Culture

How the trash-talking singer could be this generation's incarnation of the wonderfully disagreeable critic and novelist.

Some thoughts on the first paragraph of Renata Adler’s just reissued 1976 novel Speedboat.

From the still controversial and disturbing Story of O to contemporary bestsellers S.E.C.R.E.T. and 50 Shades of Grey—the author considers how erotica bridges the social worlds we inhabit everyday and the confused, often shame-inducing netherworld of our inner lives.