Readings

Godard Forever: Part One, a 17-film retrospective of director Jean-Luc Godard’s early work, begins this Friday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. To mark the occasion we look at the politics and provocations that were the auteur’s long-time trademark.

Romance is a fool’s errand—the American writer knew this well, and it was reflected in her novels. With her birthday falling tomorrow, our correspondent proposes Wharton, who had a “special expertise in loneliness,” as the patron saint of the loneliest month.

The United States has a long and ugly history of spying on its own citizens. Last week, as the surviving members of a daring 1971 operation to expose FBI dirty tricks finally went public, revelations about present day NSA spying continued to mount. A tour through some of the art inspired by America’s obsession with enemies-within.

“Asperger’s Lit” is all well and good, but its influence has lead to some insufferably dull status updates. The problem is “Bad Carver,” as David Foster Wallace put it. The solution is Frank Conroy. Even Bad Conroy.