Max Lerner

Can woke keep winning?

With the holidays approaching, I find myself bracing for accusations of being the ‘woke’ sibling — the one who has been influenced, if not wholly indoctrinated, by the radical ways of his liberal arts college. In all honesty, this may not be far from the truth. But rather than being radicalized by some higher-education agenda, I’ve merely found myself among peers having conversations that reflect political awareness, intelligence and urgency. This bloc embodies a hunger for institutional change and a willingness to actually take action that, I would argue, form the bedrock of our ‘American experiment.’

Tufts comedians react to Jimmy Kimmel’s cancellation and reinstatement

When ABC took Jimmy Kimmel off the air on Sept. 17, many of us were simply experiencing it as concerned Americans. However, there are people around the country — including many at Tufts — who experienced it through a much more specific lens: that of the comedian.

Jane Fonda heads celebrity-organized Committee for the First Amendment

On Oct. 1, Jane Fonda helped relaunch the Committee for the First Amendment, standing alongside many members of the entertainment industry in an open letter condemning the federal government for being “engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.”

Crossword: Autumn Vibes

Stop publishing authors’ works posthumously

On April 22, Knopf Publishing Company released “Notes to John,” a posthumous collection of journal entries Joan Didion wrote after sessions with her psychiatrist.The 224-page work marks the first release of new content by the writer since her 2011 memoir, “Blue Nights.”

Looking for Love?

Bowen’s Gate, a local landmark of love, looms large over Packard Avenue. Legend has it that if you kiss someone under the arch, you’ll marry them. Think of how many hearts have been forever joined right where you rush through to class. These days, instead of stepping under Bowen’s Gate, you’d have better luck stepping into the world of dating apps. Since their founding in the early 2010s, dating apps like Hinge and Tinder have swept the scene, seeming to replace any other way to meet partners. For some, the deluge of profiles leads to lasting matches; for many others, it begets fatigue, disillusionment and, ultimately, deletion. Tinder’s signature flame stamps many of our phones, but is the app only leaving us worn out?

It gets better: Making the most of your college experience

It’s nowhere near revolutionary to say that moving to college is a major adjustment. We are thrown into an entirely new world. For the first time in most of our lives, it is completely up to us to decide how we spend our time, who we surround ourselves with and what we make of ourselves. To put it simply: It’s a lot, especially in tandem with difficult classes and our uncertain futures ahead.  

Crossword: Fresh Produce

Eat the men: The politics of feminine violence and rage in fiction

“I stabbed at his heart and struck the sweet spot between his ribs.” So reads a line from the opening chapter of Chelsea G. Summers’s “A Certain Hunger,” where food critic Dorothy Daniels recounts a life that has lately revolved around seducing, killing and eating men. Though gruesome, this novel is a quintessential work in the genre of femgore — a subgenre of body-horror fiction typically written by and about young women with female protagonists carrying out brutal, vicious crimes against the men in their lives. In recent years, its popularity has significantly increased — a trend irrevocably tied to the absolute battlefield of modern gender politics.

Say goodbye, good riddance to uniform art movements

Last semester, I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — now my favorite art museum — for the first time. Built by Gardner and her husband to display their vast art collection in a dignified and evocative manner, the museum is a masterclass in artistic harmony. Walking through the Gothic Room, I was struck by how seamlessly the different forms and aesthetics connected, creating a strong sense of continuity. Stepping out of the museum and back into the modern world, I couldn’t help but wonder if there were any such uniform art movements in the modern era.