Features & Reviews
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Promoting Punk
Nick Rombes is an associate professor and chair of the English department at University of Detroit Mercy. He is also the author of A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982, a book that is far more punk than its academic title…
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Underachieving as Art: The Rumpus Interview With Benjamin Anastas
Follow the curve, as it goes down… down… down… Such is the tone of Benjamin Anastas’ An Underachiever’s Diary, just recently reissued as a Dial Press Trade Paperback and concurrently billed as the “the funniest, most underappreciated book of the…
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The One?
“If you could read just one novel, what would it be?” That was the most recent query posed over at The Millions’ ongoing column Ask a Book Question. Many Millions contributors responded, recommending Slaughterhouse-Five, The Great Gatsby, and The Corrections…
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“Why Aren’t There Any Accordions?”
“JC: What is music good for that books aren’t? “DH: Driving, dancing around in your underwear, sitting around talking. “JC: What are books good for that music is no good at? “DH: Narrative, extrasensual immersion, cerebral bliss, philosophical and moral…
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D. A. Powell’s Desert Island
“Nearly everything that inspires me both eternally and in the moment is present in one non-hierarchical heap. Or several heaps. A letter from a man in prison who seems to have read some of my poems–he sent me some of his own, written with…
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Young, Unemployed, and Scottish
“Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter…
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Some Kind of 29th-Century Sci-Fi Lobster
Over at New York Magazine, Sam Anderson (interviewed here) has published a review of Inherent Vice that is one of the funniest pans of a novel I’ve ever read. “There is no easy way to say this,” Anderson begins, “so here…
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Stylistic Departure
Dan Chaon has written a guest post for Kepler’s Books’ blog, Well-Read Donkey, in which he discusses his love of thrillers, how we look at “genre” fiction versus “literary” fiction, writing his new novel Await Your Reply, and his genealogical…
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David Rees: The Last Book I Loved, The Plague
“Followed by scowls and protestations, (the doctor) left the committee-room. Some minutes later, as he was driving down a black street redolent of fried fish and urine, a woman screaming in agony, her groin dripping blood, stretched her arms toward…
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Sex and the Witty
There’s Something Wrong with Sven combines imaginative leaps worthy of Calvino and Vonnegut with tragicomic irreverence of the George Saunders variety.
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Charlie Stross Talks Happy Slapping, Robot Chauffeurs with Paul Krugman
I just came across this transcript of a conversation between Paul Krugman and the sci-fi writer Charlie Stross. They talk about why flying cars are a bad idea, what kitchens tell us about ourselves, and how “future shock” leads to…
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How Idioms Might Save the World
“…I was astonished (original meaning = struck by lightning) by something Bob Mankoff … said in a Charlie Rose Show interview. He said he thought of “humor as a necessary counterweight to the hegemony of reason.” I use that as…