The Point Magazine

The last thing we should want to do with accounts of mystical or transcendent or contemplative experiences is send them to the taxidermist and mount them for inspection. The post The Stretch of a Soul appeared first on The Point Magazine.

This interview with Carlo Ginzburg, which we are publishing here for the first time, was conducted a decade ago at the University of Chicago. The post Searching for the Unexpected appeared first on The Point Magazine.

The first Frederick Wiseman film I saw, and the one that remains my favorite so far (Wiseman made a lot of films, and I have yet to see more than a fraction of them), was his seventh: Juvenile Court. The post Wiseman’s Children appeared first on The Point Magazine.

In Taxi (2015), Jafar Panahi stages a brief but haunting moment that, in retrospect, feels like the seed of his most recent film, It Was Just an Accident(2025). The post Panahi’s Laboratory appeared first on The Point Magazine.

Harold Bloom wrote and edited so many books that it’s hard to imagine how he found the time between them to write letters. The post The Critic’s Loves appeared first on The Point Magazine.

In 2023, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen released a document called “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.” The post Superhuman Fantasies appeared first on The Point Magazine.

I’ve passed enough “As Seen on TikTok” tables at otherwise cozily untrendy bookstores that I can no longer picture a solvent mass publishing industry without this app. The post Common Readers appeared first on The Point Magazine.

“The duty of every revolutionary is to make the revolution.” Every New Leftist in the late 1960s was familiar with that axiom, attributed to Fidel Castro, and most took it to heart. The post The Way the Wind Blows appeared first on The Point Magazine.

An irritating thing about reviewing books translated from languages you think you know is getting past the title. The post In the Reckless Hour appeared first on The Point Magazine.

In the late 1990s, I read a short story by Nirmal Verma called “Terminal.” The post The Work Without Markers appeared first on The Point Magazine.

In these diaristic works, Picasso exhibits an unflinching willingness to stare down his dark side and put it on display. The post The Mind of a Minotaur appeared first on The Point Magazine.

The rise of racial slavery in the New World was one of the most significant developments in modern history, shaping the economy, society, politics and culture of at least four continents over the course of centuries. How and why did it happen? The post Ideas of Slavery appeared first on The Point Magazine.

When I set out to become a novelist in Turkey in the early 2000s, Leylâ Erbil had yet to publish what is perhaps her most accomplished work, What Remains. The post A History of Erasures appeared first on The Point Magazine.

“It is always a significant question to ask about any philosopher: what is he afraid of?” wrote Iris Murdoch in her slim work of moral philosophy, The Sovereignty of Good. The post Moral Mysteries appeared first on The Point Magazine.

The starkest, most disquieting scene from the film was printed on postcards and handed out at the door. The post Where Does Politics Take Place? appeared first on The Point Magazine.

“Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien,” wrote Voltaire, usually translated to “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” and more often rendered in the […] The post The Enemy of the Good appeared first on The Point Magazine.

Like the rest of the country, those of us at Voice of America had expected some kind of shake-up when Trump took office in 2025, but not one so chaotic and so total in scope. The post Soft Power in Hard Times appeared first on The Point Magazine.

There are understandable reasons why liberal and leftist intellectuals are cautious about discussing the good life. The post On the Liberal Imagination appeared first on The Point Magazine.

Another fed worker tells me he spends his days pacing the marble corridors of his office like an absolute madman. The Lana del Rey lyric “I don’t wanna do this anymore” plays on loops in his head in Lana’s exact fey, languid voice. The post Right and Left appeared first on The Point Magazine.

Yes, your fantasies aren’t real, but you’re not stupid to have had them. The post The Art of Nostalgia appeared first on The Point Magazine.