The Atlantic
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Better Funding Boosts Library Usage
Library use has been declining, but that decline probably isn’t due to a decreasing interest in reading. Plenty of pundits blame the rise of digital technology, but even libraries that offer digital services like ebook lending have seen declines. The real culprit is…
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Your Regularly Scheduled Gratification
At the Atlantic, Megan Garber explores the revival of the serial with the recent release of Belgravia, a serial novel-and-app from Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey.
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Writing in a Digital Age
Moleskine has recently come out with a digital notebook and smart-pen that transcribes one’s writing onto their smartphone—seemingly going against their ethos of the importance of pen and paper. Katharine Schwab reckons with this new development, and the fascinating popularity…
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House Of Cards
At the Atlantic, Sara Polsky traces the evolution of library cards from the 18th century to today. Even though library cards have nostalgic value for many patrons, Polsky argues that libraries may expand their readership with a system that uses more…
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Reboot the Arc of Progress
At the Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance delves into the popular belief that technology naturally bends towards equality and progress to show how rarely that idea actually plays out.
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Autofiction and Empathy
Reading novels breaks down the boundary between “me” and “not me.” Over at the Atlantic, Nicholas Dames writes about a deeply worrying feeling that contemporary fiction isn’t living up to Cervantes’s standards, opting for nihilistic individualism rather than empathy.
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Broadway-Blues-Bad Casting
Ever since Zoe Saldana was set to play Nina Simone in the upcoming biopic Nina, controversy has surrounded the casting choice. Writing in the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates says that the issue isn’t just about Saldana’s lighter skin tone, but the…
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Agents and Editors and Readers! Oh My!
At Electric Literature, Lincoln Michel offers a sharp response to a recent Atlantic article that explores how MFA programs have influenced contemporary literature: The MFA is only two to three years out of a writer’s life. Those years don’t outweigh decades of signaling…
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Selfies from Jane Eyre
The refusal of such a woman, who lived in such a time, to be silent created a new mold for the self… Karen Swallow Prior, writing for the Atlantic, shares her essay on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and its roots…
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The Library in a City’s Time of Crisis
Libraries are major hubs that serve the community, and even more so in times when people are looking for help. Over at the Atlantic, Deborah Fallows details the efforts to preserve the San Bernardino library, which has seen an increased…
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A Note about Love
Elegance is a refinement of simplicity rather than a flourish of excess. Elegance prompts wit rather than comedy, sentiment rather than sentimentality. Such restraint is the lens through which all the diffuse sensations of desire are focused into the flame…
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Rihanna’s Anti Capitalist Strategy
Although it marks a turn away from the hit-heavy model of a record industry money-maker, Rihanna’s Anti is still a calculated capitalist move, and the Atlantic explains how. In an editorial examination of record release strategies, the Atlantic connects the dots between Samsung’s…