Making Stones Stony: On Jordan Abel’s “Empty Spaces”

Reading Time: 1 Min. Empty Spaces by Jordan Abel ABOUT 100 YEARS AGO, the Russian formalist critic Viktor Shklovsky argued that the purpose of art is “to make a stone stony.” He meant something like this: we are easily desensitized to everyday things like the little pebbles that litter our paths. We don’t truly see […]

A Poet’s Reckoning with What Poetry Can Do

A Poet’s Reckoning with What Poetry Can Do

Reading Time: 1 Min. The poet Diane Seuss and I began a recent conversation by talking about the burdens of companionship—or, at least, how those burdens are manifested through affection for a pet. Seuss lost her dog Bear during the pandemic. When we spoke, by phone, she was at home in Michigan preparing her new […]

An Action Rom-Com? Yes, Hit Man is a Surefire Delight

An Action Rom-Com? Yes, Hit Man is a Surefire Delight

Reading Time: 1 Min. Hit Man, the new film from director Richard Linklater, isn’t really about a hit man. It’s about the myth of the hit man, or at least “the hitman-for-hire.” Yes, occasionally, mafias and shady corporations and dictatorships do seem to have assassins to sic on their enemies. But the idea that any […]

Professors Try ‘Restrained AI’ Approach to Help Teach Writing

Professors Try ‘Restrained AI’ Approach to Help Teach Writing

Reading Time: 1 Min. Phonlamai Photo / Shutterstock When ChatGPT emerged a year and half ago, many professors immediately worried that their students would use it as a substitute for doing their own written assignments — that they’d click a button on a chatbot instead of doing the thinking involved in responding to an essay […]

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