2011
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Maybe the key to finding the next big thing is teen brain scans. Pastoral poetry, space travel, the industrial military complex, all rendered in a soft folk-psych style. Here is your food porn for the day. Hey dudes, let’s all…
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Julia Kristeva’s Face
In the winter of 1989 I had finished my first semester of graduate studies in English at Penn State University and received, in my campus mailbox, the comments from my professors for the “Introduction to Graduate Studies” class.
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Rushdie Writes for TV
Salman Rushdie is applying his story-telling skills to a new medium, signing up to do a sci-fi-ish television series, affirming his belief that TV maximizes communication because of its wide appeal. His new work will be called “The Next People.”
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Brian Spears on Jezebel
Big thanks to Jezebel for re-running our very own Brian Spears’ post, “A Note to My Fellow White Males Regarding a Gay Girl In Damascus.” We always appreciate the appreciation!
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What’s in a (pseudo)Name
Carmela Ciuraru finds a great many reasons for writing under a pseudonym– taking under analysis a reasonable desire to separate a personal from a public persona, living out a fantasy ego-and taking note that fewer authors choose to use them.…
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The Importance of Voting
“Valid objections all, but I’m urging you to please clap on your nasal clothespin and get ready to vote anyway, starting now. Now—before the real craziness begins, while you still have some time to inform yourself to the hilt and…
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Happy Birthday to the Marbled Page
I’ve never read Tristram Shandy, but I think I’m going to find a copy now just so I can get a sense of what this story is about. The Atlantic has images and a brief history of how and why…
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Ted Wilson Reviews the World #90
THE PRESIDENCY ★★★★★ (3 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing the Presidency.
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A New Old DFW Interview
This 2006 interview with David Foster Wallace has been published for the first time in English. The conversation was part of a larger collection of pieces that highlighted foreign authors, movie directors and artists who were not well known in…
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The Last Poem I Loved: “Hardware Store in a Town Without Men” by Laura Kasischke
It feels strange to claim that “Hardware Store on a Town Without Men” is the last poem I loved, since I have loved it for some time now. A fairer term would be to call it The Last Poem I…
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Murakami on Nuclear Power
Novelist Haruki Murakami critiqued Japan’s reliance on nuclear energy in his International Catalunya prize acceptance speech. He explained the government’s use of nuclear power as a nearsighted decision, solely based on convenience and efficiency. “’We must not be afraid to…