Defoe’s Zombieless Zombie Narrative
“Defoe’s novel, published in 1722, is a mutant factual-fiction that recounts the plague epidemic of 1665, which dispatched almost 100,000 Londoners. Purporting to be the ‘memorial’ of a survivor known…
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Maria Chiang
104 posts
Maria Chiang is a usually a fun person.
Higher Education: Coming and Going
“Many—perhaps most—books on the American university fall into two categories. Jeremiads seem to pop off the presses every week. A fair number of them conform to a single type, one…
Adam Gopnik Interview
“A prolific writer, Adam Gopnik has left almost no topic untouched, from Darwin and Lincoln to—not necessarily in that order – Mark Twain, Marx (Groucho), W.H. Auden, James Taylor, leaving…
Ode to Chicago – Love and Shame and Love
“Though Peter Orner is quite purposeful and precise in his nonlinear approach to storytelling, reading his latest novel Love and Shame and Love can evoke the sensation of unpacking a…
Hungryman Gallery Poetry Reading
Rumpus contributor Jesse Nathan will be reading poetry alongside Zubair Ahmed and Yosefa Raz (two other young Bay Area poets) as part of the closing reception for Impact. The event…
Blueprints of the Afterlife Website Launch
Rumpus Columnist Ryan Boudinot’s new book Blueprints of the Afterlife (which he discussed in an interview in July) now has a website! Be on the lookout for new blogs and…
Analysis of UCB Chancellor’s Email Response
“Overnight the discussion of Birgeneau’s letter has focused on its willingness to defend beating in the name of non-violence and its fetishization of non-violence as such. In agreement with those…
Lucky Peach Launch Party in San Francisco
“Issue two of LUCKY PEACH (the new food/writing quarterly from McSweeney’s, David Chang of Momofuku, and writer Peter Meehan) hits newsstands on November 15,” and there’s a launch party at…
Love and Shame and Love TONIGHT
Love and Shame and Love (this month’s Rumpus Book Club selection) is having a Novel Launch TONIGHT from 7:30-9:30pm at The Booksmith (1644 Haight Street). There is free food and…
Writers as Pinups
“Now don’t get us wrong — of course we believe that the stuff in their heads is much more important that the shape of their heads (or the shape of…
American Nietzsche
“A question raised almost at once (and periodically revived) was why Nietzsche was proving so popular here: ‘What is the philosophy of an anti-Christian, antidemocratic madman doing in a culture…
Eliot and Dostoevsky
“Eliot and Dostoevsky were nearly exact contemporaries. Born within two years of each other, they died less than two months apart, Eliot in 1880, Dostoevsky in 1881. For both of…