William James
Has Obama Convinced Americans About the Importance of Community?
The Mobility Myth
I've seen a lot of attempts to make insane rhetoric sound sensible, but this op-ed in today's Washington Post, justifying Sarah Palin's claim that health care reform will create a "death panel" to decide if her baby should live, is a parody of the form: READ MORE >>
The Mini-review: 'the Hurt Locker'
Death Defying
'This election," said John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, on the second day of the Republican convention, "is not about issues." And he meant it. The convention that Davis helped assemble devoted strikingly little time to policy. Instead, the focus was on McCain's biography. Fred Thompson set the tone early in the convention, using his address to recount McCain's life story, especially his stint as a prisoner of war. In state delegation meetings during the week, the campaign enlisted the candidate's fellow POWs to tell delegates of his experiences in Vietnam. READ MORE >>
Tonight We Re-revise
by Eric RauchwayWhen we put one word in another's place as we edit, it is a bit as if we chose this stone, rather than that, for a dry-stone wall. Which is to say, we plan the course and size of our project, but haven't the liberty to forge our own materials. Instead they necessarily influence us: pick so choosily as we may, we cannot invent the blocks with which we build, and their peculiar shapes inflect the span, reach, and strength of our construction. READ MORE >>
Up From Bullshit
On Truth By Harry Frankfurt (Alfred A. Knopf, 101 pp., $12.50) I. READ MORE >>
Fighting Words
The Language of War: Literature and Culture in the U.S. From the Civil War Through World War II by James Dawes (Harvard University Press, 300 pp., $39.95) READ MORE >>
God's Pragmatist
Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited by Charles Taylor (Harvard University Press, 127 pp., $19.95) READ MORE >>
Jed Perl on Art: Bookings
I. READ MORE >>
