Breaking Down A.I.
A look at what Rosie the Robot (and others) still haven’t delivered to the table. Plus, how do those “thinking machines” do it? Are we prepared to submit to our robot overlords?
The Re-Framing of the Shrew
Feisty Kate and the swaggering Petruchio are still a hot ticket. How to explain the staying power of a politically incorrect classic?
But Is It Literature?
A legendary minstrel wins a Nobel Prize in Literature, and our topsy-turvy world turns inside out.
But Is It Poetry?
A new movie carves out plain-spoken verse from the mind of a pensive bus driver.
Moonlight and Innocence
An Oscar-winning movie and a celebrated new novel reprise the violence and angst and courage of growing up gay in a hostile world.
Our Refugees, Our Enemies
Novelists Viet Thanh Nguyen and Bao Ninh stand on opposite ends of a cultural divide. Yet they are both Vietnamese. Should it be surprising they have so much in common?
Alternate History 101
Many believe a fascist takeover of America is utterly impossible. A closer look from three alternate accounts of history may shed some needed light.
An All-New Moby-Dick
A thrilling new adaptation resurrects Ishmael, Queequeg, Starbuck, Ahab and the Great White. Some thoughts on how this classic fish story still sucks us under.