Wish List

If you could ask Louis Menand to write about any topic, what would it be? Would you ask him to profile someone famous? Would you ask him to critique a book or film? Or would you ask him to write about a certain period in history?

We'd love to hear from you, and we'll post interesting topics to our Wish List.
Please email topic ideas to essentialmenand@gmail.com.

Wish List as of 8-21-07

• Jane Austen, to restore her real ironic genius and remove her from the hands of the Merchant/Ivory-Book Club crowd
• The relationship between philosophical ideas and aesthetic theory over time.
• Ian McEwan's upcoming novel On Chesil Beach and previous work
• The legacy of Larry Summers
• A profile on David Foster Wallace
• The "Lost Generation" of literary Americans living in Paris between the wars
• Immigration's effects on American intellectual culture from Civil War to WWII
• Film Noir
• Ayn Rand and her lasting influence
• Paul Auster's Travels in the Scriptorium and previous work
• Daniel Mendelsohn, his career and criticism
• Terry Eagleton, his criticism and views on literary theory