Posts by author
Sam Riley
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A Scary Movie Retrospective
Do you know about New Horror, the genre that rendered horror movies into “high art”? Horror movies, the classics and how their subsequent cinematic transformation, are the subject of Shock Value, Jason Zinoman’s new book. There’s an excerpt and review…
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Shopping Culture Evolution
Apparently, consumerism is just a contextual framework away from being considered a symbol of democracy. And, it’s not only considered a “cornerstone of democracy,” by some people, but a “civic obligation in American society.” Giuliani was big into this idea…
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The Limits of NGOs
Internationally, labor unions have a weaker presence. Making up for this slack are the non-governmental organizations that support health initiatives, women’s rights and ebb environmental degradation, etc. The presence of NGOs internationally, even with a history of positive consequences, have…
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This is the Kind of Letter You Frame
Some letters are sweet, informative and sentimental, and others are like this one, from Hunter S. Thompson to his biographer, William McKeen. It’s pithy. It starts strong and finishes stronger. It has serious fear-and-loathing undertones. Check it out. (via @MaudNewton)
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Aggregators Always Win
Netflix, the largest video service in the world, has its own kind of customer loyalty that no other company is close to matching. It’s not only upsetting to the small neighborhood video stores, but to big companies like Apple, who…
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Nostalgia for the 5 Finger Discount
It’s the age of all-things digital and this era of dwindling printed publications brings with it some serious losses. Among them, is the loss of the of the five-finger discount. Stealing books, which some authors have cited as a phase…
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Journalism and its Forever Problems
Here is a GOOD Books’ list of past journalistic scandals, which given the state of the current phone-hacking mess, is some necessary zoomed-out context on the history of journalism. For example, remember William Randolph Hearst’s megalomanic media domination? Or the…
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Didion and Diagnoses
“Diagnosis never seems to lead to a cure, Didion observes, only an enforced debility. But as with a psychiatric evaluation of herself conducted in 1968 […] Didion sees and reflects on the truths of the assessment even as she ponders…
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This Year’s Caine Prize
Contemporary African fiction is celebrated with the Caine Prize, awarded to the best African short story written in English. This year’s prize went to a Zimbabwean writer named NoViolet Bulawayo whose story, “Hitting Budapest,” which describes hunger with a Márquez-ian…
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A Little Bit of Murakami
Oh look, it’s the first few lines of Haruki Murakami’s impending publication, 1Q84. The book was a major hit when it came out in Japan around two years ago. Alas, it is soon-to-be-released here and in the UK. It’s three…
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Gay Marriage for America
Love and the pursuit of happiness were the impetus for Andrew Sullivan’s move from the UK to America. He wrote a beautiful essay for Newsweek on the benefits of gay marriage for straight America. With our “inalienable human rights” being…
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Sandberg in Silicon Valley
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, is profiled in the New Yorker. The gender-divided executive culture in Silicon Valley is manifested in the seriously unbalanced ratio of women and men executives. This essay discusses Sandberg’s history and theorizes about…