Rumpus Original
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Is There a 9/11 Literature?
Bryan Charles and Christopher Bollen talk about 9/11 literature and life outside of New York. Charles’s memoir, There’s a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From, tells his story of being in the Twin Towers on the morning of…
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The Decade of Magical Thinking
A Rumpus Lamentation on What We Lost Say you took the long view of September 11, 2001, the view from the heavens, the view of a compassionate celestial being. From up there, you’d see that approximately 150,000 earthlings died that…
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Albums of Our Lives: The Sonic Youth Mixtape a Friend Gave Me
In the early ’90s, when I was in high school, I listened to songs from bands that got played on the radio.
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Return to the Year Broken Free
I wish I could explain to you, to myself, the effect this language has upon me, but I can only say it makes my skin crawl. In a good way.
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RECESSION SEX WORKERS #13: Bella Blue’s School of Three: Burlesque, Boys and Polyamorous Love
Mardi Gras was uncharacteristically dismal in 2010. I met a group of curvaceous, saucy strippers at 10 a.m. on Bourbon Street, where the air was thick with pizza and Red Bull vomit, 24-hour margarita shops and hot dog stands.
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DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #84: The Distance of the Leap
From what garden or pot or crack in the pavement did you grow? How did you get your water?
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The Gifts of the Blarney Stone
Sebastain Barry’s latest novel, On Canaan’s Side, follows aging Lilly Bere as she crosses the Atlantic to America and slowly watches everyone around her die.
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Happy Feet and the Mbaqanga Rhythm of the Boyoyo Boys
“Gumboots” is what inspired Paul Simon to break out the accordion and kick-start Graceland.
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You Mean Garden, Don’t You?
The collection’s last section, “The Two Thousandsies” (dedicated to Rachel Maddow), his “Garden of Eden” reminds us this Professor Emeritus poet has managed to sustain over decades a vision of the profane as sacred, which alone is worth the price…
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How To Write a Book in Two Months: The Rumpus Interview with Cole Stryker
Last spring, I met Cole Strkyer at a party where everyone had a tumblr but me. Just 27 years old, Stryker had recently sold a book about 4chan,
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10/40/70 #37: Marnie
This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible. This week, I examine Marnie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1964):
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Growing Out of It
A descendant of Cheever, Stuart Nadler traces evolving relationships with delicate, precise prose in his debut short story collection, The Book of Life.