Saturday Rumpus Essay: What Counts
He said: I love you, son, but I don’t have to like you.
He asked: Do you love me?
Rumpus Original
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The Pleasure (and Privilege) of Indignation
Indignation clicks on in moments of perceived injustice. Unchecked, it rolls quickly out of control, gaining momentum at the expense of perspective.
A FAN’S NOTES, THE RUMPUS SPORTS COLUMN #45: Postseason, Hooters
My friend Snake (he specifically requested this pseudonym) is an English professor, a Tennyson scholar, and a rabid New England Patriots fan.
The Rumpus Interview with Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians
Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians, the co-founders of Melville House, share the history behind their thriving independent press—once earmarked as "a disaster in the making" and now celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Exercises in Style
Exercises in Style has been one of the most beloved books in the New Directions catalog since they first published it in 1981.
The Rumpus Review of Zero Dark Thirty
A dizzying blitz of descriptors surrounds Katheryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty: pro-torture, anti-torture; anti-Bush, pro-Obama; mindlessly jingoistic, nuanced in its critique of American exceptionalism.
The Stone of Help
My husband hunches over the table, picking at his quesadillas. I’m gulping the last of the water, dropping my plate in the sink with a clatter. An idea hangs in…
The Rumpus Interview with Tom Kaczynski
Publisher of Uncivilized Books and comics artist Tom Kaczynski opens up about primal motifs, utopian thinking, and growing up with comic books in Poland.
The First Three Pages of “Million Year Boom”
The first three pages of "Million Year Boom," one of the stories featured in Tom Kaczynski's new collection, Beta Testing the Apocalypse:
Swinging Modern Sounds #40: A Miscellany of Musical Thoughts That Will Not Otherwise Appear
From June through December of 2012, I kept a diary of musical impressions that didn’t develop into longer pieces.
SELF-MADE MAN #19: Notes on Negative Space
I’ve known what many would call evil: child abuse, a close call with a murderer. I know about other people’s dark impulses, and so I’ve been all the more terrified of my own.