The New Inquiry
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Cool SXSW Panel Needs Votes
Three of our favorite publications—the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Toast, and the New Inquiry—are joining forces to create a SXSW panel. Titled “Rebooting Cultural Criticism on the Web,” the panel hopes to address questions like: “How do we make literary…
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Another Look at Hormonal Birth Control
Is it possible to write a feminist critique of birth control? Holly Grigg-Spall tries to do so in her new book Sweetening the Pill, but according to our editorial assistant Lauren O’Neal’s review in the New Inquiry, she doesn’t exactly succeed:…
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Pay No Attention to the Sexism Behind the Curtain
At a relatively slim 3700 words, Moira Weigel’s and Mal Ahern’s essay “Further Materials Toward a Theory of the Man-Child,” sparked by less-than-enlightened political text Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl, manages a comprehensive indictment of misogyny in all the…
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Tiny Screams and Other Deviations from Girl Power
The riot grrrl movement—and other “angry young women” making music around the same time—validated and celebrated female rage. But what if you feel less rage and more “negative but ultimately weak emotions that do not lead to action” like “envy,…
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The ICC Witness Project
As Kenya’s president-elect, Uhuru Kenyatta, stands trial for crimes against humanity, Kenyan poets have come together to write poems from the perspective of some of the mysteriously missing witnesses. The results are as captivating as they are heartrending. You can…
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“We Should Revere Him Better“
A fantastic essay at The New Inquiry inspects the recently deceased Chinua Achebe’s place in the Western literary canon. In an interview a few years ago, Norman Rush was talking about the ways he was influenced by African writers, and he mentioned that “No non-African…
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What’s The Deal With Massive Open Online Courses?
MOOC’s are a word for forgetting that universities have never grown without being planted, for trusting that just as students can teach themselves, universities will magically grow themselves, too. In the 21st century, many universities have been changing their game…
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Re-examining the “Dysfunctional Pleasure” of Eating Disorders
That the Ironman participant may be as vain or as emotionally distressed as a freely directed exerciser becomes irrelevant, because the Ironman race, like a Thanksgiving feast, takes place in the presence of many others pursuing the same extreme pleasure. It…
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Genre Resistance
“Let me say and I probably mean this in the most manifesto-ing way that genres don’t exist. They don’t exist at all. They serve the needs of marketing, of academic specialization, even as modes of work, but in terms of…