Author Description

<i>The Point</i> is a twice-yearly journal of essays on contemporary life and culture, based in Chicago. A mix of criticism, memoir, and reviews, <i>The Point</i> goes beyond intellectual tourism by challenging its readers to recognize the impact of ideas on their everyday life. Early issues have considered whether it is possible to live an honorable social life on Facebook, what Thorstein Veblen would say about Goldman Sachs, how Stendhal might help us with dating, and why today’s conservatives ought to read Marx. Each issue also contains a symposium consisting of several shorter pieces relating to a topic chosen by the editors—for instance, film, conservatism, or contemporary music.<br> <br> Issue 7 of <i>The Point</i> will include a critical consideration of Christopher Lasch and the role of the social critic today; a consideration of the state of photojournalism in the age of Photoshop; a memoir about the ethics of writing about the dead; a critique on the narcissism of David Shields and his admirers; and the conclusion to Jonny Thakkar's "Socialism we can Believe in," which jumps off from the death of Margaret Thatcher.<br> <br> The symposium asks the question: What is Marriage for? In addition to contributions on both sides of the gay marriage issue (including the moral case made from within the LGBT community against gay marriage), responses deal with marriage as a microcosm of utopian politics, marriage as a way of dealing with aging and death, and marriage as an escape from purely economic models of action and calculation. Reviews of the Coca Cola museum, the HBO series <i>Enlightened</i>, and the phenomenon of political outrage on the Left round out the final section. The Letter from the Editors will be on Security.