By: Brian Berger

The copious spirit of a public intellectual and unlikely youth-culture avatar.

By: Mark Kingwell

Reason itself becomes the monster.

By: Mark Kingwell

He tracked the “lines of flight” that ideas can take up against power.

By: Joshua Glenn

“No Context” is an origin myth for Nobrow.

By: Joshua Glenn

Charming vs. Creepy is the battle of our age.

By: Joshua Glenn

He was the Modernists’ modernist.

By: Joshua Glenn

How do you like your egghead cooked?

By: Franklin Bruno

Recalling SUSAN SONTAG (1933-2004) as “a leading public intellectual” — a category she did not invent, but perhaps perfected — is no substitute for rereading the early, electrifying essays collected in Against Interpretation and Styles […]

By: Joshua Glenn

In a 1945 essay, the French-Jewish author, philosopher, and journalist ALBERT CAMUS (1913-60) asked, “What is a man who revolts?” His answer: “First of all, it’s a man who says no. But if he refuses, […]

By: Lucy Sante

A great theorist and taxonomist of eroticism.

By: Tor Aarestad

In 1927, ELIAS CANETTI (1905-94) threw himself into a Viennese crowd protesting an acquittal in a murder trial. The crowd went on to burn down the Palace of Justice, and Canetti’s feeling of selflessness and […]