Ben Tarnoff

2 weeks ago | laphamsquarterly.org | Billy Collins |Simon Winchester |Astra Taylor |Ben Tarnoff

For any teacher of poetry with the slightest interest in reducing the often high-pitched level of student anxiety, one step would be to substitute for the nagging and ultimately pointless question, “What does this poem mean?” the more manageable question “Where does this poem go?” Tracking the ways a poem moves from beginning to end puts the emphasis on the poem’s tendency to travel imaginatively and thus to carry the reader in the vehicle of its language.

Nov 28, 2024 | nybooks.com | Ben Tarnoff

Donald Trump has spent nearly a decade discombobulating people who are paid to think about politics. His appeal has been consistently underestimated. It has also been, just as consistently, overcomplicated. The substance of his style is simple: a gleeful hostility toward the institutions that have traditionally organized American life. He positions himself not merely as an outsider but as a destroyer: someone who delights in the demolition of norms and normalcy.

Nov 9, 2024 | almendron.com | Ben Tarnoff |Bill McKibben |Garry Wills |Linda Greenhouse

Ben TarnoffDonald Trump has spent nearly a decade discombobulating people who are paid to think about politics. His appeal has been consistently underestimated. It has also been, just as consistently, overcomplicated. The substance of his style is simple: a gleeful hostility toward the institutions that have traditionally organized American life. He positions himself not merely as an outsider but as a destroyer: someone who delights in the demolition of norms and normalcy.

Oct 5, 2024 | newyorker.com | Ben Tarnoff

I belong to the last generation of Americans who grew up without the Internet in our pocket. We went online, but also, miraculously, we went offline. The clunky things we called computers didn’t come with us. There were disadvantages, to be sure. We got lost a lot. We were frequently bored. Factual disputes could not be resolved by consulting Wikipedia on our phones; people remained wrong for hours, even days. But our lives also had a certain specificity.

Aug 29, 2024 | nybooks.com | Ben Tarnoff

Silicon Valley, strictly speaking, does not exist. Its geographic boundaries are fluid and contested; even the places considered central to it are oddly placeless. Driving through Menlo Park and Mountain View, you could be forgiven for thinking you were nowhere at all. What defines the Valley is something you can’t see: the velocity of the capital coursing through it. The region is home to more than $14 trillion worth of publicly traded companies, four of which are the largest on earth.