Trauma as Inheritance: Adam P. Frankel’s The Survivors
The survivor is left to ponder whom he has become.
...more
Posts Tagged: nazis
The Promise of Werfel’s Musa Dagh: Portraying Genocide in Fiction
How does a fictional account come to stand in for history?
...more
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #220: Jennifer Steil
“Ultimately art is about making sense of our brief lives on earth.”
...more
How to Keep Calm and Carry On
Your mind doesn’t play tricks on you. You play tricks on your mind.
...more
Writing History
I was pretty sure I could produce a manuscript superior to anything [this editor had] ever published before by letting my cat walk over my keyboard a few times.
...more
Shifting Histories: Belladonna by Daša Drndić
The past may be riddled with holes, but it cannot be dispensed with as easily as possessions.
...more
TORCH: My Father’s Mansion
I love the United States, too. Like a house I was raised in, though, I know it up close and can spot its many fissures.
...more
Readers Report: The New Patriot
A collection of short pieces written by Rumpus readers pertaining to the subject of “The New Patriot.”
...more
The Dark Lady
In my imaginings, Ava was always a woman driving at night, a face behind glass in a shiny speeding vehicle, motoring down the road.
...moreThis Week in Trumplandia
Welcome to This Week in Trumplandia. Check in with us every Thursday for a weekly roundup of the most pertinent and relevant content on our country, which is currently spiraling down a crappy, toilet drain. You owe it to yourself, your communities, and your humanity to contribute whatever you can, even if it is just […]
...more
Sound over Water
We tell the stories to fit the narrative we need. But within each story we must maintain the grain of truth that will provide the urgency.
...moreTransvestite Vampire Biker Nuns vs. Birdwatchers
Finally, the 2016 Oddest Book Title of the Year nominees have been announced, and they include captivating titles like Transvestite Vampire Biker Nuns from Outer Space: A Consideration of Cult Film and Behind the Binoculars: Interviews with Acclaimed Birdwatchers. The Independent has already placed its bets: Jonathan Allan’s Reading From Behind: A Cultural History of the Anus is surely the […]
...more
Home Is Where
Helen Levinson was fourteen years old in the 1940s when she left Lublin, Poland. I was fifteen years old in 2005 when I arrived.
...moreCover Art of Pre-War Germany
One of the many crimes that took place in Nazi Germany was the burning of books. Before World War II, Weimar-era Germany had a history of publishing beautiful books, many that ended up burned by fanatics. The Daily Beast takes a look at some of the covers from the era.
...more
The Last Book I Loved: Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932
What makes a person who they are? Is evil born or made?
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Song in the Subjunctive
Perhaps the city looked more poignantly lovely because I was conscious of its tragic history.
...more
The Road to Heaven
She is a friend of my grandmother’s, and her name is Adiya Fields. She is a survivor of the camps and has volunteered to speak to my Sunday religious-school class.
...more
Bow and Arrow
He smiled that smile that had led him into the beds of countless women and got him out of trouble with as many cops. He looked happy to see us. Across his arms was a parade of swastikas, iron crosses, and skulls.
...moreModern Art in Nazi Germany
This BBC story goes into fascinating detail about the way the degenerate art was displayed alongside insulting graffiti, and, of course, what role Hitler’s youthful art education played in all this. (Via.) In 1937, the Nazi regime staged two simultaneous art exhibitions, one with art they supported (“statuesque blonde nudes along with idealized soldiers and landscapes”) […]
...more“sharpening our tongues for a chance at real life”
“If “all the world’s a stage,” then the internet is where we rehearse our lines, sharpening our tongues for a chance at real life.” — Jimmy Chen over at GIANT takes a look at a chat roulette meeting between a Neo-Nazi and someone with an Israeli flag on their wall — a meeting that ended […]
...more