Ian Marcus Corbin

I have just finished reading Lionel Trilling’s 1940  Partisan Review essay “Elements That Are Wanted.” More than sixty years after its publication, it remains a galvanizing read, though perhaps now in a different way. For a thorough account of the piece, and its important . . . . Continue Reading »

As usual, the nineteenth century saw this coming. Tocqueville and Nietzsche, among many others, long ago predicted that an advanced democratic culture would entail a flattening of the spiritual landscape, discouraging the development of truly outstanding individuals who are willing and able to . . . . Continue Reading »

Yale senior Aliza Shvarts has gone too far¯or maybe she hasn’t. According to a press release that Shvarts sent to the Yale Daily News on Wednesday, April 16, over a recent nine-month period, the senior art major artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” and then . . . . Continue Reading »