PositiveThe Guardian (UK)He addresses the reader and skates between subjects. He might consider astrology, Michael Jackson, Blade Runner 2049 and the musician Sun Ra in pursuit of a single thought, as if in late-night, errant conversation with a friend. This is not to say the essays lack discipline. Every subject is carefully chosen in the service of a broader critical project ... This is an affirmative project...but also a melancholic one ... The melancholy may at times be prohibitive. Abdurraqib believes in transformative politics, in \'reimagining ways to build a country on something other than violence and power\' but chooses not to develop this vision ... Paying attention to culture also sharpens one’s sensitivity to the social shape of the world; it allows Abdurraqib to clarify the many \'miracles\' that have been performed by artists who shone in a universe not made to their measure.
Malcolm Harris
PositiveThe Financial TimesIn Kids These Days, the journalist and critic Malcolm Harris restores a good deal of precision to the business of defining the millennial and generational discourse in general ...folds into the central analytic claim: what makes the millennial situation distinctive is that it has produced workers who are too well-trained for their own good ... Through this lens we get a sweeping sketch of the bleak, anxiety-ridden lives of young Americans ... Harris is at his most forceful when arguing that society conspires to make life worse for young people ...Harris gives the impression, correctly, that he doesn’t see young people as essentially good or as the new agents of historical change ... To this end, Kids These Days disavows a prescriptive conclusion. Harris is sceptical about traditional forms of political strategy, even questioning the usefulness of protest.
