The Baffler #81

Always sharp, slightly tongue-in-cheek, The Baffler is a major voice in compelling and unexpected left-wing political criticism, cultural analysis, short stories, poems, and art.

In this issue: After Words

Issue 81 of the Baffler takes on the divinity and decay of literacy, and asks what's actually different about today's information overload and wether we've been post literate for far longer than we'd like to believe. 

• Holy Literacy
• The Hatred of Podcasting
• Literacy and Suicide Rates
• American Gothics
• We Used to Read things in this Country
• Brain without Borders
• The World's Memory of the Word
• Pamphlets Will Not Save Us
• & Much More

New York, U.S.A.; 170 x 245mm; 136 pages; November 2025