Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

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The Art and Activism of the Anthropocene, Part II: A Conversation with Jeff VanderMeer, Zaria Forman, and Gleb Raygorodetsky
Amy Brady of “Guernica” magazine presents the second conversation in the series “The Art and Activism of the Anthropocene.”
Amy BradyJun 6, 2018
From Nixon to Trump: Metastases of Cultural Power
Carl Freedman examines the cultural power dynamics that link Nixon and Trump.
Carl FreedmanJun 4, 2018
- Politics
Bare in Mind
“Decluttering here,” and she pointed to her head.
Hilary LeichterJun 2, 2018
- LARB Lit
Weird Ways of Seeing: Patrick Nagatani’s Nuclear Vision
Twenty-seven years after its publication, Patrick Nagatani’s “Nuclear Enchantment” still sees the lurking violence of the American nuclear project.
Jeffrey MoroJun 2, 2018
Deep Dad: The End of The Americans
For Dear Television, Phil Maciak considers the dad rock series finale of FX's The Americans.
Phillip MaciakJun 1, 2018
- Dear Television
Youtube Comment #2 to Björk - Sacrifice - Live @ Zénith de Paris, France, March, 8th (08-03-2013)
Art 1, Child 0.
Yxta Maya MurrayMay 31, 2018
- LARB Lit
Notes from Underground: WGN’s Black-Cast Quality TV Experiment
How did “Underground” become a test case for black-cast quality TV? And how does its failure show us the way the industry associates blackness with risk?
Alfred L. Martin Jr.May 31, 2018
- Television
Sam's Dream
Jorie GrahamMay 30, 2018
- LARB Lit
Martyr at the Picnic Table
Aaron RobertsonMay 30, 2018
- Religion
The Wrong Stuff
Helen DeWittMay 29, 2018
- Art & Architecture
More Like You
Sloane CrosleyMay 28, 2018
- Nonfiction
New Formation: Janelle Monáe’s Radical Emotion Pictures
"Dirty Computer" finds Monáe not only inserting herself into traditions that can’t fully contain her but resculpting them in her likeness.
Adrienne BrownMay 28, 2018
Valley View: An Armenian Diasporic Account in Lieu of a Glendale Biennial Review
On the exclusion of Armenian artists from the Glendale Biennial.
Mashinka Firunts HakopianMay 27, 2018
- Art & Architecture
In the Year 11945 No One Really Dies Without a Reason: On “NieR: Automata”
Why are we so fascinated right now with technological utopias predicated on the rise of artificial intelligence?
Ernesto OyarbideMay 26, 2018
- SF
Sylvia Plath’s Magic Mirror
The duality that Sylvia Plath wrote about in her thesis provides the basis for the personality of Esther, the protagonist of Plath’s “The Bell Jar.”
Kelly Marie CoyneMay 26, 2018
- Fiction
Popular Feminism: The Scandal of the Comeback Story
This is the third installment in a bi-monthly column that will explore some of the different cultural facets of popular feminism.
Sarah Banet-WeiserMay 25, 2018
- Gender & Sexuality