Satire isn't dead. We're just bad at recognizing it. That's Erin Van Der Meer's argument in a piece that questions why contemporary satire lands so poorly in our current moment. The problem isn't the satirists. It's us, unable or unwilling to parse irony when reality has already outpaced our ability to distinguish between the absurd and the actual.
Lauren Groff takes a different kind of risk in a new essay. She examines the radical proposition of doing nothing, framing inaction as a form of resistance in a culture obsessed with productivity and constant self-optimization. The piece opens with a line that carries weight: "I would never deny a witch her will." For Groff, witches serve as metaphors for reclaiming agency through refusal.
Both pieces grapple with the same underlying tension. How do we perform meaning when the ground keeps shifting beneath us? How do we claim power when everything from satire to stillness gets co-opted or misunderstood? These aren't abstract literary questions anymore. They're the working conditions for anyone trying to say something that matters.