Authority: Essays on Being Right

(Hardback)

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A bold, provocative collection of essays by a Pulitzer winner on one of the most urgent questions of our time- what is authority when everyone has an opinion on everything 'A galaxy-brain-level thinker' Torrey Peters 'One of the most charismatic and original thinkers at work today' Brandon Taylor 'Thrilling... Authority reminds us we haven't yet felt all there is to feel' Kaveh Akbar 'A pure joy to read' Claire Dederer Since her canonical 2017 essay 'On Liking Women', the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Andrea Long Chu has established herself as one of the most provocative, funny, brilliant and stylish critics at work today. With devastating wit and polemical clarity, she defies the imperative to leave politics out of art, instead modeling how the left might brave the culture wars without throwing in with the cynics and doomsayers. Authority brings together Chu's critical work across a wide range of media-novels, television, theater, video games-as well as an acclaimed tetralogy of literary essays first published in n+1. As a critic, Chu places The Phantom of the Opera within a centuries-old conflict between music and drama; questions the enduring habit of reading Octavia Butler's science fiction as a parable of slavery; teases out the ideology behind Hillary Clinton's (fictional) sex life; and charges fellow critics like Maggie Nelson and Zadie Smith with a complacent humanism. The unifying theme of the book is authority and taste in literature, art, culture and politics- how do we decide what's good, and how do we convince others that our judgement is correct

Reviews

Andrea Long Chu is one of the most charismatic and original thinkers at work today. These essays made me want to call a friend and get into an argumentabout literature, about culture, about life. With style and bracing humour, she has located the exact pulse of our moment and taken its measure. A writer and critic to be reckoned with. * Brandon Taylor, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Real Life *
In an era of ethical infantilization, shitty cynicisms, and limpid rhetorical hygienics, Chu names exactly, irreducibly, what she sees and feels and believes... Like all truly great works of criticism, Authority makes remaining alive feel not just possible but worthwhile. It reminds us we havent yet felt all there is to feel. * Kaveh Akbar, author of the New York Times bestseller Martyr! *
Reading Andrea Long Chu is always an exhortation to dismantle some authority--outer, inner, or usually both. The writing is triggering, exhilarating, and illuminating. She demands we think counterintuitively, radically, and exactingly, with paradoxical precision and irreverent urgency. This collection coalesces around the dialectic of freedom and authorityand shows us that challenging this binary is vital to us as thinkers, readers and citizens. * Lexi Freiman, author of The Book of Ayn *
One of the most exciting critics working today. * New York Magazine *
[Females] is always smart, sometimes sincere, and unpredictable about when it will pinch your arm or clutch its nails around your heart. * VICE on Females *
Among our most original thinkers on gender. * The Week *
Zadie Smith once said that what is admirable about Didion isn't the style, but 'the authority. The authority of tone.' I feel the same about Andrea Long Chu. So much authority, precision and originality - what a motivational, and joyful read, from start to finish. * Lou Stoppard *
A critic for right now--and for the ages. Authority is, all at once, a dizzyingly smart challenge, a call to action, and a pure joy to read. * Claire Dederer, author of Monsters *
Provocative, beautiful and addictive I couldn't stop reading. -- Angela Saini, author of The Patriarchs

Author Bio

Andrea Long Chu is a Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist and critic at New York magazine. Her book Females was published by Verso in 2019 and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Nonfiction. Her writing has also appeared in n+1, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Artforum, Bookforum, Boston Review and Jewish Currents.