Noah Berlatsky

Some love stories don't end happily. So why do so many romance novels insist they do?

David Ress' Aphexswift is genius precisely because it's so unlikely.

The rom-com's worshipping of power and wealth comes with a gender twist.

Feminist dystopia at its finest. Joanna Russ imagines a world in which the elimination of gender hierarchy leads to freedom, strength, and power.

Conservative fetishization of the past is myopic, simplistic, and mean-spirited—but progressives can be too quick to cede tradition.

Art without politics actually results in a sweeping Puritanism. For art to have power, it needs to engage with power, with politics.

The history of pop music, and of black pop music in particular, has always been gay history.

Talking about race can get you into a lot of trouble . . . especially if you don't have a lot of class power or status.

Critics say call-out culture is mean-spirited and bullying. Not so fast.

To read Massive isn't to discover a hidden truth, but to see a massive, obvious fact, bulging out for all the world to see.