Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Yuval Sharon Reinvents Opera for Los Angeles
Yuval Sharon has made it clear to the opera world that Los Angeles has a unique style that reflects its immensity.
James C. TaylorMar 28, 2020
- Art & Architecture
- Music
Preserving the Poetic Dimension: A Conversation with Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik
Two premier translators on the pleasures and pitfalls of rendering Ibsen into English.
Kathleen Maris PaltrineriMar 28, 2020
Real Life Rock Top 10: March 2020
LARB presents the March installment of “Real Life Rock Top 10,” a monthly column by cultural critic Greil Marcus.
Greil MarcusMar 27, 2020
- Music
- Noir
Climate, Commonwealth, and the Green New Deal: A Conversation with Alyssa Battistoni and Jedediah Britton-Purdy
How the Green New Deal can reshape the politics of climate catastrophe.
Wen StephensonMar 25, 2020
- Politics
- Science & Technology
Women’s Animation and the Creative Feminist Politics of Social Change
Vanessa Cambier explores the intersections of feminist film study and the animation form.
Vanessa CambierMar 25, 2020
- Film
- Gender & Sexuality
Corona Radiata: A New Poem
A new poem by Fady Joudah
Fady JoudahMar 23, 2020
- LARB Lit
The Individual Person at the Center: An Interview with Julia Kristeva
Georges Nivat and Olivier Mongin talk to Julia Kristeva in this conversation translated by Patsy Baudoin.
Georges Nivat, Olivier Mongin, Patsy BaudoinMar 19, 2020
Art Matters Now — 12 Writers on 20 Years of Art: Orit Gat on 2006 and the Rise of YouTube
Orit Gat considers YouTube and how 2006 marked the peak, decline, and end of a certain kind of digital optimism.
Orit GatMar 17, 2020
- Art & Architecture
- Science & Technology
Realtor to the Damned: A Short Story
A short story by Mary South
Mary SouthMar 15, 2020
- LARB Lit
A Sense of Exclusion: An Excerpt from Carla Lonzi’s “Autoritratto (Self-Portrait)”
Allison Grimaldi Donahue presents an excerpt from her translation of Italian art critic and feminist activist Carla Lonzi’s “Autoritratto.”
Allison Grimaldi Donahue, Carla LonziMar 13, 2020
Celestial Bureaucracy: What "The Good Place" Owes "The Aeneid"
In honor of the end of The Good Place, Meghan Gilbride takes us on a guided tour of bureaucratic afterlives from Virgil to Albert Brooks to Michael Schur.
Meghan GilbrideMar 10, 2020
- Television
Say Goodbye to Hollywood Park: Photographing the Twilight of a Racetrack
Michele Asselin presents her photographs of Hollywood Park Racetrack in its final days.
Michele AsselinMar 9, 2020
- Art & Architecture
- Nonfiction
Always Narrating: The Making and Unmaking of Umberto Eco
Costica Bradatan looks back at, and behind, the life and thought of Umberto Eco, who waged a long war against “dietrologia” (“behindology”).
Costica BradatanMar 9, 2020
Sunday Comics
Illustrator Susan Coyne returns to LA
Susan CoyneMar 8, 2020
Getting Hard with Nayland Blake: On the Artist’s Recent Retrospective in Los Angeles
Jonathan Alexander explores a retrospective of artist Nayland Blake’s work now on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Jonathan AlexanderMar 7, 2020
- Art & Architecture
- Gender & Sexuality
From "The Nature Book": A Literary Supercut
An excerpt from "The Nature Book" by Tom Comitta, a literary supercut of nature descriptions from 300 novels by Arundhati Roy, Don DeLillo, and more.
Tom ComittaMar 7, 2020
- LARB Lit