New Punctuation, A Golden Age, and Advice for the End Times

You know, I think I’d really be down for some more nuanced punctuation, for conveying tone over email. Or, I could just continue doing that thing where you throw in jussssst a couple extraaa letters.

Emily Witt on Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath, and Suzanne Collins, and the importance of a good book cover.

Is the essay, contra David Shields, a dead form? Or is it just more like reality television and less like the literature we’ve known? Adam Kirch, over in the New Republic writes, “we are living in a golden age of essays, or of ruminative writings that call themselves essays.” And I suppose we are, at least much more so than a golden age for short stories, or so it seems to me.

Remember, when the world finally ends, it will behoove us to be on our best manners.