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Echo, Echo: Death, Rebirth, and New Age Music
In an excerpt from LARB Quarterly no. 41, “Truth,” Peter Holslin reflects on synthesizer drones, inoffensive ambience, and his father’s affinity for New Age soundscapes.
All Essays
True Life: I Called Off My Wedding
In an excerpt from LARB Quarterly no. 41, “Truth,” Sarah Yanni accounts for what she left behind when she called off her wedding—and what she couldn’t.
“The Future Was Color” by Patrick Nathan
Hollywood in the 1950s—fresh with queer screenwriters, deceit, and postwar psychosis. Check out our Summer 2024 pick for the LARB Book Club: “The Future Was Color” by Patrick Nathan.
The Past Is Never Dead: On TV’s Backstory Problem
In the latest Screen Shots column, Elizabeth Alsop explores the ubiquity—and limitations—of the “trauma backstory.”
A Past That Must Be Denied: Borges in Japan
Ryan Shea revisits Guillermo Gasió’s 1988 anthology “Borges en Japon, Japon en Borges.”
The “Nacirema” Dream: The Story of an Asian American Studio
Jonathan van Harmelen reveals a lesser-known, unappreciated history of American film through the work of Asian American makers and studios.
I Understand Thee, and Can Speak Thy Tongue: California Unlocks Shakespeare’s Gibberish
In honor of National Talk Like Shakespeare Day, Frank Bergon writes about Shakespeare’s possible use of the Basque language.
Legacies of Eugenics: An Introduction
In the first of a series, Osagie K. Obasogie explores the history and persistence of eugenics in science, medicine, and elsewhere.
For the Love of Glamour: American Aristocracy from Twain to Trump
Are people—and the United States—doomed to be the subalterns of the aristocrats?
Watching Pixels Die: Sony, HBO, and “The Last of Us”
Maria Bose and Jason Willwerscheid analyze corporate moves to adapt prestige video games into prestige TV.
Ocean of Sound
Theo Spielberg appreciates Fatima Al Qadiri’s haunting score for the 2019 Senegalese film “Atlantics.”
Power over Spice Is Power over All: Extractivism and Indigenous Knowledge in Frank Herbert’s “Dune”
Devin Griffiths reads Frank Herbert’s “Dune” as a novel of environmental protest.
Allegorical Moments: Lyn Hejinian’s Life in Writing
Nine poets and critics commemorate the late Lyn Hejinian.
“A Passage to India” on Its 100th Birthday
Sameer Pandya traces the path of E. M. Forster’s classic novel in his own passage to India.
There Is No Point in My Being Other Than Honest with You: On Toni Morrison’s Rejection Letters
Melina Moe writes about the rejection letters Toni Morrison sent as an editor at Random House.
Killerheimer: American Betrayal in Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan
Jimmy So analyzes what “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” have to say about America.
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