Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
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A Summons To The Alps
There are lots of reasons why you might have heard of John Berger, the novelist, art critic, intellectual, farmer and screenwriter. At the same time, when people are too varied in their pursuits, they sometimes slip under the radar.
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Kathryn Bigelow
“She is, simply, a great filmmaker. Because while it is marginally interesting that she calls “action” and “cut” while in the possession of two X chromosomes, gender is the least remarkable thing about her kinetic filmmaking, which gets in your…
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A Writerly Respect For Death
Now I realize it is a dazzling, sunny afternoon in San Francisco. People are no doubt reading books at Zeitgeist as I advised them to this morning. Children and dogs are cavorting in the parks. In fact, right now, I’m…
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Women Resexualized? Is Meat Sexist?
Since so many of us live in this paradoxical nation that is both obviously obsessed with women’s bodies, yet has a morbid fear of wardrobe malfunctions, there is no shortage of fascinating discussions online about the interconnections of women and…
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The Return Of Paris ’68? Well, in theory at least. . .
“For the second time this spring, New York has witnessed a public reading of a Situationist manifesto. The first occurred in April, when students at the New School took over a university building and read “On the Poverty of Student…
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Julia Solis: The Art Of Ruins
Years ago, I attended on a whim a packed book release party at City Lights for New York Underground by Julia Solis. I stood there, crammed in and dangling off a staircase, as a tall, crimson-haired woman took to the…
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Just For Fathers: an excerpt from A Book Of Ages
Erik Hanson’s new book, A Book Of Ages is a compendium of moments from famous lives, including triumphs, failures, odd incidents, crossed paths and other such tantalizing miscellany. Especially revealing, apropos of this special day, is the excerpt about fathers,…
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The Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Greetings and salutations! I’m Michael Berger, today’s guest-editor. I’ve spent my last few days off sipping coffee and drifting through the labyrinth of book blogs. Which was terrific, because most of my work week was spent moving a bookstore. Yes,…
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The Sunday Book Review Supplement
Now that it’s finally Sunday, it’s time to read a new book. Perhaps you’ve noticed how Sunday parks and bars are full of blissed-out readers and lovers of the written word? Please take a hint.
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Poetic Lives Online: Links by Brian Spears
Starting off, I want to thank Jeremy Hatch or subbing in for me last week, both on this column and as Saturday Editor. Great job, dude. Seth Abramson writes a lot about MFA programs and, by extension, the PhD in…
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A Barricade of Books
Yiyun Li in The New Yorker: Despite my rudimentary understanding of the language, most evenings, after lights-out, I would sneak away to the platoon storage room, where I could take a leave from my small miseries—the bullying of the officers,…
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Vogon Poetry
I dare say I’m not the only iPhone owner who’s also a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy–the book, not the film. Smartphones in general seem to be turning into the technology Douglas Adams envisioned all those years…