LARB
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Words, Music, Words, Music … and Glass
He is one of the only artists … who actually seemed to enjoy his journey, both spiritual and musical. Plus, he seemed to learn something profound with each step of his way, until completely formed as an artist. In a…
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To Pimp Postmodernism
Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Casey Michael Henry considers Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly a new bid to revive a “Black Postmodernism”: Not only does the album fulfill many specific qualities of postmodernism, and postmodernism specifically shaped…
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The Secrets of Paris
To form secrets with a city is to treat it like a lover, to imagine you know it better than anyone, but to still expect it to surprise you for years to come. It is the secret to all rewarding…
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A Different Kind of Spinster
I’m in my 30s and haven’t married yet, but marriage is not in my own top five questions and hasn’t been for some time. I’m much more interested in whether I’ll write a book or have kids, and much more…
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Critical, Dialectical, Skeptical, Desimplifying
Writers, Sontag believed, if they are any good at all, are obliged to try to understand the forces that shape us. They seek to give us a more truthful sense of things, a more nuanced sense of the world we…
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Natural Endings
Kazuo Ishiguro is interviewed at the Los Angeles Review of Books; among other things, the writer touches on world-building, jumping genres, and why, sometimes, it takes a little while to get where you’re going: Well, it took me four years or five years…
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Childless Spinsters
Not getting married and not having children are still controversial decisions for women. Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Minda Honey shares her own experience, and reviews three recent books on the subject by Sara Eckel, Meghan Daum, and…
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Word of the Day: Eschaton
(n.); the last thing, as a theological reference to the climax of history at Judgment Day; the day at the end of time following Armageddon when God will decree the fates of all human beings; from the ancient Greek eskhatos…
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LARB Launching Online Literary Magazine
The Los Angeles Review of Books has officially announced The Offing, a new online literary magazine that will feature poetry, fiction, essays, memoir, art, and more. The publication was announced on Twitter and will launch March 16, 2015.
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Fire in a Blackout
In Egypt, as elsewhere, journalists are under fire.: Those who do not adhere to self-censorship are likely to face pressure from the state. Al-Masdar website features political news and is loosely affiliated to the recently banned secular activist group April 6 Movement.…
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Dissecting Possibilities
When asked about the seeds of his new memoir, Francisco Goldman was more than candid: This book emerged because I wasn’t ready to go back to fiction. I had a form of survivor’s guilt, I suppose. For me, writing imaginary…
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This Week in Short Fiction
On Tuesday, Tony Earley released a new collection of stories, Mr. Tall. Two decades have passed since Earley’s debut collection, Here We Are in Paradise, and though he has released two novels and a memoir since that time, for short fiction…