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Adam Kirsch

Book Review/Commentary: Why Lionel Trilling — and Serious Criticism — Matters

The essential task of the critic is not to like or dislike the arts or to push bromides, such as to celebrate the “power of reading.” Despite some troublesome modifications, Lionel Trilling carries on the mission of E.A. Poe and Henry James: he articulates the value of the serious act of judgment in a culture hostile to it.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured Tagged: Adam Kirsch, American criticism, arts-criticism, criticism, Lionel Trilling, Literary criticism, Why Trilling Matters

Literature Commentary: The New Yorker Misses an H.G. Wells Anniversary Worth Celebrating

“For an imaginative boy, the first experience of writing is like a tiger’s first taste of blood.’ — H.G. Wells, “The New Machiavelli,” 1911.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, World Books Tagged: 100th, Adam Kirsch, anniversary, H. G. Wells, The New Machiavelli, The New Yorker

Arts Commentary: With Friends Like These — The New York Times Explains Why Criticism Matters

The important question the NYTBR Editors fail to ask is whether the traditional definition and values of literary criticism will survive in an age of ebooks and iPads. Is there a primal appetite for criticism? (Edith Wharton says there is, and I believe her.) How will the Internet shape our innate desire to compare, judge, […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Commentary, Featured Tagged: Adam Kirsch, book-reviews, criticism, Elif Batuman, Katie Roiphe, Literary criticism, New York Times Book Review, Sam Anderson, Stephen Burn

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