Claire Lehmann
Architecture as Revenge—Charlotte Allen
Charlotte Allen’s critical review of The Brutalist is one of my favourite essays of the year, deftly describing Brutalist architecture as a “visual punishment, deliberately inflicted on its viewers for their sins.” She grants Brady Corbet’s film its due as a visual achievement, beautifully shot in resurrected VistaVision, while showing how its central character is deeply unlikeable and its portrait of mid-century America crude and ungenerous. Allen’s essay is itself a model of sharp, historically informed cultural criticism.
The Ingratitude of the Well-Fed—Maarten Boudry
Maarten Boudry is an atheist who has written an essay that gets at the spiritual problem of our times: the ingratitude we have for modern civilisation. He examines the spoiled attitudes of those who attack capitalism and liberalism without grasping the progress these systems have delivered, and shows how material abundance breeds forgetfulness rather than appreciation. The essay is a clear-eyed defence of modernity, and a reminder to reflect on civilisation’s hard won achievements.
