In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more... See more

what will happen to the “the writers, the thinkers, and the pundits,” as Ta-Nehisi Coates put it, “who cannot separate the great crime of Kirk’s death from the malignancy of his public life?” Will they retreat further away from anything resembling criticism? And then who will pin this moment to the spider’s web? Who will marshal the context and... See more