Category: Subject

September 19, 2012

Victor Navasky and Evan Cornog on the Art of Making Magazines

The following is an interview with Victor S. Navasky and Evan Cornog, editors of The Art of Making Magazines: On Being an Editor and Other Views from the Industry. As the subtitles suggests, The Art of Making Magazines features the...

September 18, 2012

Gary L. Francione: Irreconcilable Differences

Gary L. Francione explains why he doesn’t support the HSUS in response to James McWilliams’ recent article.

September 18, 2012

Michael Kelly on Writing for Playboy and What It Taught Him about Magazines

“Any magazine is, in the end, what a very small, self-selected group of people—its readers—wants it to be. And the magazine is shaped to that.”—Michael Kelly, “Editing a Thought-Leader Magazine” The following is an excerpt from Michael Kelly’s essay in...

September 17, 2012

James McWilliams: Vegan Feud

James McWilliams discusses the furor created among supporters of animal rights by the Humane Society of the United States.

September 14, 2012

Judith Jack Halberstam on the University, Credos, and More

“I believe in shaking down the big disciplines once a generation, replacing dinosaur forms of knowledge production with improvised programs, and reinventing curricula, disciplinary knowledge, and knowledge clusters every decade at least. I believe … the university needs to dance...

September 13, 2012

Mark Greif on the Challenges of Contemporary Criticism

Mark Greif is the cofounder and a current editor at n+1 and an assistant professor at the New School. In the following excerpt from his essay, “All There is to Use,” published in The Critical Pulse: Thirty-Six Credos by Contemporary...

September 13, 2012

Blake W. Mobley on Terrorism and Counterintelligence

“Terrorist counterintelligence vulnerabilities are common, predictable, and, with some ingenuity, can be exploited.”—Blake W. Mobley, Terrorism and Counterintelligence Earlier this summer, Blake W. Mobley, author of Terrorism and Counterintelligence: How Terrorist Groups Elude Detection, took The Page 99 Test. In...

September 12, 2012

Stephen Burt on the Impossibility of Poetry Criticism via The Critical Pulse

“But poetry criticism should also be impossible: if a poem is any good it should exceed and complicate any statement that you want to make about it—the trick is to say things that are true nevertheless.”—Stephen Burt, “Without Evidence” One...

September 11, 2012

Charles B. Strozier on memorializing 9/11

Charles B. Strozier and Scott Gabriel Knowles discuss the 9/11 memorial.

September 11, 2012

Jeffrey J. Williams and Heather Steffen on "The Critical Pulse" and Literary Criticism

The following is an interview with Jeffrey J. Williams and Heather Steffen, coeditors of The Critical Pulse: Thirty-Six Credos by Contemporary Critics. (For more on the book, you can read the introduction, Criticism in a Difficult Time). Question: What is...

September 6, 2012

Todd Gitlin Defends Judith Butler

Todd Gitlin is perhaps not Judith Butler’s most ardent supporter. In a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Trouble with Judith Butler—and Her Critics, Gitlin, author of The Intellectuals and the Flag and other titles, faults her...

September 5, 2012

Graham Russell Gao Hodges on the life and career of Anna May Wong

Graham Russell Gao Hodges discusses the brilliant career, personal struggles, and historical importance of Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American Hollywood icon.