2011
-
Aporup Acharya: The Last Book I Loved, Ka
In India, and for Hindus, the myths are how we explained the world and everything in it. And from those first musings about the true nature of things came countless epics, sub-epics, stories, fables, philosophies and prescriptions that have teemed…
-
10/40/70 #36: I Shot Andy Warhol
This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible. This week, I examine I Shot Andy Warhol, directed by Mary Harron (1996):
-
Radiolab Portrait
The New York Times Magazine takes a look at the producers behind “Radiolab,” humanities majors’ favorite science researchers and sonic pioneers. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich’s show has gotten increasingly popular since it first started in 2005 and is only…
-
The Last Book I Loved: Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Deborah Eisenberg’s Collected Stories just won this year’s PEN/Faulkner Award, and last year she received a MacArthur. If you’ve been following the buzz but haven’t yet discovered the pleasures of her work, now is the time. Start with Transactions in…
-
Rambling Toward Understanding
Editor’s Note: This is not a typical review, but I think it captures the challenge of reviewing, and it delves deeply into the book it is examining.
-
Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
There is maybe a vague theme today. As global temperatures rise, this may be a good time to think about the future of Antarctica. Let’s all check out this flapper’s dictionary. Letters of Note brings you the very moment President…
-
National Poetry Month Day 13: “A Litany of Wants” by Neil de la Flor
A Litany of Wants I want to erase my name from this poem so I can write what I want to write. I want the two badass Brazilian guys in line to line up like erect oil slicks and pull…
-
Boredom as Religious Experience: David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King
Reviewing The Pale King is a difficult process, for a number of reasons. The most obvious of which include that it is a last novel (though we wish it weren’t) whose author isn’t alive to see its publication (though we…
-
Timothy Donnelly
“…(at least in most cases) the writing of a poem is initiated by the articulation of a relatively vague idea or impulse, and the implications that emanate from that articulation in tandem with its sonic properties will guide the next…
-
America’s Most Challenged Books
The American Library Association’s 2010 List of Most Challenged Books has been officially released. This year’s scandalous subject matter includes penguin adoption, vampire love and topics in Aldous Huxley’s classic novel, Brave New World.
-
Erin Rose’s Tech Links
A bunch of sites are buzzing about a (rumored) method that can unlock an iPhone without jailbreaking it. The era of sales tax-free Internet shopping may be coming to an end. Freelance writers just filed a class-action suit against AOL…
-
The Kensal Rise
Zadie Smith has lost her battle to save the Kensal Rise, “a library in northwest London that Mark Twain founded in 1900” where Smith “studied […] as a teenager.” (via @AdamWeinstein)