In a review of Reiner Stach’s Kafka: The Decisive Years and Kafka: The Years of Insight, Cynthia Ozick rails against the term: With its echo of “grotesque,” the ubiquitous term “Kafkaesque” has long been frozen into permanence, both in the dictionary and in the most commonplace vernacular. Comparative and allusive, it has by now escaped the body of work it … Continue reading Rescuing Kafka From “Kafkaesque”
In only his second known interview since ending Calvin and Hobbes in 1995, the reclusive Bill Watterson discusses the role of the comic strip in an increasingly digital culture: Where do you think the comic strip fits in today’s culture? Personally, I like paper and ink better than glowing pixels, but to each his own. … Continue reading Watterson Speaks
#moscow by night 2 hrs ago RT @gruppa_voina Все развлечения ночной Москвы pic.twitter.com/oCxKU1ESqx #Navalny — kriszta satori (@fulelo) July 18, 2013 After the show trial and threatened imprisonment of a charismatic, snarky opposition leader, Putin panicked and shut down Red Square. Huge numbers of protesters showed up on the streets. Tweets and breaking news here; … Continue reading The Best Of The Dish Today
Benjamin Dueholm ponders Marilynne Robinson's new collection:
As a book about who we are and what we owe each other, When I Was a Child I Read Books is more urgently political than any treatise on the shape of entitlement programs or the proper government share of GDP. Caustic as our public debates may be, they mask a convergence on the bigger questions that animate those debates. What Robinson calls “our tendency to create definitions of human nature that are small and closed” can be found virtually anywhere on the American political spectrum today.
Today on the Dish, the 2011 Dish Award Winners were announced to fanfare and trumpets! Andrew refused to let Glenn Reynolds get away with lying about Obama's record, tangled with Ron Paul's more unsavory writings about gay rights (while reiterating his endorsement retraction), and wasn't buying denunciations of the congressman by either the Manchester Union-Leader or … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap
Today on the Dish, we launched the annual Dish Awards poll (keep voting early and often), which led to the tightest Malkin race evah and a showdown between Andrew vs. Jennifer Rubin in the Von Hoffman race. Jim Henley explained why Ron Paul couldn't produce the newsletters' authors, Nate Silver argued that Paul needed the race to be … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
Today on the Dish, American involvement in Iraq came to a close, and Andrew declared the mission accomplished. Neoconservative irresponsibility returned (it's at the forefront of Mitt Romney's campaign), and we caught an ugly glimpse of how Fox News will eventually account for the democratic revolutions in the Middle East. Bachmann's New Hampshire staff ran for the … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap
Today on the Dish, Andrew live-blogged the Nevada debate and we collected reax here. Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 plan faced serious scrutiny, Cain blurred the line between comedy and actual policy proposals, and he worshipped "the perfect conservative." Rick Perry's campaign ads reflect an impressively high production value, Harry Schliefer anticipated that Perry would recapture Cain's support as the Hermanator embarked on book tour, and the Texas governor contemplated his own rise and fall. Gingrich rode a fake following to frontrunner-status in the Twitter primary, and the "giant, gaseous asshole" won an award for faux intellectualism. The indignant anti-Romney right tried to suppress the inevitability narrative, and Andrew took on the Mormon question. In our video feature, he explained that he doesn't have a filter (except for the rotoscoping).
Friedersdorf infiltrated OWS as the protests took hold in countries with high youth unemployment, Calvin and Hobbes illustrated Wall Street's baffling business model, and we recognized the demonstrators in South Park. OWS doesn't need the NYT, Beinart admired the movement's powerful populist instincts, and we assessed its marginal anti-Semitism.
Tunisia readied for democratic elections, the Israeli police and military condoned terrorism, and a victim of the LRA confronted Limbaugh's brazen storytelling. Montag put forth an enterprising solution to our futile war against Afghanistan's drug trade, Jeremy Salt made excuses for Syria's unforgivable mukhabarat state, and Rachel Abrams celebrated Gilad Shalit's freedom with a sickening diatribe.
Bruce Bartlett joined the Dish in championing Reagan-style tax reform, Peter Frase witnessed the unhealthy convergence of partisanship and ideology, and Douthat noted that Pinker's thesis on violence neglects the brutal history of the "civilizing process." Joel Kotkin predicted that China's growth would fizzle, criminals harnessed the social ingenuity of "flash mobs" for ill, and Bryan Caplan explained why a bad husband is incapable of being a good father. Andrew defended David Brooks against the Straussian charge, marijuana legalization achieved record public support, and Sam Harris pondered the evolving reality of consciousness. Readers invoked Felix Feneon's "Novels in Three Lines," we delved into the tricky morality of pheasant killing, and sociology students were tested on Jay-Z. Uzbekistan was forced to assert its geopolitical relevance, housing prices affect birth rates, and a baby was introduced to the world of Angry Birds.
Dissent of the day here, app of the day here, MHB here, FOTD here, VFYW here, and VFYW contest winner #72 here.
— M.A.
By Khaled Desouki/Getty Images Today on the Dish, we tracked Egypt's Friday of Anger. Protesters prayed, and got water-gunned, gassed and injured. The army arrived, some protesters cheered, fighting continued into the night, Islamists joined, and protesters formed a human chain to prevent looting of the Egyptian National Museum. ElBaradei was detained, a curfew was … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap
Today on the Dish, Conor raged against the cable news machine and wasn't too broken up over Olbermann's anouncement. Patrick parsed the cult of Palin and Douthat's dismissal of her, while Andrew took a sick day. Conor raised concerns about Obamacare, took Rich Lowry to task, and rallied for a political blogosphere with lots of parties … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
