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Will AI Destroy Literary Creativity?
Overtime

Will AI Destroy Literary Creativity?

Plus: Trump's empire of fraud.

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Jim Swift
Sep 27, 2023
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Recently in The Bulwark:

  • CHARLIE SYKES: Trump's Golden Tower of Fraud

  • JVL: What Will Republicans Say About Menendez at the Debate? 🔐

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CORBIN BARTHOLD: AI and the Nature of Literary Creativity.

(The Bulwark / Midjourney)

IN 1968, ROLAND BARTHES pronounced “the death of the author.” David Foster Wallace distilled the French literary theorist’s rather screwy point a quarter-century later: “It is really critical readers who decide and thus determine what a piece of writing means.” Perhaps the “author” (the “entity whose intentions are taken to be responsible for a text’s meaning”) was “dead” in some postmodern sense; but the “writer” (the “person whose choices and actions account for a text’s features”) remained very much alive. Whatever “the death of the author” might mean, “one thing which it cannot mean,” Wallace assured us, quoting the novelist William Gass, “is that no one did it.”

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🚨OVERTIME🚨

It’s debate night! Are you tuning in? Fox slashing ad prices suggests that not many people are. I already have a conflict, and it’s not Tito Francona’s last home game in Cleveland as manager. (Though I’ll be watching that, too.) If you’re watching, you’ll see a great ad from our friends at Republicans for Ukraine.

Tomorrow’s TNB will be JVL, Mona, A.B., and Will. They’ll talk about the debate, Trump, Biden and the UAW, and the latest on the Menendez debacle. (Half of Senate Dems have called on him to resign. Good! Republicans? Well, it’s #awkward.)

A culling is coming… Whose days are numbered as a GOP candidate?

What happens on the hill… When the government shuts down?

In local news… D.C. homicides reach 200 at the earliest point since 1997.

… and back in Cleveland… A high school football game has become national news for its playcalling.

Four time MAGA Congressional loser charged… For constantly misusing campaign money.

GOP Debate Stage Down To Just 1 Candidate… Who Wouldn't Back A Convicted Trump. (What is the point of the rest, then?)

Biden agrees with Mitch… As House Republican insistently push closer to a shutdown.

The Fetterman Dress Code Nightmare… Is over.

Can Democrats deliver for labor? Max Burns argues yes.

An Instant Classic…. Bob Menendez getting into a car after pleading not guilty.

Rewound… Do you have an old watch that might have a second life but don’t want to throw it away? Timex will give you a pre-paid slip to send them any model of watch. If it can be saved, they’ll save it. Otherwise, they’ll recycle the parts.

“It isn’t hopeless…” We can fix our debt and deficit problems, write Rob Portman and Kent Conrad. (Perhaps the new Simpson and Bowles?)

“I’m not an expert on the timeline…” Announces the Ways & Means Chair as his committee voted to release Biden documents meant to justify an impeachment inquiry. Not serious.

Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.

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