Category: Commentary
VLADIMIR, Netflix, 2026
Vladimir, the series, suggests with its titular nod to Nabokov and to the English depts that (may)...
Read MoreColumbia Chooses a New President
[IMAGE MISSING. IT’S HARD TO FIND AN IMAGE OF THE COLUMBIA BOARD OF TRUSTEES] I wrote this op-ed at the invitation of Columbia’s student newspaper, the Spectator. But the editors asked me to explain or justify so...
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ANDOR and the Culture of Imperial Decline
Caption: A billboard advertisement for Andor in Los Angeles, CA featuring Luthen Rael (played by...
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The Samourai
Introductory Note: This essay originally appeared in Italian, as the preface to a...
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Coming of Race in the Classroom
You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that...
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Reflections on Greatness
One thing people mean when they call something “great” is that it may not be nice. That great and...
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Edward W. Said: An Unpublished Letter to the NY Times, 1967
On June 12, 1967, immediately following the Six-Day War that resulted in the ongoing occupation of...
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AI: A view from the corporate trenches
Artificial Intelligence, judging from the attention it has garnered, is The Next Big Thing,...
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