Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate

Arts & Letters Daily (16 May 2008)

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

You got a problem with that? Why do New Yorkers seem so rude? Joan Acocella wonders... more ... Then there's NYC's suicide tourism.

Nina Khruscheva is Russian to the core, but also "as New York as they come." She says it's time for Russians to reread Vladimir Nabokov... more

Words perfect for what they mean: jab or fluffy or sneer, each true beyond mere logic. Verbose is a oddly verbose word, and isn't puny puny? Peppy has the perky, energetic sound it needs... more

Arts & Letters Daily (15 May 2008)

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Does she insist on dragging you to Sex and the City? The agony. No man should have to sit through this movie. Now, a solution... more

James Frey's latest depends not on plots or characters but "high concepts," the bright, shiny clichés that Hollywood screenwriters use for their pitches... more

War is horror, wrote A.J. Liebling, but "you can feel its pull on men's memories at the maudlin reunions of war divisions. They mourn for their dead, but also for war"... more

Arts & Letters Daily (14 May 2008)

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Britain's nearest neighbor and oldest enemy: No nation stirs such conflicting emotions in the British breast as France... more

The Dalai Lama's frequent meetings with Western leaders are now seen by China as provocations and used as an excuse not to meet with him... more

Virgil's Aeneid is no stiff antiquarian pageant. It's immediate and primal, about love, abandonment, death - and ultimate triumph... more

Arts & Letters Daily (13 May 2008)

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Does China operate sweatshops? How could you know? One way to find out is to send over some inspectors. Easy... more

The past, historians like to say, is another country. Israeli history is another galaxy, writes Carlin Romano... more

All of the books of John Steinbeck are still in print. Why does the work of this earnest but artless writer continue to enjoy such popularity?... more

Arts & Letters Daily (12 May 2008)

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Richard Rorty was lovable as a person, and as a philosopher both perceptive and, at times, intensely irritating... more

Is licking an ice cream cone on the street beneath your dignity? What then is human dignity? Steven Pinker wonders... more

Literary scholarship: aimless, irrelevant, and dying a slow death in the academy. But there's a way to revive interest in the study of fiction and criticism... more

About Arts & Letters Daily

New material is added to Arts & Letters Daily six days a week. We continually test links for reliability. Despite our best efforts, links may fail (often only temporarily) without warning. We apologize for any inconvenience. Our motto, "Veritas odit moras," is from line 850 of Seneca's version of Oedipus. It means "Truth hates delay." Arts & Letters Daily is a service of The Chronicle of Higher Education.