A philosopher tackles difficult themes in the JD Salinger short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” Continue reading

September 22, 2023
by Aesthetics for Birds
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September 22, 2023
by Aesthetics for Birds
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A philosopher tackles difficult themes in the JD Salinger short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” Continue reading
February 3, 2023
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Scholars John Gibson, Magdalena Ostas, and Hannah Kim discuss how art creates meaning, and how we play a role in that meaning-making. Continue reading
October 13, 2022
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Philosopher Sally Haslanger reflects on life through a poem by Wislawa Szymborska Continue reading
February 11, 2022
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In making art, we make ourselves into something beyond what our original authors may have intended. Continue reading
June 17, 2021
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Five supershort flash fictions by philosopher Ben Roth Continue reading
March 16, 2021
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Philosopher Mark Schroeder writes 100 words on Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 Continue reading
October 14, 2020
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Influential writer and literary critic James Wood is interviewed by Becca Rothfeld Continue reading
March 19, 2020
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What follows is a guest post by Patrick Fessenbecker. In a recent column in The New York Times, Ross Douthat contends that English professors aren’t having the right kind of arguments. Reflecting on the analysis of the decline of the humanities in a series of essays in the Chronicle of Higher Education over the last year, Douthat makes a familiar diagnosis: the problem is that we literature professors no longer believe in the real value of the objects we study. Engaging Simon During’s account of the decline of the humanities as a “second secularization” in particular, Douthat argues that secular attempts to defend the humanities will fail just as surely as secular attempts to defend religious ethics and norms did: it doesn’t work unless you really believe in the thing. Correspondingly, the debates literary scholars are having about how to expand the range of texts and subjects we teach are … Continue reading
December 9, 2019
by Aesthetics for Birds
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This year marks the end of the second decade of the 2000s. In honor of this, we thought we’d take a look back at our decade with an end-of-year series. The internet loves lists, especially year-end ones, and we’ll feed that love a little bit this December. We’ll be hosting seven lists of expert Decade-Best picks. We’ve done movies and games, and you can look forward to television, music, traditional visual arts, and one surprise list at the end. Our experts will include philosophers and other academics whose work concerns these topics, and people working in the relevant media. Up today: writing! Writing is a curious category, one that can be extremely broad, as writing touches so much of the arts. Movies have scripts; songs have lyrics; cookbooks have written instructions. So in our lists below, you’ll find novels as well as a selection of the best of what writing … Continue reading
October 7, 2019
by Alex King
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Adrian L. Jawort, a Northern Cheyenne Two Spirit journalist and writer, has written a piece for the Los Angeles Review of Books in which they reflect on the critical reception of two young adult novels by Native American author Rebecca Roanhorse. The controversy: Roanhorse is a member of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo tribe, but her novels feature a Diné (Navajo) protagonist, and center on events in Dinétah, the traditional land of the Diné people. The problem came in the form of a 2018 letter, signed by 14 Navajo writers, that accused Roanhorse of appropriating another tribe: “Trail of Lightning is an appropriation of Diné cultural beliefs.”