Features & Reviews
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Denying Epiphany
Otremba’s are poems of rigorous looking. In most, a speaker coolly observes a work of art, a person or animal, the poems’ tensions emerging in part from the speaker’s struggle for knowledge and connection.
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THE LONELY VOICE #7, The Rumpus Short Story Column: My Son the Murderer
In honor of Governor Mark Sanford and Michael Jackson’s (bless his Indiana soul) favorite holiday, today’s Lonely Voice is devoted to dads, interesting, fascinating, All-American dads…
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Julie Greicius: The Last Book(s) I Loved, The Lost City of Z and All the Names
Years ago, when I was an archaeologist, I learned my favorite concept in the broader field of anthropology, or any field for that matter: “imperialist nostalgia.” It’s the yearning we feel for something we ourselves have conquered or destroyed, a…
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Gladwell Skewers Free
“In the middle of laying out what he sees as the new business model of the digital age Anderson is forced to admit that one of his main case studies, YouTube, ‘has so far failed to make any money for…
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Long Interview With Murakami Translated into English
The Japanese publication Yomiuri Shimbun recently published, in English, a long two-part interview with Haruki Murakami, about his most recent novel, 1Q84, the complete text of which has already sold about 670,000 copies in Japan. A full summary of the…
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Journal Highlight: Triple Canopy Issue #6
Among the many offerings of Triple Canopy Issue #6 “Urbanisms: Model Cities,” are three standout pieces. “What is the Antique in Truro: A Portfolio” is a stunning collection of Adam Davies’ photographic portraits of American cities that have endured mass…
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Scientology Defectors: Why Did They Stay?
I attended a Scientology service a few years ago as part of a Stanford psych course taught by Phil Zimbardo. My assignment was to act as a target of social influence, to evaluate the techniques that Scientology used to recruit…
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Travel As A Political Act
Rick Steves’s recent book, Travel As A Political Act tells us how we can travel more thoughtfully. “Growing up in the U.S., I was told over and over how smart, generous, and free we were. Travel has taught me that…
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Junot Diaz’s Favorite New Yorker
At Red Hill Books we keep having to order more Junot Diaz books. It’s really extraordinary. They keep flying off the shelves on a daily basis.
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Discovering Georges Simenon
Maybe because I’m one-quarter Belgian, or so my parents claim, I tend to go out of my way to discover famous Belgians. I’m half-kidding about that but I do admit there was a brief, embarrassing period when I claimed to…
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The Daily Grind Of Writing
I laughed out loud, like a lot of writers probably did this week, when I read J. Robert Lennon’s confession in the L.A. Times, The Truth About Writers. The truth, it turns out is that “writers don’t spend much time…
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The Rumpus Book Blog Roundup
Greetings! Your humble guest-editor Michael is back in the saddle for another round of negotiating the highly-addictive world of the book blogs. I had an interesting week, where I had time to contemplate my imminent move to Bernal Heights and…