Browse
Essays
The Glamour of the Therapeutic Narrative
Beauty can be a myth. But the same can be said of overcoming beauty.
Essays
The Use and Abuse of Visual Persuasion
Martin Gurri discusses our culture's pro-word bias, and how imagemaking is tearing it down.
Essays
The Deadly Quest for Grace
Glamour demands perfection, but sometimes the world just doesn't deliver.
Essays
Political Victory Punctures Illusions
Virginia Postrel warns: Joining a political movement may be glamorous, but political victory has a way of puncturing one's illusions.
Essays
Glamour and Sprezzatura
Grant McCracken brings in another kind of visual persuasion - sprezzatura, the art of concealing all art.
Essays
Unseemly Luxuries
Autumn Whitefield-Madrano discusses politicians' paradoxical - and pricey - quest to look unpolished. But also perfect.
Essays
Glamour and the Vision of Legitimate Power
Martin Gurri suggests that the world's elites have lately lost control over the visual. Anyone can publish images today, and it's changing the world.
Essays
Smile, You Are on CNN!
Autumn Whitefield-Madrano looks at what people want in their representatives. Turns out it's... themselves.
Essays
Luxury, Glamour, and Power
Grant McCracken discusses luxury, glamour, and how the two of them relate to political power.
Essays
No Fireworks on the Fourth of July?
Virginia Postrel discusses the power of visual persuasion in politics, its peril and also its promise.