Readings

The Scars To Prove It

In the mid 2000s, new programs made it seem like Canada might finally reckon with the toxic legacy of residential schools. Less than 10 years later, they're going broke and forgotten. Sounds familiar.

Change Your Mind, Change Yourself: An Interview with the Dardennes

The sibling filmmakers on letting a story grow organically, the challenges of representing depression on screen, and finding variances in a repetitive structure.

The Language of the Elite, the Language of the Many

How the dominance of English affects the ways other cultures see each other.

You, Too, Can Be Blessed with an Uneventful Life

In Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, everything happens so much. What about those books where nothing happens, and it's fine?

The Blank Screen Will Not Save You

The desire to refresh, recharge, and reinvent ourselves is natural, even healthy—but resolutions tied to objects and tools tend to disappoint us.

The Bright Side of Individualism

In an increasingly fragmented world, the debate around "Je Suis Charlie" reminds us there are reasons to avoid collectivity.

Impatiently Waiting for the Horror of Death

How do you argue with someone who won't stop reminding you that they're going to die?

'That's a Fairly Silly Question': An Interview with Mike Leigh

The acclaimed (and playfully salty) filmmaker on the evolution of style, shooting in digital, and the limits and joys of making period pieces.

A Dead Boy

The choice he had: between a life of boredom in a displaced persons camp or joining the armed struggle. A dispatch from among the Kachin Independence Army of northern Burma.

No Names, Many Histories

Anthropologist Gabriella Coleman wanted to write the definitive story of Anonymous. Her new book explains why that was an impossible goal.