Posts by author
Maria Chiang
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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 only as ‘H.F.’, it was based on genuine documentary sources,…
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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 that embraces books as varied in their origins as The…
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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 New York for Paris, leaving Paris for New York, dogs,…
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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 box full of memories.” Chicago Tribune reviews this month’s Rumpus…
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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 takes place this Saturday, November 19th, at Hungryman Gallery located…
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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 event updates as the release date, January 3rd, approaches. Other…
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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 points, I’m also interested in Birgeneau’s falsification of the history…
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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 Heart in San Francisco! For $12, you get a copy…
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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 drink, as well as a lively reading! Find out why…
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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 their bodies, for that matter) but that doesn’t mean we…
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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 like ours? Why Nietzsche? Why in America?’ Ratner-Rosenhagen wonders. Nietzsche…
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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 them, the period from 1860 to 1880 marked their most…