bookslut
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Obscured Greatness
Bookslut zeroes in on the seemingly perpetual obscurity of women’s work in the arts. Looking at artists like Lee Krasner, Leonor Fini, and Mina Loy,—the spaces and roles that they were pushed into, along with the often intangible forms of…
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Letter Writers
All hacking aside, are we not all snoopers? This interview with Jonathan Keates tackles “great letter writers”—Lord Byron, Stendhal, Queen Victoria, Henry James, Evelyn Waugh—and the legacy of their correspondences. He also ruminates on the death of “the letter as…
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Travel Fail?
You know that pervasive storyline that says that travel will transform you, change your life, and help you find yourself? What if that does not happen; have you “failed” at travel? This essay considers that question, and takes notice of…
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80s Difference
Looking back at 80s media, this video curated essay examines the meaning of difference in Miami Vice, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris Bueller, through the lens of author Mash Tupitsyn’s own coming of age. Reflecting on her motivations for identifying…
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Birthdays, Exiles
Perhaps you have thought about what you would take and where you would go if forced to flee the country because of your communist beliefs? In honor of Pablo Neruda’s birthday, Daybook describes the poet’s flight from Chile to Argentina.…
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In Defense of the Other Woman
Where are the books about mistresses? Bookslut’s Jessa Crispin writes about the lacking mistress narrative, defending the other woman and scrutinizing her treatment in society as undermining that traditional institution that tons of Americans love (marriage). “The woman is supposed…
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Historians Blog Too
“The point is that while we cherish open-ness or dialogue, we relish our closed structures and cordoned-off and privileged hallways. Academic blogging, to this graduate student, was a way out of this clubbiness.” Bookslut’s interview with historian Manan Ahmed praises…
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Good News for Literary Journals
What’s the difference between a literary journal and a mayfly? The literary journal’s reputation for short lifespans might not be justified. According to Daniel Nester and Steve Black, authors of the article “Here Today, Here Tomorrow: On the Lifespan of…
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Books For The Politically Alienated
The founding editor of Bookslut offers an eclectic selection of books that might help us confront our own deeply American sense of political alienation. One of them I especially want to read: Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday…
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The Horniest Species Imaginable
“Only with the relatively recent shift from off-the-land foraging to agriculture did our species veer away from cooperation and sharing, even sharing of mates, in small groups; hierarchy, sexual repression and violence may pass for the human normal nowadays, but…
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Learning French, And Other Escapes
“Here I am wanting some other language to rescue me, wanting some escape route, when the very desire to transform, to mean something in the world, to take to the air, is such a chubby little caterpillar urge. If I…
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No One Belongs Here More Than My Therapist’s Wife
It’s funny, I love Miranda July’s stories but Gordon Haber at Bookslut is insightful about her varied titles: “We Are Vaguely Included seems to show the influence of Miranda July, who has demonstrated talent in numerous genres while consistently formulating…