All Essays

• The People Downstairs

  "Being Mortal" draws on the strengths of both the humanities and the sciences to demonstrate one of life's harder lessons: how to really listen to someone and how to ask the right questions in the first place.

  Aug 2, 2015
• 

  Ellipsis: Pablo Rasgado at the Steve Turner Gallery

  Ellipsis, the latest exhibit of Pablo Rasgado, revises archives of duration and location and contemplates the ephemeral.

  Clayton CampbellAug 1, 2015

  • Art & Architecture

• 

  Should Ethnicity Limit What a Fiction Writer Can Write?

  How can a Westerner know what it’s like to be Chinese? Where does cultural heritage end and the universal human experience begin?

  Susan BarkerJul 30, 2015

  • Memoir & Essay

• 

  An Obstinate Memory: The Documentaries of Joshua Oppenheimer

  In the films of Joshua Oppenheimer, the body never lies. His documentaries examine hard truths that are often stranger and more horrible than any fiction.

  Will Di NoviJul 29, 2015

  • Film

• 

  The Evolution of Comics From Batman to Burkas

  Like their counterparts in the West, South Asians are using comics and its superhero genre to challenge cultural norms and construct alternative narratives.

  Jabeen AkhtarJul 29, 2015

  • Memoir & Essay

• 

  Rock Your World (Or, Theory Class Needs an Upgrade)

  Humanities scholars are getting used to talking about reality again — only it’s not your granddaddy’s reality.

  Timothy MortonJul 28, 2015

  • Philosophy & Religion

  • SF

• 

  The Série Noire and Social Intervention

  The Gallimard crime fiction imprint, Série Noire, celebrates its 70th anniversary.

  Russell WilliamsJul 27, 2015

  • Noir

• 

  Et Tu, Too?: Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” and the Revival of Black Postmodernism

  Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" marks the triumphant revival of the black postmodern epic tradition.

  Casey Michael HenryJul 26, 2015

  • Music

• 

  David Foster Wallace’s Closed Circuit

  On 'The End of the Tour'

  Anna ShechtmanJul 25, 2015

  • Film

• 

  The Young and the Restless, and Laura Kipnis

  Kipnis, a humorous feminist and feminist humorist, employs irony, sarcasm, satire, and a general sense of levity in her discussions of gender, feminism, and sexuality.

  Stan PerskyJul 25, 2015

  • Gender & Sexuality

• 

  Industry, Ingenuity, and Fracture: On John McPhee

  Daniel solomon explores the life and various writings of John McPhee.

  Daniel SolomonJul 24, 2015

  • Memoir & Essay

• 

  Drums and Loyalty: Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping’s Parallel Power Parade

  Xi Jinping and Modi both understand that the desire for drums and loyalty-parades is buried deep in the hearts of their people

  Mishi SaranJul 23, 2015

  • Around the World

  • Politics

• 

  Crying with the Cosmic Cowboy

  On Doug Sahm's 'Mendocino'

  Elizabeth HallJul 20, 2015

  • Music

• 

  Murder Mysteries After the Death of the Author

  That Sophie Hannah has managed to write a traditional Poirot novel is both the success and failure of this book.

  Kaya GençJul 19, 2015

  • Fiction

• 

  Inconvenient Truths at LACMA: Sweeping Debt, Dealmaking, and Dubious Design under the Red Carpet

  Joseph GiovanniniJul 19, 2015

  • Art & Architecture

• 

  Uses of Displeasure: Literary Value and Affective Disgust

  Samuel Delany’s novel Hogg is an affectively disgusting book that lends itself to politically charged and urgent kinds of reading.

  Liz JanssenJul 18, 2015

  • SF