“A 643-page book does not fit with previous entries in the franchise.” — Dear Mr. Franzen, Thank you for your recent submission, titled The Berenstain Bears Learn About Late Capitalist Cultural Malaise. I regret to inform you that, at this time, we will be unable to include it in this season’s line-up. …

One of the most delightful things I’ve seen on social media during this decidedly non-delightful week was a meme composed of four simple present-tense sentences: “Jerry is annoyed his girlfriend only washes her hands the length of the Kit Kat jingle. George accuses a co-worker with allergies of having ‘corona…

The problem with absolutist or inflexible arguments isn’t always that they’re absolutist or inflexible. Often, the problem is simply that they’re uninteresting. Last spring, a student in my first-year writing class showed me the opening paragraphs of her argument essay on the death penalty. This is a topic, along with…