Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Impurity: Two Books on the Anthropocene
The bibliography on life during climate change has swelled in recent years. Purdy and Scranton each offer a powerful reckoning with our bewildering present.
Rebecca Tuhus-DubrowNov 30, 2015
- Philosophy & Religion
- Science & Technology
My Life as a Woman
Born a man named William, I became Leigh Anne Williams, a woman who published 20 romance novels.
Billy MernitNov 29, 2015
- Memoir & Essay
Spoiler Alerts: Three Books on Trash
Three very different recent books meditate on the unruly accumulation of things. Objects circulate in these books; stuff gets around.
Suzanne FischerNov 29, 2015
- Cultural Studies
- Science & Technology
The Lightning Before Death: A Tribute to Clive James
Clive James's stature as a literary journalist and cultural critic ought to endure.
Morten Høi JensenNov 28, 2015
- Memoir & Essay
“We’ll Eat You Up — We Love You So!” Why Children’s Cookbooks Matter
Food is community building; so is literature. But, most of all, food is narrative.
Leigh BennettNov 26, 2015
- Food & Drink
On Being Shocked
The mass media, it seems, will never run short of opportunities to numb us.
Robert ZaretskyNov 24, 2015
- Politics
“I Know Thee Not, Old Man”: Orson Welles and the New Queer Cinema
John ThomasonNov 23, 2015
- Film
Who Tends to Captain Picard’s Bromeliads?
Differences in the way Lem, Roddenberry, and Banks address humanity’s drives raise the question of whether liberal humanism can be effective.
Michael MilesNov 22, 2015
- SF
The Phone Is a Public Space
A phone — particularly a cell phone — is a social, public hub, but it also feels like an intimate object.
Niina PollariNov 21, 2015
- Memoir & Essay
Letter from Paris
A letter for Paris by Michelle Kuo and Albert Wu.
Albert Wu, Michelle KuoNov 21, 2015
- Around the World
- Memoir & Essay
The Grain of the Voice
The Grain of the Voice
Paul VolponiNov 21, 2015
- Young Adult & Children’s Literature
A World Without Light: Finding Hope in HBO’s “The Leftovers,” Anton Chekhov’s short stories, and TV’s Dark Ages
Fantastical death abounds on TV, but why can't we bring ourselves to watch regular people lost in a darkness they can never escape?
Ben PfeifferNov 20, 2015
- Television
Edward Snowden as Socrates?
No group is more impressed with Edward Snowden than American college students.
Ruth StarkmanNov 20, 2015
- Politics
In Memoriam of the Corpse: Death Denial in Los Angeles
In present-day Los Angeles, death denial affects the very spaces we inhabit.
Tiffany HearseyNov 18, 2015
- Cultural Studies
(Never) Out of the Past: Film Noir and the Poetry of Lynda Hull
Much can be gleaned directly from the poems of Lynda Hull.
Suzanne LummisNov 17, 2015
- Film
- Poetry
#ISIS: Clickbait Ideology and Viral Violence
ISIS has done more than simply master the rules of that clickbait economy. It has also mastered the techniques necessary to convert some the viewers it attracts to its ideology.
Judah GrunsteinNov 16, 2015
- Politics