Readings

The Gentle Art of Pretending to Understand What's Going On

Listening to a man you yourself find funny laugh at jokes you don’t get is, in retrospect, a master class in learning to read social cues.

'The Tension Between Artists and Critics is Crucial': An Interview with A.O. Scott

The New York Times film critic on the mistrust of critical vocabulary, making a case for his own abilities, and Ratatouille. 

Why Them?

The fine line between a body at war and a body at peace.

Secrets Among Distractions: The Power of Wimmelbooks

The suspended crowds depicted in these "teeming pictures" provide the opportunity to explore overwhelming chaos. 

'A Society That Can’t Speak is Like a Body That Doesn’t Feel Pain': An Interview with Anjan Sundaram

Speaking with the author of Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, about violence and repression in Kagame-led Rwanda and the dark side of supposed symbols of progress.

Future Imperfect

The rapper may be off in another dimension, but he's a realist. And realism is messy.

The 10,000 Year Clock

Somewhere out in Texas, a group is building a machine to challenge the human perception of time. 

Winona, Forever

Ryder has always been trapped in her own anticipatory nostalgia, and the public has always wanted to keep her there.

'It’s Not Sane to Just Stay in a Little Paradise': An Interview with Anne Émond

The Quebec director on tackling suicide, absence, and inherited melancholia in her latest film

Saul Bellow's Last Interview
Saul Bellow's Last Interview

The story behind the last known interview with the author of Herzog, Ravelstein, and The Adventures of Augie March, with exclusive video.