Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Game of Thrones: Season 6, "Blood of My Blood"
Imma Let You Finish But Don’t Drink That, She’s Trying to Kill You
Aaron Bady, Sarah MesleMay 30, 2016
- Dear Television
The Player Kings: On Shakespeare’s Henriad
The Henriad is William Shakespeare’s finest achievement as a political writer.
Guy Patrick CunninghamMay 29, 2016
- Literary Criticism
Bros in Paradise: Richard Linklater’s “Everybody Wants Some!!”
Everybody Wants Some!! is college party after college party, in a loosely spun countdown to the first day of class. This is Texas in 1980.
May 27, 2016
- Film
“Wake Up, I Tell You”: The Vibrant Afterlife of Irish Writer Máirtín Ó Cadhain
Máirtín Ó Cadhain is likely one of the great modern Irish writers you haven’t heard about.
Mark HarmanMay 27, 2016
- Around the World
Game of Thrones: Season 6, "The Door"
“We can go home now, Hodor”
Aaron Bady, Sarah MesleMay 24, 2016
- Dear Television
- Television
Carol Tyler: Soldier’s Heart
"Soldier’s Heart" is not just Tyler’s masterpiece, but arguably one of the 21st century’s best comics.
Alex DuebenMay 23, 2016
- Comics
After Culture Shock: The Legacy of Robert Mapplethorpe
Zack HatfieldMay 22, 2016
- Art & Architecture
- Film
The Past, the Present, and the Bridge: Ali Dehbashi’s Bukhara Magazine
Can the nascent literary enthusiasts of Iran today be connected to the generations before them?
PedestrianMay 22, 2016
- Around the World
Takes a Tall Gallows to Hang a Big Man: The Novel Behind “Out of the Past”
Geoffrey Homes’s "Build My Gallows High", the novel that served as the basis for "Out of the Past", is every bit as good as the film. Better, maybe.
Colin FlemingMay 21, 2016
- Noir
Much Ado About Muchness
Chinese musician Cui Jian brought rock ’n’ roll to China, galvanized a progressive shift in the culture, and is one of the world’s most popular musicians.
Jonathan CampbellMay 21, 2016
- Music
A Century of Violence: Revisiting the Armenian Genocide
A review of four books published at the centenary of the Armenian genocide.
Walter KalaidjianMay 21, 2016
- History
- Politics
Is There a Good Way to Translate Chinese Poetry?
An essay on the challenges and values of translating Chinese poetry with Xujun Eberlein.
Xujun EberleinMay 20, 2016
- Poetry
On National Tap Dance Day, May the Critics Hail: “Tap Dance Is Dead Right for Everybody!”
Thirty-six years after a historic gathering, the tap community still struggles to convince the general public that tap is “dead right for everybody.”
Constance Valis HillMay 20, 2016
- Cultural Studies
The Digital in the Humanities: An Interview with Marisa Parham
Part 6 of a new series exploring the role of the digital humanities, as well as the digital in the humanities as it currently exists in the US academy.
Melissa DinsmanMay 19, 2016
- Philosophy & Religion
Entertain Yourself
What constitutes time well spent?
Stuart WhatleyMay 18, 2016
- Politics
Animal Speculation
"Zootopia" advances a sublimated theory of power that is strangely conservative, and fundamentally allied with the project of economic neoliberalization.
Joshua WilliamsMay 17, 2016
- Film