Allegedly Greedy Marxist Press Demands That Marxists Pay For Marx
A kerfuffle is haunting the Marxist internet—a kerfuffle about copyright.
Is the Internet Making Us More Unequal? A Q&A With Astra Taylor
Astra Taylor began her career making documentaries about thinkers (Zizek! and Examined Life). Now she's doing the thinking herself. In her new book, The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Taylor argues the Internet isn't as liberating a force as its initial boosters promised. She's…
Public Intellectual Deathmatch: Ta-Nehisi Coates & Jonathan Chait
Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic and Jonathan Chait of New York have, over the past week, been engaged in something equal parts duel and duet in the pixels of their respective magazine's websites. Their debate has plumbed the depths of race and racism in America, working out the questions of civic and historical…
Who Is "America's Foremost Public Intellectual?"
Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, who is something of a public intellectual himself, today declares that MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry is "America's foremost public intellectual." Hmm.
Eric Hobsbawm, Eminent Historian, Dead at 95
British intellectual Eric Hobsbawm, the pre-eminent historian of his generation, died Monday morning in a hospital in London, where he was being treated for pneumonia. He was 95.
Richard Dawkins Torn Limb From Limb—By Atheists
Biologist, philosopher, and atheist prophet Richard Dawkins really put his foot in it. The New Statesman says Dawkin's career as a public intellectual is kaput. The Atlantic Wire has him losing a flame-war against his very own fan base. In the blogosphere, the most devoted Dawkinsians—people who've spent their adult…
Magniloquent French Sage Bernard-Henri Levy Stumped by Dastardly Totalitarian 'Wikipedia'
France is so weird. It's a magical land where philosophers are famous, and a journalist's philosophical spoof can be popular enough to spawn "a fan club that meets monthly in salons throughout Paris," and many members of the public know what "philosophy" means. By contrast, here in America many members of the public…
Let's Screw Up the Entire Internet to Save Newspapers
The hot new idea among people who think about "journalism," and the sanctity thereof: let's ban linking, on the internet! Let's also ban wheels, in order to save the horse industry. Let's also ban talking about things!
Dave Eggers Makes Futile Gesture
Do you fear that Print Is Dead? Allow America's most venerable human, Dave Eggers, to assure you—via email—that it is not:
Are Broke Authors the Best Authors?
In the March Harper's there's an article about last fall's Frankfurt Book Fair, where the publishing industry gathered to bemoan its recession-era fate. Will a world with poorer authors really make publishing more pure?
