the queen and her court to conjure a hellscape that invoked a childhood in war-time Belgrade.
’Twas Thrilling When Trilling Wrote a Blurb
The renowned literary critic famously withheld his imprimatur from the books of peers and students, with two notable exceptions. What do they reveal?
The Reality Behind Kitchen Sink Realism
The gritty dramas of the 1950s and 1960s revealed the bitterness and disillusionment of Britain's working class youth.
Why Do We Fall for Scams?
People want to believe that the person they trust with their money, or their hearts, is telling the truth. The con artist relies on that.
Fake News: A Media Literacy Reading List
Compiled by graduate students in a 2016 course on “Activism and Digital Culture,” at University of Southern California.
The Linguistic Case for Sh*t Hitting the Fan
Idioms have a special power to draw people together in a way that plain speech doesn't.
Sigmund Freud’s The Ego and the Id
Freud died 80 years ago this week. In this "Virtual Roundtable," three scholars debate the legacy of his 1923 text.
Eleven Poems for Fall
Cozy up to autumn with verse from Dylan Thomas, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Frost, Rita Dove, and more.
Was Marsden Hartley Really a Great Painter?
Was American painter Marsden Hartley an innovator, or an imitator? Some call him a great artist, while others say he didn't know how to paint.
On The Black Skyscraper: An Interview with Literary Critic Adrienne Brown
Early skyscrapers changed the ways we see race, how we see bodies, how we perceive and make judgments about people in the world.