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Humbert v. Price: Child Sexual Abuse Across Gender Lines, or Wolves in Sheeps’ Clothing
A variant cover of Alissa Nutting’s Tampa (Amazon). Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 classic Lolita is perhaps one of the most controversial works...
Victoria Xia
Mar 17

Don’t Wear It Out: What’s in a Name?
Art illustration by Zariah Taylor depicting the many mispronunciations of her name Hello! How are you? My name is… A classic way to meet...
Akua Appiah-Kusi
Mar 17

Throwing Gas on the Fire: How Trump, Putin, and Others 'Firehouse' You
President Trump speaking at 2018 Helsinki Summit with President Puti (Smialowski /Getty) In about a month, AP projections will transition...
Catherine Harris
Jan 3

The Bad & The Ugly: Writing About Violence in the American West
‘Man with No Name’ from Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Two figures stand at the forefront of the Western novel: the...
Paige Racine
Jan 3

Paradise Lost: The Fall of Man and the Limit of Liberalism
The Fall of Adam and Eve, the biblical first parents of mankind Among the great forces which have dethroned tyrants, few stand so...
Christian Burke
Jan 3

Online Reading and Brainrot: An Analysis of Text Comprehensibility in the Digital
Representational Image of Brain Rot (Dhakatribune) “Books do furnish a room.” A quote from Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One’s Own ....
Ariyana Brittingham
Jan 3

In Defense of Divergent
A scene from Divergent (2014 ) where Tris breaks the rules to look at herself in the mirror Divergent (2011) by Veronica Roth plays...
Akua Appiah-Kusi
Jan 3

How far can we butcher Hamlet? – An examination of the public domain's effect on new works.
A photo-edited portrait of William Shakespeare (University of Indianapolis) Are people actually creative anymore? Are we all just...
Eitan Amster
Jan 3

Does Diversity Sell?: Yellowface and Authenticity in the Publishing Industry
A cropped image from the cover of Yellowface by R. F. Kuang “And f—k it, I’ll just say it: taking Athena’s manuscript felt like...
Matthew Gu
Jan 3

Silent Voices: The Rise of Banned Books in an Era of Censorship
Metaphor of stacked books chained to resemble the term “banned books” Books offer readers the opportunity to explore and better...
Eden Malone
Jan 3

“It’s Not That Deep,” Except It Is: The Inherently Political Nature of Literature
A graphic indicating the danger of anti-intellectualism online To many Americans, reading is a simple fact of life. We read road signs,...
Sarah Rupprecht
Jan 3

How a Word Fits in a Mouth: The Wholeness of “Broken” English
A Chinese-English sign in Beijing, China (Wikimedia Commons). The author clarifies their use of “standard English” as “the most...
Victoria Xia
Oct 30, 2024

Her Hair is BLONDE: The Parasocial Relationship A Reader Can Have With Their Fictional Friend
Leah Sava Jeffries’ portrayal of Annabeth Chase in Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians Reading is imagination at play. Readers...
Akua Appiah-Kusi
Oct 30, 2024

The Idiot of American Politics
Image : The Idiot cover Fyodor Dosteyevsky didn’t define idiot the way that we do. An idiot isn’t someone without common sense. It’s...
Megan Mulligan
Oct 1, 2024

The Canterbury Tales: Lessons From Medieval England’s Greatest Poem
Geoffrey Chaucer, c. 1342 - 1400 If the name of Geoffrey Chaucer is not well known among today’s young readers, it deserves to be. His...
Christian Burke
Oct 1, 2024

Through Dorian's Eyes: A Look Into Social Attraction and the Privileges that Come With It
Art Inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have...
Ariyana Brittingham
May 31, 2024

Five Paragraphs to Win: The Formulaic Failure of Literacy Education
A handy five-paragraph diagram from the University of Waterloo’s Writing and Communication Centre Introduction. Body paragraph 1. Body...
Matthew Gu
May 31, 2024

The Exploitation of African Men During the World Wars
Cartoon image of Tirailleurs Sénégalais during World War I In 2021, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black was awarded the...
Naomi Nicholas
May 1, 2024

“Girl Math” and White Feminism - The Colleen Hoover Effect
Colleen Hoover bookshelf Girl math is when buying iced coffee doesn’t affect my bank account. This handful of crackers and soda is my...
Megan Mulligan
May 1, 2024

The Napoleon of Notting Hill: The Little Guy’s Fight for Home and Hearth
A painting depicting the “Common Man” When we study history, we often hear of great wars between rival cities: Athens against Sparta,...
Christian Burke
Feb 27, 2024
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