Originally written for a book review contest, here's my take on a revisionist Watergate history that offers wild and fascinating theories on the reasons for the break-in that changed American history.| Jim Nelson
Last night, I saw a live performance of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” at the San Francisco Symphony. One of the people I went with had never seen the original television cartoon—yes, it’s true. Afterwards, she asked a simple question: “Why did Charlie Brown pick such a bad tree for Christmas?” As we walked, we talked […]| Jim Nelson
Will Blythe at Esquire asks, “In the golden age of magazines, short stories reigned supreme. Has the digital revolution killed their cultural relevance?” Wearily, I started his essay expecting more of the same, and lo, finding it: Computers and the Internet, he contends, has done much to destroy literary fiction. By this point, I’m surprised […]| Jim Nelson
Kat Rosenfield at Unherd claims she knows why men are no longer wild: “Our sense of adventure died with Chris McCandless.” I last wrote about the mythology around Chris McCandless and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild in 2015. Rosenfield’s article motivated me to survey the situation once more. I won’t summarize here Krakauer’s book or […]| Jim Nelson