76895 Followers
1079 Following
Writer, husband, etc. Books: Pictures at a Revolution (2008), Five Came Back (2014), Mike Nichols: A Life (2021), Untitled gay cultural history (2026). Journalism: New York, NYTimes Style Mag, etc. A long time ago: EW, Grantland, younger.
Those aren’t reviews. Those are opinions, and they have their place and uses, but they do not substitute for deeply informed and engaging critical writing, which is a skill that takes time, practice, and experience to develop.
Life changes. Organisms/organizations need to adapt. I'm sure people go to crowdsourced info for reviews, like Goodreads, just like Yelp and others for restaurant reviews.
And with all due respect to those who find it useful, TikTok is not a replacement for what is being lost.
They run in a lot of papers that can't afford to staff book reviewers or hire their own freelancers.
The devaluation of skill, experience, and expertise is a crisis across cultural journalism right now--it's being felt profoundly in theater. It's great that anyone can post a review, but that does not, even in the smallest way, replace what's being thrown away.
It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.
"Jesus, I followed Mark Cuban?! When did that happen?" --me, looking at my feed today
I think I explained it all in subsequent comments/replies, but since it's still getting shared, I want to add that looking at this post again, I regret my phrasing. What I meant, and should have said, was "I don't think these actors see themselves as transphobes."
I don't think these actors are transphobes, but I am reminded of an interview I did with a well-loved performer in which I asked him how he could work with a certain indefensible person (not JKR) and he appeared to think very hard and then said, "It's a really big part." deadline.com/2025/08/harr...
Pottermore Publishing and Audible are unveiling the star-studded cast lineup for Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions.
Thinking of all the writers who suffered real financial hardship during the WGA strike and yet did not do this. variety.com/2025/tv/news...
The WGA has expelled Park Chan-wood and Don McKellar, the creators of 'The Sympathizer,' for writing during the 2023 strike.
Probably James Ellroy. (I’m omitting dead people—too easy.)
Here’s a question: who is the artist with politics you disagree strongly with, whose politics do (in your view) influence their art, that you still think is talented and whose work you enjoy?
I don't even know where to start, but whoever told this walking eye bag that it was a good move to tell somebody 35 years younger that he looks tired clearly hates him.
