Brief Encounters

Thinking in Old English

“I use my essays for the public to think through my research questions. I cannot imagine ever writing a monograph in a traditional scholarly style again.”

November 27, 2021

Declarations of Independence

“I saw how the British Empire could transform decent white people into puffed-up petty tyrants. Even if the Communist insurgents were not the ‘right side,’ I realized I was on the wrong side.”

November 20, 2021

What Fastens Us to the World

“I didn’t write because I had something to say. I wrote because I had nothing to say and writing gave me words, even to express silence.”

November 13, 2021

Looking Back on Revolution

“It seems vital to look beyond my everyday life and consider experiences contrary, different, more representative than my own.”

November 6, 2021

A Good Story to Tell

“As an editor, I liked it when writers opened my eyes to their passions, however obscure they might seem. As a writer, I want to do the same.”

October 30, 2021

In His Father’s Footsteps

“So I continued to visit Jaffa, but I had to rely more on my imagination because the reality was of an entirely different place from what he had described.”

October 16, 2021

Unknown Sources of Lift

“I think there’s an understandable but perilous tendency to conflate art and artist when the artist in question uses autobiographical elements in their work.”

October 9, 2021

Human Diagnostics

“Life in lockdown is not natural for the majority of Homo sapiens. In the ballooning of mental health problems this year, we’ve seen just how deleterious those kinds of restrictions are.”

October 2, 2021

Emissary from a Watery Future

“Writers can’t do a lot about climate change. But writers can help us puzzle through what climate change is doing to us.”

September 25, 2021

Ten Years After Occupy

“Since then, taking part in protests has felt like the rent I pay for living in this world.”

September 18, 2021