by Mike Gray

He was never going to stop talking. The act of intercourse had been a mere caesura in the truly erotic business of listening to himself speak. — From The Believers

Sometimes the severest criticism of left-wing ideology and mores comes from the left-wingers themselves, writes Brendan Bernhard on Pajamas Media:

Since liberal novelists tend to move in liberal circles, they hear nothing but liberal conversation and often end up critiquing the milieus they inhabit, which are 90% liberal. Unless they write science fiction or historical novels, what else do they have to write about? And those milieus, like all others everywhere, are chock-full of evasion, hypocrisy, status envy, and obfuscation: catnip to a novelist. Do we really expect all of them to resist taking a bite?

Bernhard wonders why conservatives haven’t discovered these goldmines of self-doubt and even, if the truth be told, intermittent self-loathing:

There was, of course, nowhere better in the world to be than New York City. This fact was the foundation of her family’s satisfaction with itself, the platform from which all else could be ridiculed, the collateral of adult sophistication that bought them the right to behave like children. — From Freedom