The Point Magazine
@thepointmag.bsky.social
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A magazine founded on the suspicion that modern life is worth examining. thepointmag.com
New on Substack, Jon Baskin on Knausgaard, Dostoevsky, David Foster Wallaceâs call for âmorally passionate, passionately moral fictionâ... and how it all relates to the Harperâs essay on gooning.
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Knausgaard, Wallace, Dostoevsky
The Sincerity Files #2
https://thepointmag.substack.com/p/knausgaard-wallace-dostoevsky
3 days ago
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New on Substack, Jon Baskin and Mike Lipkin continue our series of conversations on graduate education by asking: What does it mean to say humanistic scholars âproduce knowledgeâ in the first place? And is it important to ask what this knowledge is âforâ?
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Is Humanistic Knowledge Useless?
And so what if it is?
https://thepointmag.substack.com/p/is-humanistic-knowledge-useless
5 days ago
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New online, Michael Barron on the personal achievement at the heart of Michael Lentzâs âSchattenfrohâ:
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Sanctify Yourself | The Point Magazine
In the summer of 2024, Deep Vellum, a Dallas-based press, announced a program to bring out âbadass avant-garde masterpieces that would otherwise not be translated [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/sanctify-yourself/
6 days ago
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New online: Robert Pippin,
@agcallard.bsky.social
, Ben Jeffery, Rory OâConnell, Laura Baudot, Thomas Bartscherer, Jonny Thakkar, Jon Baskin, Leon Wieseltier and J.M. Coetzee remember Jonathan Lear.
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Jonathan Lear (1948-2025) | The Point Magazine
Jonathan Lear, who died last month at his home in Hyde Park, Chicago, was, in addition to being a distinguished professor in the University of [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/jonathan-lear-1948-2025/
12 days ago
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New online, Barry Schwabsky on a new translation of âThe Flowers of Evil,â and finding a Baudelaire for our time:
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King of a Rainy Country | The Point Magazine
Everyone agrees that modern poetry in Franceâand therefore in Europeâstarts with Charles Baudelaire. But no agrees on why. His successors, Arthur Rimbaud and StĂŠphane MallarmĂŠ, [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/king-of-a-rainy-country/
13 days ago
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New on Forms of Life, Noah Swank on the political trap of AI-generated MAGA art:
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AI Art and Kitsch | The Point Magazine
Prodigies and abominations stalk cyberspace: images of Trump as a professional wrestler; of Trump as Rambo; of alligators wearing ICE hats; of prominent men in ill-fitting suits and prominent women in...
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/ai-art-and-kitsch/
14 days ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Jay Owens
16 days ago
Lillian Fishman on the Fitzcarraldo classesâ fear of porn. Really very good. âItâs a commonplace that all the best things in life arrive at the edge of hurt, as a result of risk.â (Love, for one.) âWhy do we think sex is the exception?â
thepointmag.com/criticism/th...
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The Front Page | The Point Magazine
Basically, because Iâm so interested in whatâs popular, this essay has to be about what normal porn actually is, rather than about the goings-on of some esoteric and richly suggestive kink community a...
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/the-front-page/
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New online,
@saffron.bsky.social
on what it means to measure intelligence, in large language models and in us:
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Complex Systems | The Point Magazine
From the air, the desert outside Santa Fe was a craggy mass all the way to the horizon. The only non-craggy thing for hundreds of [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/complex-systems/
25 days ago
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New on our Substack, an
@interintellect.bsky.social
conversation between Jennifer Frey and Anastasia Berg on whether the fight for liberal education can be anything but a losing battle:
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Can the Humanities Be Saved?
A conversation with Jennifer Frey and Anastasia Berg
https://thepointmag.substack.com/p/can-the-humanities-be-saved
26 days ago
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The Point Magazine
Brice Cummings
26 days ago
â'Higher' education shouldnât be higher just in its cost or in yearsâlike itâs your thirteenth or fourteenth year of school. No, we should be thinking in terms of your highest aspirations as a human person." - Jennifer Frey over at
@thepointmag.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/thepoint...
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Can the Humanities Be Saved?
A conversation with Jennifer Frey and Anastasia Berg
https://open.substack.com/pub/thepointmag/p/can-the-humanities-be-saved?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=49cjs
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New on Forms of Life, a dispatch from the first Charlie Kirk memorial in Latin America:
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Turning Point Peru | The Point Magazine
Last weekâa couple of days after public transport unions in Lima announced their eighth strike of the year, and a few days before Peru churned [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/turning-point-peru/
28 days ago
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From the archive, Peter Marshall on this yearâs recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, LĂĄszlĂł Krasznahorkai, and his artistic evolution from apocalyptic tragicomedy to calm reconciliation:
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Beyond Grasping | The Point Magazine
Critics have called Krasznahorkai an apocalyptic writer, but over time the unsettling tragicomedy of his vision has calmed into a sort of reconciliation.
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/beyond-grasping/
about 1 month ago
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New on Forms of Life, Jennie Lightweis-Goff on Charlie Kirk, William Buckley, and what happens when campus culture wars hit Southern universities:
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God and Man in Orem | The Point Magazine
I grew up a townie near Clemson University, so when campus hits the headlines, I react rather like a San Francisco native to the sight [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/god-and-man-in-orem/
about 1 month ago
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On todayâs episode of Selected Novels, Zach Fine and Jess Swoboda talk to Eliza Barry Callahan about Fleur Jaeggyâs âSweet Days of Disciplineâ:
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Selected Novels | Eliza Barry Callahan on Fleur Jaeggy
Listen now | On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to Eliza Barry Callahan about Fleur Jaeggyâs Sweet Days of Discipline.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thepointmag/p/selected-novels-eliza-barry-callahan?r=4va6f0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
about 1 month ago
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New on Forms of Life, Clement Gelly on Bolsonaroâs conviction, Trumpâs authoritarianism, and what itâs like to keep up with U.S. news through a Brazilian lens:
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Reality Check | The Point Magazine
âIt seemed like an off-season Carnaval,â the newscaster narrates for Brazilâs UOL News, over scenes of a street party with dancing, trumpets and drums. âBut [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/reality-check/
about 2 months ago
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New online,
@perioikos.bsky.social
on Greg Grandinâs âAmerica, AmĂŠricaâ and the difference between a moral and a moralizing history:
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The Moral Hemisphere | The Point Magazine
A strange fact about the United States of America is that its name is not very specific.
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/the-moral-hemisphere/
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Adrienne Celt
about 2 months ago
On absorption vs theatricality - an interesting read
thepointmag.com/criticism/a-...
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A Different Annihilation | The Point Magazine
The first novel I read by Michel Houellebecq was Elementary Particles, probably in 1999. I read it in German translation, toward the end of a year [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/a-different-annihilation/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01K5V854YDG4JXPAZC8SV8N7MN&_kx=otSCB8aGaKFCzKmEBN_UwIfcsRGt8M1u0LGLg-1uRmN6BscPybaSEHVFXyxrcJ_b.U5D8ER
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Dan Silver
about 2 months ago
Psyched and grateful that
@thepointmag.bsky.social
published my essay on reading Houellebecq through the lens of theatricality and absorption from Michael Fried. Check it out there
thepointmag.com/criticism/a-...
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A Different Annihilation | The Point Magazine
The first novel I read by Michel Houellebecq was Elementary Particles, probably in 1999. I read it in German translation, toward the end of a year [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/a-different-annihilation/
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How does Houellebecq achieve his remarkable thriller/anti-thriller effect in his most recent novel, âAnnihilationâ? The art historian Michael Friedâs writing on absorption and theatricality holds the key, Daniel Silver writes:
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A Different Annihilation | The Point Magazine
The first novel I read by Michel Houellebecq was Elementary Particles, probably in 1999. I read it in German translation, toward the end of a year [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/a-different-annihilation/
about 2 months ago
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New on Forms of Life, Oliver Eagan on Charlie Kirk and what it will take to respond to âpost-politicalâ acts of violence:
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Live Leak | The Point Magazine
Ten days ago, my roommate flagged me down and showed me a portrait-mode video of somebody assassinating the conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. Kirk was only [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/live-leak/
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
John Paul Stadler
about 2 months ago
In other news, this critical essay on "Zone of Interest" by
@garthgreenwell.bsky.social
is both beautiful and provocative. Doing some lesson prep for my screening of ZoI next week and happened upon it.
thepointmag.com/criticism/th...
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The Zone of Interest | The Point Magazine
If somehow you were to wander into a screening of Jonathan Glazerâs The Zone of Interest (2023) without knowing what you were getting into, it might take about ten minutes to figure things out.
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/the-zone-of-interest/
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New on Forms of Life, Becky Zhang on her late-breaking summer fling: New Yorkâs public swimming pools.
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Among the Hamilton Fish | The Point Magazine
Two summers ago, two colleagues and I tried to spend our lunch break in what weâd noticed was a miniature wading pool about ten minutes [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/among-the-hamilton-fish/
about 2 months ago
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New on our Substack, two interviews with Graham Liddell and Yousri Alghoul about Liddellâs translation of Alghoulâs issue 35 story âA Letter to Vania,â how their collaboration came out, and why writing is an act of madness:
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The Act of a Madman
Two conversations with Yousri Alghoul and Graham Liddell
https://thepointmag.substack.com/p/the-act-of-a-madman
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
LeĂłn Castellanos-Jankiewicz
2 months ago
From vicarious wars to remote wars -- to democratizing war? Great essay by David Bromwich via
@thepointmag.bsky.social
:
thepointmag.com/politics/the...
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The War Habit | The Point Magazine
On any given day for the past quarter of a century, the United States was probably dropping bombs on a country somewhere.
https://thepointmag.com/politics/the-war-habit/
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New on Forms of Life, Maria Gomberg on why exhaustively AI-proofed syllabi wonât solve the problem of AI use in college classes:
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Edu Ex Machina | The Point Magazine
This spring, I took a class on the history of AI. I chose it not so much for its subject matter but for one of [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/edu-ex-machina/
2 months ago
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Midwestern readers, take note: weâll be at our local book fair, Chicagoâs Printers Row Lit Fest, all weekend, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Find us at the Small Press Tent (Booth GG)! Details here:
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Printers Row Lit Fest
The 40th Annual Printers Row Lit Fest, the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest, returns to Printers Row on September 6-7, 2025.
https://printersrowlitfest.org
2 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Catherine Lacey
2 months ago
If you like extremely overlooked works of mid century literature and podcasts oh boy have I got a link for youâ
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Alan Lester
2 months ago
Thought I'd share this on David Brion Davis, the historian of slavery and abolition, whose life's work was shaped by his experience as a US military policeman in occupied post-war Germany. Seems pertinent in many ways right now.
thepointmag.com/examined-lif...
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On todayâs new episode of Selected Novels, Zach Fine and Jess Swoboda talk to
@catherinelacey.bsky.social
about Evan S. Connellâs âMrs. Bridgeââat once a comic satire and a tender, sympathetic treatment of the mid-century American housewife, written in a style all its own.
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Selected Novels | Catherine Lacey on Evan S. Connell - The Point Podcast
On this episode of Selected Novels, Jess and Zach talk to Catherine Lacey about Evan S. Connellâs Mrs. Bridge.Want more from The Point? Subscribe here at 50% off the normal rate.
https://thepointmag.buzzsprout.com/1791285/episodes/17775300-selected-novels-catherine-lacey-on-evan-s-connell
2 months ago
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Two weeks from now weâre throwing an issue 35 release party in New York! Details + RSVP here:
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Issue 35 Release Party | The Point Magazine
Join us on September 17th in New York City to celebrate the release of our special new issue on violence! Come hang out, have a [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/events/issue-35-release-party/
2 months ago
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New on Forms of Life, Joey Keegin on the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort and what New Orleans has to show for it, twenty years later:
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A Streetcar Named Disaster | The Point Magazine
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish near the mouth of the Mississippi and proceeded to devastate the landscape: upwards of [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/a-streetcar-named-disaster/
2 months ago
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New online, Steve Larkin on the agony and the ecstasy of college football:
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Begin the World Over Again | The Point Magazine
I was once told that I was in an abusive relationship with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. It is true that they have [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/begin-the-world-over-again/
2 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
S. Kramer
3 months ago
Mary Gaitskill is one of the few writers who effectively interrogates the nature of evil and the uglier sides of our internal lives.
thepointmag.com/examined-lif...
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Demonic Force | The Point Magazine
While âeveryoneâ may understand the pragmatic or raw emotive reasons for violence, Iâm not sure anyone understands sadistic violence sans motive, especially when acted out on helpless victims or in th...
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/demonic-force/
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Lex Joy
3 months ago
Unusual applications/sources of philosophy make for great reading. Case in point:
add a skeleton here at some point
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New online, an online supplement to our âWhat is violence for?â symposium: Gordon Marino on boxing and the good life.
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Mano a Mano | The Point Magazine
Aristotle, a student of a wrestler named Plato, taught that eudaimonia, usually translated as âhappinessâ or âthe good life,â requires both intellectual and moral virtues. [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/mano-a-mano/
3 months ago
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New on our Substack: a conversation with our issue 35 cover photographer, and some behind-the-scenes info about how we find our covers.
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Violence and Beauty
How we find our covers, plus a conversation with the issue 35 cover photographer
https://thepointmag.substack.com/p/violence-and-beauty
3 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Henry Grabar
3 months ago
Becca Rothfeld on DCâs crime stats vs. âambient social disorderâ: âframing an allergy to empiricism as proof of spiritual profundityâ
thepointmag.com/forms-of-lif...
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Safe and Beautiful | The Point Magazine
Itâs 8 a.m. in Washington, D.C., the crime-ridden cesspool where the Trump-administration staffer known as âBig Ballsâ was recently beaten by a group of teenagers, and itâs shaping up to be a brightly...
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/safe-and-beautiful/
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Longreads
3 months ago
Our Top 5: ⢠Mapping the scars (
@slate.com
) ⢠A parent, twice met (
@newyorker.com
) ⢠Paradise in peril (
@thedialmag.bsky.social
) ⢠Hallucinating war
@thepointmag.bsky.social
) ⢠Wriggly business (
@thelocal.to
)
longreads.com/2025/08/15/t...
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
Recommending excellent stories by Tony Ho Tran, Rachel Aviv, Ariel Saramandi, Theo Lipsky, and Inori Roy.
https://longreads.com/2025/08/15/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-575/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social
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New on Forms of Life, Becca Rothfeld on facts, feelings, and the National Guardâs restoration of the peace in Washington, D.C.:
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Safe and Beautiful | The Point Magazine
Not that it matters, but my âlived experienceââand Iâve yet to meet anyone whoâs ever had any other kindâremains obstinately uneventful. Itâs 8 a.m. in [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/safe-and-beautiful/
3 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Plough Quarterly
3 months ago
âBecause Christian pacifism is eschatological, it doesnât offer a universal ethic. Rather, itâs a way of life for those who desire to belong to the story that begins in Eden and culminates with the peaceable kingdom.â âPeter Mommsen,
@thepointmag.bsky.social
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Militants for Peace | The Point Magazine
Christian pacifism irritates because it demands what the biblical scholar Richard Hays calls âthe conversion of the imaginationââthe overturning of certain assumptions that modernity lives by.
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/militants-for-peace/
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Mark Eli Kalderon
3 months ago
On âan alignment with a force of destruction that briefly exalts those who become its conduitâ
thepointmag.com/examined-lif...
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Demonic Force | The Point Magazine
While âeveryoneâ may understand the pragmatic or raw emotive reasons for violence, Iâm not sure anyone understands sadistic violence sans motive, especially when acted out on helpless victims or in th...
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/demonic-force/
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Dori Moody
3 months ago
"Both my grandfathers would have infuriated George Orwell." Thank you to
#PeterMommsen
for explaining why violence is not our default mode in
@thepointmag.bsky.social
thepointmag.com/examined-lif...
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Militants for Peace | The Point Magazine
Christian pacifism irritates because it demands what the biblical scholar Richard Hays calls âthe conversion of the imaginationââthe overturning of certain assumptions that modernity lives by.
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/militants-for-peace/
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Phil Klay
3 months ago
Great piece on Kierkegaard, the military, and âthe peace anxiety that possesses young soldiers as they stand astride the gap between the garrison and wider society.â
@thepointmag.bsky.social
thepointmag.com/examined-lif...
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Fear and Trembling in the Garrison | The Point Magazine
Tonight, across this country and on bases far afield, young American soldiers will take shifts guarding explosives.
https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/fear-and-trembling-in-the-garrison/
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Ken
3 months ago
âThe line everyone knows is that he tried to kill the president because he wanted to impress Jodie Foster. That phrase is repeated in all the stories about him, those exact words: impress Jodie Foster.â
thepointmag.com/politics/ame...
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American Idols | The Point Magazine
On the 30th of March, 1981, John Hinckley brought us into the world we all live in today. He did it by firing a .22 [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/politics/american-idols/
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Issue 35âdevoted entirely to the question âWhat is violence for?ââis now online! Read it all here:
thepointmag.com/issue/issue-35/
3 months ago
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reposted by
The Point Magazine
Alana Pockros
3 months ago
I wrote about Sorry, Baby, Materialists, and our current climate of sexual politics for
@thepointmag.bsky.social
!
thepointmag.com/forms-of-lif...
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In on the Joke | The Point Magazine
This past winter, the morning after arriving back in New York from Sundance Film Festival, I sat on my couch, eyes bleary and dry from [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/in-on-the-joke/
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New on Forms of Life,
@apockros.bsky.social
on what âSorry, Babyâ understands about our current climate of sexual politics that âMaterialistsâ doesnât:
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In on the Joke | The Point Magazine
This past winter, the morning after arriving back in New York from Sundance Film Festival, I sat on my couch, eyes bleary and dry from [âŚ]
https://thepointmag.com/forms-of-life/in-on-the-joke/
3 months ago
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This month on our podcast, Jess Swoboda and Zach Fine return to Selected Essays to talk to
@ellenws.bsky.social
about Siddhartha Mukherjeeâs essay âMy Fatherâs Body, at Rest and in Motionâ:
thepointmag.buzzsprout.com/1791285/epis...
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Selected Essays | Ellen Wayland-Smith on Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Point Podcast
On this episode of the podcast, Jess and Zach return to Selected Essays to talk to Ellen Wayland-Smith about Siddhartha Mukherjeeâs âMy Fatherâs Body, at Rest and in Motion,â published in the New...
https://thepointmag.buzzsprout.com/1791285/episodes/17625344-selected-essays-ellen-wayland-smith-on-siddhartha-mukherjee
3 months ago
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New online, James Duesterberg talks to Quinn Slobodian about his new book, âHayekâs Bastards,â and the politics of neoliberalism beyond economics:
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Beyond Markets | The Point Magazine
A conversation with Quinn Slobodian
https://thepointmag.com/dialogue/beyond-markets/
3 months ago
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Issue 35âwhich is dedicated entirely to the question of violenceâis coming soon. Check out the annotated table of contents for an extended preview:
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Issue 35 | The Point Magazine
The annotated table of contents below offers a sneak peek at whatâs in issue 35.
https://thepointmag.com/general/issue-35/
3 months ago
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