The iconic comic strip may seem simple, but its central metaphor has proven impossible to replicate.
Essays & Criticism
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How Wednesday Addams Birthed a Generation of Cynics
Emily Alford | Longreads | November 23, 2022 | 8 minutes (2,132 words) Midway through 1991’s The Addams Family, young Wednesday Addams attempts to supplement her family’s lost fortunes by selling poison lemonade for a nickel. Not everyone’s a willing customer. “I only like all-natural foods and beverages, organically grown with no preservatives,” a perky […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Passion Plan
“Despite any collateral damage, Nintendo and their peers will keep squeezing maximum profit from the biggest, most proselytized audiences they can assemble for however long they can. In practice, this is what ‘convergence culture’ looks like. Playing games that cite other games that can be frictionlessly purchased on devices you can take everywhere, and then […]
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From One Friendship, Lessons on Life, Death, AIDS and Childlessness
In this personal essay, S. Kirk Walsh reflects on her friendship with a gay man battling AIDS — how he taught her to grieve her own infertility, and live life more fully.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Diary of a Do-Gooder
In this personal essay, after years of trying to distinguish herself, Sara Eckel considers the value of door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking, and other anonymous tasks of everyday activism.
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I Used to Insist I Didn’t Get Angry. Not Anymore.
An essay examining women’s long-standing conditioning away from owning and expressing anger, instead often sublimating their rage in sadness, which has historically been more acceptable.
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Changing My Mind About Pig’s Feet and Cornrows
In this personal essay, Dara Lurie reflects on what she discovered about her own racism while living for ten months at a state-run home for disadvantaged children.
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What Are You?
A personal essay in which Valerie Vande Panne writes about learning why she never quite passed as white growing up, despite allegedly being the product of two caucasian parents. She recalls being questioned all her life about her racial and cultural identity; finally learning through a DNA test that her father wasn’t who she thought […]
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You Are What You Hear
A personal essay in which Pauline Campos writes about trying to forget the harsh words she heard about her body as a child, and to avoid passing along her body shame to her young daughter.
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How Coming Out Made Me Whole: High Maintenance’s Katja Blichfeld Tells Her Story
In this as-told-to personal essay, High Maintenance Katja Blichfeld speaks about the vital importance — and difficulty, particularly after being raised evangelical — of coming out as gay this past year, and ending her marriage to her collaborator.