He pulls a piece of paper from his jacket. It’s folded down the middle with crisp exactness; Mitch has always been an attentive person. He begins to read in a low whisper, his voice shaky but rehearsed. His letter includes words like unhappiness and change and finding our true selves. It does not i…

I’m sorry you’ve been falling into it. Nihilism is one of these words that has seeped into our everyday language, but people forget that Nietzsche’s nihilism diagnosis was a claim about the loss of transcendent values. It’s related to what we were just talking about. One of the ways Nietzsche defin…

“My guests!” said the host, now standing once more. There was another empty chair to his right. Who had been there? A man with a mustache or a woman with a braid. Someone with a gleaming emerald ring. I drank more wine. “You are far too polite!” the host said. “We have hundreds and hundreds of song…