How I Lived and Wrote in Las Vegas
Then again, I wonder if the distinct pleasure of Las Vegas lies in the simulacrum.
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Posts Tagged: Las Vegas
Urgent Connections: Negative Space and Too Afraid to Cry
There’s no such thing as too much of this kind of light, especially in dark times.
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What to Do with My Body in the Event I Die in a Mass Shooting
Don’t join them in their prayers (the god they pray to doesn’t exist).
...moreAlbum of the Week: Revelations by Shamir
“It’s not really that calculated anymore. I’m bearing my soul in these songs, and just giving it how it is.”
...moreThis Week in Trumplandia
Welcome to This Week in Trumplandia. Check in with us every Thursday for a weekly roundup of the most pertinent content on our country.
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Truth and Beauty: Talking with Joshua Wolf Shenk
The new Editor-in-Chief of The Believer dismantles stereotypes of Las Vegas, discusses the magazine’s acquisition, and makes a case for bringing journalism into the academy.
...moreThis Week in Indie Bookstores
Are great bookstores just good capitalism? People are more concerned with being fat than with eating disorders, if we go by the number of books in each respective section at one blogger’s local bookstore. A Tennessee bookstore will include a restaurant inside of it.
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
This week, Joyland posted the winner and runners-up of its 2017 Open Border Fiction Prize. The price was open to writing or translation in English from any country in the world and was judged this year by Amelia Gray (Gutshot, 2015). The first-place winner is Jenny Xie’s “Lucky Frank,” a short story about a young girl, […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Leland Cheuk
Leland Cheuk discusses his novel The Misadventures of Sulliver Pong, dark humor, cancer, morally corrupt characters, and his mother.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Martin Seay
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Martin Seay about his debut novel The Mirror Thief, the Great Work of alchemy, researching optical prosthetics, and keeping plot lines straight in a 600-page novel.
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The Rumpus Interview with Helen Ellis
Helen Ellis talks about making a literary comeback with her new story collection American Housewife, subverting expectations, and the joys of gossip.
...moreTotally Reactionary
Danniel Schoonebeek discusses with photographer Marshall Scheuttle the reason for his move to Las Vegas, the contrast of his portraits with his landscapes, and the emotional space that he arrives at when photographing an especially exciting subject: My favorite photographs have always given me this feeling that I’m a participant in something I can’t control. […]
...moreGambling on an MFA
There is a certain writerly allure to casino gambling that I find difficult to resist — or perhaps I should call it a not writing allure. Having a crowd chant my name as I shoot dice is not something I’ll ever experience revising sentences in the UNLV library. The perfect supplement to the fragile joy […]
...moreSubjective Objectivism
For the Atlantic, John Paul Rollert attends an Objectivist conference in Las Vegas to explore the legacy of Ayn Rand’s work. While for many Objectivists the philosophy “begins, and ends, with the word of Ayn Rand,” others question the “amenability” of Rand’s writing in an attempt to “further philosophical development.”
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Tod Goldberg
“We like the idea of a guy who gets away with it…It’s a very American ideal—the freedom to break the law.”
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Ice, Ice Baby: A Cool Conversation with Bobby J. Robby, Stripper by Day, Drag King by Night
Bobby J. Robby talks about labor issues, gender identity, and the perils of dating other dancers.
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The Rumpus Interview with Chris Abani
Chris Abani sits down to talk about the dangers and seduction of fiction, literature as transformation, growing up in Nigeria, and how “our every justification is a story.”
...moreWhat Began As a Love Letter…
Warmed and Bound, an anthology of neo-noir fiction, offers 38 dark and beautiful stories from Matt Bell, Blake Butler, and others.
...moreFear and Loathing Turns 40
Thompson wanted to write a book devoted to the “death of the American Dream,” but he never truly got around to it.
...moreFaith in Withheld Meanings
What do nuclear waste, suicide, and Las Vegas have in common? John D’Agata searches for meaning in the heart of Yucca Mountain
...moreStraight Outta Nebraska
In Jami Attenberg’s new novel, a woman flees her comfortable life and finds a mixed bag of possibilities in Sin City.
...moreMorning Coffee
Mystery lights in the Norwegian sky. I love the universe! (update: Bad Astronomy has gotten to the bottom of it!) Photographing Las Vegas’ neon boneyard. Gerry Canavan points us to this epic document of classic scams. A family portrait of China’s 56 ethnic groups. Stunning pictures of Croatia’s most popular tourist attraction. New Scientist uses […]
...moreNow You See It…
The Art of Disappearing has been compared to The Time Traveler’s Wife, but Ivy Pochoda’s prose is lusher, her characters more melancholy, her style more mysterious.
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