If I could eradicate one sin from the world, I would free writers and journalists from our desire to make a heartfelt splash, and damn the facts. Exaggerated reporting in the service of a hunch is even worse if your hunch has a germ of truth. You"ve now made a straw man of your own idea"and ...
It's not often that a Salon writer produces a lit piece that doesn"t make me grunt with rage. Aside from their hysterical loathing for male writers who won"t check their man parts at the door, their M.O. for dealing with the type of unwashed who dare to probe the parlor-pink backgrounds of ...
Here's a brilliant idea for an anthology: collect essays about the changing face of war and war technology, then alternate them with short stories and novel excerpts from the cutting edge of military-focused sci-fi and fantasy. Riding the Red Horse, edited by fantasy star Vox Day and Army Ranger ...
I can"t resist a writing style guide, especially one that promises to be lively. Steven Pinker made his name as a linguistic and cognitive scientist; his 2002 book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a level-headed classic in evolutionary psychology, and his instincts for ...
The rigged game of publishing is no less rotten today than on any other, but it's unnatural to be contentious on Christmas. I"d rather talk truces. Most readers will have already heard my favorite yuletide tale, but indulge me: who hasn"t shed a tear over the Christmas Eve ceasefire of ...
I love those sweet, fleeting moments of near-lucidity when the janitors at the mainstream pop-culture echo chamber almost manage to notice how annoying the echo is. Full disclosure: A decade ago I briefly crossed paths with Atlantic arts writer Noah Berlatsky, when he and I both worked for the ...
Making fun of millennials is all kinds of fish-in-a-barrel fun. Their creepy, dehumanized fixation on their smartphones reminds me of lab rats, pushing the Tweet button to light up the ego centers in their brains. Perhaps this smacks of an uncharacteristic faith in human nature, but I want to ...
It's taken me a few weeks to work up the gall to write about the pseudonymous Quintus Curtius" first book. Thirty Seven: Essays on Life, Wisdom, and Masculinity, released this September, is a series of meditations on history and ancient thinkers; it was adapted and expanded from Curtius" ...
Have you heard that big, bad Amazon is destroying the book industry? To be more accurate, they"re plowing the major publishers under: ah, nobility in tears. I"m not a fan of the sheer volume of garbage that's being dumped out on Kindle myself, and the new landscape is a pain to navigate. ...
The old "men don"t read fiction" saw is making the rounds of the publishing industry again. It's more a self-fulfilling prophecy than a valid judgment against the nature of men, and rather rich, in fact: Isn"t it odd how, when you keep giving the next Bridget Jones a chance at print ...
