Johannes Brahms has long been misunderstood as uncivilized. He wasn't rude. He was witty — quick, cutting, and funny

Upon publication of The Last Samurai, a suicidal Helen DeWitt disappeared. She was, she says, “alienated by intellectual mediocrity”

“The word ‘audiophile’? has a wine-sipping pretension that I hate,” says Colin Vanderburg. “But sometimes an ugly shoe fits”

The Egyptians, the Hittites, the Assyrians — what caused the collapse of a slew of regional powers around 1200 BC? 

Perverseness drove Edgar Allan Poe to ruin, or the brink of it, again and again. It was also the source of his inspiration

AI doomers and apocalyptic futurists are weird. Also, their prophecies risk pernicious downsides. That doesn't mean they're wrong