Breaking Out of the Walled Garden of Literature

Like Oyler, DeWitt is prosecuting a more-or-less righteous grudge. (The depressing history of her battles to publish has been recounted many times over, including by DeWitt herself, who says the industry is “committed to the disempowerment of the author at every single stage.”) She also has no false modesty about her intelligence. Readers acquainted with her three previous books may have felt acutely—and desired to remedy—their ignorance of linguistics, probability, corporate HR protocols, film, various dead and living languages, the R programming language, information design, contemporary art, or poker.