The Monthly Digest: January 2021

As we say goodbye and good riddance to 2020, we honor LARB’s annual tradition: our own version of the People’s Choice Awards. Below are the 15 most popular articles to have appeared on our site in the past twelve months. Faced with the year’s countless setbacks, the staff and our brilliant contributors worked harder than ever to bring you a wide variety of penetrating and engaging reviews, essays, and interviews. We thank you, dear readers, for sticking with us, and we promise to keep shining bright in the year to come! — LARB Editorial

Shondaland’s Regency: On “Bridgerton”
Patricia A. Matthew examines the multicultural Regency era of Shonda Rhimes's new Netflix series Bridgerton.
Patricia A. MatthewDec 26, 2020
- Television
The Great Unread: On William Deresiewicz’s “The Death of the Artist”
Robert Diab on William Deresiewicz’s new book, “The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech.”
Robert DiabOct 13, 2020
For Camus, It Was Always Personal
On the inspirational lyricism of Camus’s essays.
Robert ZaretskySep 20, 2020
- Around the World
- Memoir & Essay
Nobody Cares: The Trap of Empathizing with the Religious Right
Peter Capretto considers "The End of Empathy" by John W. Compton.
Peter CaprettoSep 12, 2020
Absent Center: Netflix's "Dark" and Time Travel as White Privilege
Namrata Verghese asks why everybody on Netflix's mind-bending time travel series Dark is white and why whiteness structures even its alternate worlds.
Namrata VergheseSep 7, 2020
- Television
Like Proper Sexual: On Too Hot to Handle
Philippa Snow binges the reckless hearts and alarmist boomerisms of Netflix's reality dating sensation Too Hot To Handle.
Philippa SnowAug 7, 2020
- Television
On Afropessimism
Jesse McCarthy considers the writing of Frank B. Wilderson III.
Jesse McCarthyJul 20, 2020
- Philosophy & Religion
Why Gregory Bateson Matters
Ted Gioia reconsiders Gregory Bateson, whose counterculture classic, “Steps to an Ecology of Mind,” is eerily relevant again in our current crisis.
Ted GioiaJul 4, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- Nonfiction
In Praise of Solitude
Irina Dumitrescu studies "The Art of Solitude," the recently published book by Stephen Batchelor.
Irina DumitrescuJun 28, 2020
- Religion
A Different Civil War in the Southwest
A riveting new book shows how the Civil War in the West was both strategically important and lacking in the moral contours of the broader war.
Sam KleinerJun 10, 2020
- History
- Politics
Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism?
Jodi Dean considers what comes after capitalism.
Jodi DeanMay 12, 2020
- Economics and Finance
- Politics
Leo Tolstoy’s Children’s Stories Will Devastate Your Children and Make You Want to Die
On the bleak tales of Leo Tolstoy's "The Lion and the Puppy: And Other Stories for Children."
John Byron KuhnerApr 26, 2020
- Around the World
- Young Adult & Children’s Literature
The Quarantine Files: Thinkers in Self-Isolation
Brad Evans curates a series of reflections by leading thinkers on the pandemic and its consequences.
Adrian Parr, Brad Evans, Brian Massumi, Camille Dungy, Chantal Meza, Cynthia Enloe, David Theo Goldberg, Eugene Thacker, Eyal Weizman, George Yancy, Henry A. Giroux, Jack Halberstam, Jake Chapman, Julian Reid, Kehinde Andrews, Lauren Berlant, McKenzie Wark, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Roberto Esposito, Russell Brand, Saidiya Hartman, Simon Critchley, Simona Forti, Todd May, Wendy BrownApr 14, 2020
Always Narrating: The Making and Unmaking of Umberto Eco
Costica Bradatan looks back at, and behind, the life and thought of Umberto Eco, who waged a long war against “dietrologia” (“behindology”).
Costica BradatanMar 9, 2020
The Logic of the Rebel: On Simone Weil and Albert Camus
Robert Zaretsky considers Albert Camus’s posthumous friendship with Simone Weil.
Robert ZaretskyMar 7, 2020
My Taco Laughs at You: On Death Threats Aimed at Women of Color Who Don’t Fellate White Supremacy
When telling the truth is dangerous. Threats to women of color online and in real life.
Myriam GurbaJan 23, 2020
- Nonfiction