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" Hollywood versions of watershed moments in American history are generally high-minded shlock. 'JFK,' 'The People vs. Larry Flynt,' even 'Lincoln': all of these boast excellent performances in scripts that are ultimately very conventional, even conservative. "

Michelle Dean

People

History

Even

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" Donald Trump is a man who likes to think he has few equals. "

" Self-publishing has been a dubious challenge to traditional publishers, at best. "

" I read almost no romantic fiction, in part because I barely believe in romance in the age of Tinder. "

" Would we even recognize an Oliver Stone production if it didn't kick up the usual fuss? "

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" There are, of course, fat characters in books out there, some of them quite enduring and famous. But they tend to be creatures of young-adult or commercial fiction. "

" The podcast revolution has taught us that women's voices aren't just pleasurable to listen to, they are essential. "

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" The plot of 'Stranger Things' is so simple that even a brief description risks spoiling it. "

" I've come, even as a feminist, to dread the phrase 'female friendship,' because it tends to signal overdetermined relationships. "

" The phenomenon of Instagram poets - who are also, to be fair, Tumblr poets and Pinterest poets - has been one of the more surprising side-effects of the selfie age. "

" Peak TV has resulted in beautiful shows that have nothing in particular to tell us about humanity. "

" Writing a novel about feminism can be a thankless task. "

" When Paul Beatty's 'The Sellout' was first published in America in 2015, it was a small release. It got a rave review in the daily 'New York Times' and one in the weekly 'New York Times Book Review,' too, for good measure. But by and large, it was not a conversation-generating book. "

" Most people do not pay attention to the publisher's imprint on a given book. "

" After living in the United States for over 10 years, here is what I have learned about the Fourth of July: it is more of a barbecuing holiday than anything else. "

" 'Millennials' has become a kind of modern swearword, a slur directed at people in their early 20s. "

" It's become a cliche to say that a piece of drama is about 'the nature of truth.' But 'Rectify' so openly plays with the slippery nature of memory that the label directly applies. "

" People spend their entire lives trying to construct something to grab onto: a family, a home, a business. Rarely does anyone seem to manage to get much ground under their feet. "

" Hillbilly stereotypes have always made it easier for middle-class whites to presume that racism is the exclusive province of 'that kind' of person. "

" We do learn a thing or two from art. It may not be the one-to-one instruction of a moral lesson or the rote learning of a grammatical rule or mathematical concept. But the habits of mind art cultivates are important. "

" Among journalists, there is a saying: 'If it bleeds, it leads.' This can result in some serious hustling - and some serious sloppiness - whenever a crime occurs. The public's longing to see and hear salacious details is, basically, endless. "

" I don't care about the bare fact that anyone liked or didn't like a book or movie; they can only interest me in that bare fact by writing an intelligent review. "

" Bad criticism recites rote arguments. The shame of rote arguments isn't just that they're cliches, though they are, but that they tend to hide from us why a critic is actually thinking what they're thinking. "

" Mass market paperback thrillers are a dime a dozen. The trick is to find something that actually sticks to the ribs. "

" Summer is always a tricky time to recommend new literary fiction. The big releases do not hit until fall. "

" There are many things to like about 'Mr. Robot,' the most ephemeral and yet memorable of them being the opening credits. "

" A good novelist pays attention to his characters. A good biographer pays attention to the documents before her. A good critic pays close attention to the thing she's brought to evaluate. "

Michelle Dean

Critic

Attention

" There is an unfortunate side effect of being a person of few words: Sometimes people will assume you are less intelligent than you are. "

" I have deliberately arranged my life so that I see pictures of cute animals on the Internet every day. "