At Harvard, a Clash Between Democracy and Monarchy

At Harvard, a Clash Between Democracy and Monarchy

Curtis Yarvin, the computer engineer turned neo-monarchist blogger, seems to be everywhere these days. His argument that American democracy has exhausted itself and needs to be replaced by a form of one-man rule has made him a star on the right, reportedly catching the ear of powerful figures like Marc …

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Curtis Sittenfeld Goes Home Again

Curtis Sittenfeld Goes Home Again

There really was a woman who photocopied her butt at a workplace in the 1980s. Curtis Sittenfeld, 49, heard about the incident when she was a girl and filed it away. Four decades later, the Great Butt Xeroxing makes an appearance in her new short story collection, “Show Don’t Tell.” …

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Jerry Butler, Singer Known as the Iceman, Dies at 85

Jerry Butler, Singer Known as the Iceman, Dies at 85

Jerry Butler, the graceful singer and songwriter who served as the first leader of the Impressions before launching a long, hit-heavy solo career, died on Thursday at his home in Chicago. He was 85. His death was confirmed by his assistant, who said that Mr. Butler had Parkinson’s disease. Mr. …

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Predicting the Oscar Nominations in a Wild and Wide-Open Season

Predicting the Oscar Nominations in a Wild and Wide-Open Season

Sometimes, when I poll Oscar voters about the films and performances they plan to nominate, they turn the tables on me. “What do you want to happen?” they ask. Maybe they’re expecting me to advocate for an underseen movie or steer them toward a performance that hasn’t gotten its flowers. …

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‘The Interview’: Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy is Done

‘The Interview’: Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy is Done

For a long time, Curtis Yarvin, a 51-year-old computer engineer, has written online about political theory in relative obscurity. His ideas were pretty extreme: that institutions at the heart of American intellectual life, like the mainstream media and academia, have been overrun by progressive groupthink and need to be dissolved. …

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