31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 3: “The People Across the Canyon” by Margaret Millar
Millar’s story, ostensibly a psychological drama, is in fact a trenchant satire on the pernicious attractions of a particular kind of American dream.
31 Days of Stories 2022: Introduction
If the novel is a regal lion king, the short story is a cackling hyena.
“Egotism at one remove”: Aldous Huxley on the partisan impulse
“Partisan loyalty is socially disastrous; but for individuals it can be richly rewarding.”
Sympathy for the devils: John Darnielle’s latest novel examines the ethical quagmire of true crime in the context of a taut thriller
Focusing on a writer investigating a double murder with Satanic overtones, the novel asks uncomfortable questions about how and why we consume such gruesome material.
Truth and consequences: New York Times journalist Elizabeth Williamson’s new book examines the poisonous seedbed of American conspiracy culture
The New York Times feature writer shows in carefully argued detail that the Sandy Hook hoaxers exist in a direct line with QAnon and the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Power plays: Julia May Jonas addresses issues of on-campus sexual politics in her provocative and incendiary debut novel
Jonas constructs a narrative that examines campus power dynamics frankly without, for the most part, providing any tidy moral or lesson.
Alfred A. Knopf announces two new novels from Cormac McCarthy, the first in eighteen years
The novels will be published individually in October and November, followed by a box set in December.
Freedom to Read Week 2022: From Plato to fake news, Eric Berkowitz provides a concise and nuanced history of censorship in the West
The history of censorship is inextricable from the history of power and in a changing world, it behooves us to consider how to balance speech and security.
Vampires, mad scientists, and American psychos: David J. Skal examines some cultural underpinnings of the horror genre
In its examination of the roots of American horror cinema, this single-volume survey is valuable, though it lacks follow-through in its second half.
Let’s talk about sex, anonymously: New York writers Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan and Hillary Jordan on their new anthology of unattributed erotica
“We all have this conversation about who can write what,” Jordan says. “This collection asks, does it matter?”