Vol. IV — Notes in the Margin

Reading is an argument
with the page.

Close readings, essays on craft, and annotations on the books that won't leave you alone. Updated most Sundays.

Essay

March 14, 2021

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A good close reading doesn't explain the text away — it makes the text stranger, not smaller.

— From "On Method," the journal's founding essay

Why this journal exists Most literary writing online either summarizes or performs cleverness. This is a third thing: criticism that stays with a single passage long enough to actually see it.