Cristina Nehring on What’s Wrong With the American Essay

As a lit­er­ary form, the essay is like a plas­tic cow – a trans­par­ent cow – with organs and bones that do not seem to fit together but in the end lead to a sat­is­fy­ing whole, well, cow. Not really says Cristina Nehring on Whats Wrong With the Amer­i­can Essay: “If we must com­pare the essay to a beast, let us com­pare it rather to a wild­cat. Let us give it back its tooth and nail, its fangs and claws; let us allow it to take risks, to pre­tend it has nine lives. Let us enfran­chise it to dis­turb us. It is not Orleans incar­cer­ated cow we need today, but Rilkes pan­ther break­ing the bars of his cage.”