A review of The First Word The Search for the Origins of Language by Christine Kenneally. Linguists seek a time when we spoke as one: A controversial research project is trying to trace all human language to a common root. A sampling of the strange, unexpected shapes that English takes around the world: A review of Rotten English: A Literary Anthology. Ariadne's thread: Thousands of literary texts are now available online, all submitted by volunteers. Is this the most enlightened initiative since English studies was invented? Lost in the blogosphere: Why literary blogging won't save our literary culture.
From The New Yorker, Louis Menand on the biography business: A review of Shoot the Widow by Merlye Secrest and Biography: A Brief History by Nigel Hamilton. As he set out, albeit unwittingly, to change the literary landscape, Jack Kerouac started off by going the wrong way. Clive James interviews Ian McEwan, P.J. O'Rourke, and more. Monda’s World: Antonio Monda is arguably the most well-connected New York cultural figure you’ve never heard of. A review of Lex Populi: The Jurisprudence of Popular Culture by William P. MacNeil. An obsessive deference to fame, and an all-consuming preoccupation with it, has become the defining mark of our culture. But why? Literary chic: J.K. Rowling and other female authors are releasing their inner fashionistas along with their novels.
Television, how novel: People who hate television love to talk about it, not realizing they could be spending their time improving their minds—with novelizations. Todd Levin looks at the best of the oeuvre, with and without Steve Urkel. Conservatives learn to say "ay, caramba": Nearly one-third of The Simpsons’ adult audience describe themselves as conservative. From Nerve, here are the 50 greatest sex scenes in cinema. The Fetishist Next Door: The all-American appeal of Bettie Page. The Intellectual Showman: Whether or not they like his work, scholars have plenty to discuss in the career of Stanley Kubrick. Flying Solo: Paul Cantor on The Aviator and libertarian philosophy. Political theatre in a post-political age: This PhD thesis gauges the contemporary landscape of political theatre at a time in which everything, and consequently nothing, is political. Out of the Fringe and Into the Spotlight: Independent artists are using festivals like Capital Fringe to push political theater — and their pet issues — into the mainstream.
