Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

How Does Twitter Use You?
How does Twitter use you?
Julia Carrie Wong, Matt PearceAug 30, 2015
- Science & Technology
The Ideology of the Everyday: The Wende Museum’s “Face to Face” Exhibition
The Wende Museum's exhibition "Face to Face" juxtaposes official products of Socialist Realism with works by artists working outside of Communist Party parameters.
Oleg IvanovAug 29, 2015
- Art & Architecture
- History
Unnatural Disasters, or Queering Katrina
Photography by Jon Hughes / Photopresse
Jonathan AlexanderAug 27, 2015
- Memoir & Essay
Cold Opening: The Publicity Campaign for “Watchman”
The publicity game and the death of book reviewing: why the semi-cold opening for "Watchman"?
Greg BarnhiselAug 26, 2015
- Fiction
- Literary Criticism
Response to Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee
Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee defended Zumthor's LACMA plan; not very well, says Joseph Giovannini.
Joseph GiovanniniAug 25, 2015
- Art & Architecture
The Old Master: The Enduring Fascination of Elderly Sherlock Holmes
This is, in fact, the accidental artistic brilliance of the Sherlock Holmes tales: they encompass a robust but tantalizingly unfinished fictional world.
Zach DundasAug 25, 2015
- Film
- Noir
It’s Demand, Stupid: The Cause and Cure of Our Economic Travails
Every month Americans consume between $30 and $40 billion worth of manufactured goods from China.
Tom StreithorstAug 24, 2015
- Politics
Corita Kent: The Big G Stands for Goodness
Nun, activist, artist Corita Kent at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.
Sasha CarreraAug 24, 2015
- Art & Architecture
The Writer Postponed: Barthes at the BnF
Barthes at the BNF: the museum presents a panorama of his work.
Andrew GallixAug 23, 2015
- Literary Criticism
- Philosophy & Religion
The Odd Couple: On Political Dissent and the Remarkable Similarities Between Mark Twain and Yu Hua
Twain's and Yu's oeuvres are filled with works that demonstrate their keen eye for the small dramas of everyday life and keen ear for linguistic hypocrisy.
Jeffrey WasserstromAug 21, 2015
- Fiction
- Nonfiction
Tiny Guides on the Last Adventure: Doll Play in the Work of Jennifer Wynne Reeves
Jennifer Wynne Reeves.
Miyoshi BaroshAug 21, 2015
- Art & Architecture
On the Hoof, On the Barrel: “On Prime Cut”
"Prime Cut" is a sardonic report from the battle to define what America was and who it was for.
Charles TaylorAug 19, 2015
- Film
The Cartoon Bodies of “Mad Max: Fury Road”
"Mad Max: Fury" Road" is a live-action film with a distinctly cartoon sensibility.
Isabel OrtizAug 19, 2015
- Film
Closing Platforms
Stuart Whatley on how the media is using the latest platforms of technology in a way that pulls "the news" from the light of truth and deeper into the cave.
Stuart WhatleyAug 19, 2015
- Politics
Neal Stephenson’s Ideal Forms
Neal Stephenson combines the earthly and the ideal to create a nerdish homebrew 21st-century Platonism.
Peter BerardAug 18, 2015
- SF
Sunshine and Noir: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor and the New Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Why Zumthor is the right architect for the new LACMA.
Mark Lee, Sharon JohnstonAug 17, 2015
- Art & Architecture