Shakespeare’s Greatest Play? 5 Experts Share Their Opinions
William Shakespeare's 450th birthday is upon us, and at The Millions we wanted to celebrate it in 21st century American style, by debating which of his 38 plays is the best.
●
●
●
Viral Video: The Most Famous 15-Year-Old Basketball Player in America
But Woods’s weight as prep basketball’s premier Internet phenomenon -- and how dominant he looks in his highlights -- might give a false impression of his chances at future success. It's entirely possible Woods is at the height of his fame right now. I went to the Hammond School to see what that kind of uniquely modern sports celebrity felt like in person.
●
●
●
A Year in Reading: Kevin Hartnett
A friend told me he still considers it the finest fictional depiction of marriage he’s ever read. I agree.
●
●
●
Southern Myths and Yankee Murder in the Strangely Wonderful World of Pickett’s Charge
McNair is inventive, original, and has a particular talent for finding language that is surprising without being showy. But his real skill is his deep familiarity with the South as a place, it’s creatures, customs, and yearnings.
●
●
●
The Greatest American Novel? 9 Experts Share Their Opinions
When you set out to debate “the great American novel,” the stakes are high. We asked nine English scholars to choose one novel as the greatest our country has ever produced.
●
●
●
Judging Luhrmann’s Gatsby: Five English Scholars Weigh In
You might think that the people who know Fitzgerald's novel best would have the most disapproving view of the movie. To test that hypothesis, we asked five English professors who specialize in American literature to take in an early showing and share their thoughts. And to our surprise, they liked it.
●
●
●
Letters in the Wind: A Writer’s Evolution
I realized that my writing at age 28 was a lot like my golf game as a teenager: a single gust of wind and it went to Hell.
●
●
●
Dickens’s Best Novel? Six Experts Share Their Opinions
What was Charles Dickens’s best novel? It depends whom you ask of course. Searching for clarity, I decided to pose the question to a handful of leading Victorianists. I sent out emails to select scholars asking them if they’d be interested in choosing a novel and making their case. Just about everyone I reached out to was game.
●
●
●
A Night at The Moth: The Worst Thing that Ever Happened to Me
Why it is that people gravitate to the most tragic or dramatic moments of their lives when given a chance to tell a story? There are, I think, two reasons.
●
●
●
Tolstoy or Dostoevsky? 8 Experts on Who’s Greater
All mediocre novelists are alike; every great novelist is great in his own way.
●
●
●
High Wire Act: Why I Started Writing By Hand
I had several reasons for wanting to write by hand. Writing on the computer feels like going to war with myself. In fact, just thinking about a blank Word document makes me sweat.
●
●
●
The Moral Value of Surprise: Lessons from Literature for a Fracturing Country
So what does it mean for the country that our cultural common denominator is shrinking? And why, in the midst of these trends is there general agreement on an issue as potentially flammable as contraception?
●
●
●
Family Lies? The Value of the Single Story
I went off to college trailed by the single story that I was a jerk. At the time that story felt inaccurate and hegemonic. Sure, when I was six I’d peed on my sister, and over the years I’d committed various small-time atrocities against my younger brother. But I’d changed, and no one had seemed to notice!
●
●
●
Reading The Brothers Karamazov: Even a Toddler Knows a Funny Name When He Hears One
My son has a long way to go until he’s reading The Brothers Karamazov, but hopefully not so long that he forgets about Stinking Lizaveta before he gets there. I hope I’ll be near at hand, or only a phone call away, when he discovers that the funny name we used to whisper to each other is actually a very sad character in a great novel, and that the line between life and art is arbitrary, if it exists at all.
●
●
●
Where Parents Get Their Power: Evidence from The Brothers Karamazov
It occurred to me that the Grand Inquisitor’s interpretation of the Temptation of Christ effectively describes the power I hold over my two sons.
●
●
●
A Year in Reading: Kevin Hartnett
Following on months of transition and many sleepless newborn nights, Murakami’s rare, strange story gave me back my human shape.
●
●
●
Reading 1Q84: The Case for Fiction in a Busy Life
I stopped questioning the purpose of fiction and instead began to see reading 1Q84 as one of the few necessary things I did all day. The reasons for the change of heart had to do with wonder, with love, and with the way literature provides for the best parts of who we are.
●
●
●
The Story in the Storm: An Accomplished Author on How to Write Journalistic Nonfiction
If the narrative isn’t unfolding the way you want it, you can’t just change the details to make it better, the way you would when writing fiction. You have to represent the truth.
●
●
●