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.
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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.
It seems impossible to contract post-traumatic stress disorder from trauma you did not experience. But the presence of PTSD in soldiers’ family members means we haven't fully understood the nature of PTSD.
The Internet may have battered book sales, but it hasn’t killed reading—far from it. Today we read more, and in more ways, than ever, and this is thanks to all the book-killing culprits.
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