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Join NOW!For the New York Times Bookends column, Rivka Galchen walks us through a deceptively simple poem by Zbigniew Herbert to illustrate a philosophy that supports both the abstract and the moral responsibility of art. She posits that “there is a way in which art for art’s sake is the art most open to all comers, and most […]
...moreSahota takes it further in “The Year of the Runaways”: “What decadence this belonging rubbish was, what time the rich must have if they could sit around and weave great worries out of such threadbare things.” With an eye on two new novels by Indian writers, and perspective from writers such as Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa […]
...moreAt the New York Times, Alice Gregory and Pankaj Mishra discuss the role of moralism in the novel—and conclude that authors should seek to question and provoke rather than preach: Not only does moral preoccupation corrupt the artfulness of fiction, but fiction is an inefficient and insincere vehicle for moralizing. If an author’s motive is to […]
...moreWhen an artist has to assert that her intended audience is all humans rather than those who happen to be of her particular gender or race, what she’s actually having to assert is the breadth and depth of her own humanity. This week in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Cheryl Strayed (a.k.a. Dear […]
...moreCritics have been locked in debate over the Internet’s effect on cultural production and reception for as long as most millennials can remember, exclamations like “democratized content” and “death of the novel” appearing at every click and turn. In this week’s New York Times “Bookends” column, two writers discuss whether dated categories are still applicable […]
...morePankaj Mishra has always been a politically outspoken writer, so when Mo Yan, who has defended the Chinese government’s censorship, won the Nobel Prize, Mishra was the last person anyone expected to defend him. But he did, asking, “Do we ever expose the political preferences of Mo Yan’s counterparts in the West to such harsh […]
...moreIs it true that nowadays nonfiction is more relevant than fiction? Pankaj Mishra and Rivka Galchen answer the question and both their answers are dissimilar. Mishra answers, “Even writers working within the old verities of stability and coherence — we cannot do without some of them — continue to produce persuasive fictions.” Galchen observes, “Fiction […]
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Kaya Genç reviews Pankaj Mishra’s FROM THE RUINS OF EMPIRE today in The Rumpus Book Reviews.
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