In the nineties, video-game developers were fixed on the idea of interactive storytelling—a cul-de-sac that led to rich, inventive adventure games.

It’s a thriving subgenre of memoir, but it offers only fleeting hints of the true purpose for building a body: to create a suit of armor behind which one might conceal a real self.

Once I became a historian, I began to regret my teenage obsession with fantasy novels.

We’re away until January 3, but we’re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2016. Enjoy your holiday!Chasing Amy and the toxic “nerd masculinity” of the nineties.    Kevin Smith’s romantic comedy Chasing Amy, now almost two decades old, …

Three new books try to untangle the Gordian knot of white-trash identity.Scan the headlines and you’ll find that everyone’s talking about how the white trash have made their presence felt. The white trash support Trump; the white trash are losi…

Chasing Amy and the toxic “nerd masculinity” of the nineties. Kevin Smith’s romantic comedy Chasing Amy, now almost two decades old, was a big deal for my generation of nerds. Back in 1997, all of our dorky interests, from comic books to video game…