Voltaire

Confronting Our Environmental Apocalypse: Voltaire, General Awfulness and the Uses of Comedy

Confronting Our Environmental Apocalypse: Voltaire, General Awfulness and the Uses of Comedy

With the uptick in stronger storms, hotter forest fires, rising sea levels and more, I can’t help but think the tune we’ve been hearing for some time—that we can engineer a better world and outwit mother nature—might be a little overplayed. 

“Cow Country” And The Problem With Pseudonyms
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“Cow Country” And The Problem With Pseudonyms

A recent post on the Harper’s blog has gotten me thinking about pseudonyms. In it, Art Winslow posits that a new novel, Cow Country, from an obscure vanity press was actually authored by Thomas Pynchon under the pseudonym Adrian Jones Pearson. As evidence, Winslow points to certain aesthetic similarities between the author and Pynchon, including…

Round Down: The Complicated Response to Charlie Hebdo

As anyone paying even the remotest of attention to the news this past week, we all know this is a sobering time for journalists, satirists, publishing professionals, and supporters of free speech. The brutal murder of staff and police at Charlie Hebdo magazine offices by Muslim extremists, along with violent ricochets all over the greater metropolitan…