The Monthly Digest: February 2020

In January LARB featured a number of articles that, each its way, tackled various sorts of crises, be they political, social, environmental, or literary. Below you will find essay, interviews, and reviews written from within, or about, moments of chaos and change. — LARB Editorial

In January LARB featured a number of articles that, each its way, tackled various sorts of crises, be they political, social, environmental, or literary. Below you will find essay, interviews, and reviews written from within, or about, moments of chaos and change. — LARB Editorial

Libraries and Authoritarianism 1940, 2020
Jeremy Braddock on Archibald MacLeish and the campaign to make libraries a bulwark against fascists.
Jeremy BraddockJan 28, 2020
- History
- Politics
Tracking Reality’s “Fuckedness Quotient”: An Interview with William Gibson
Eliot Peper talks to William Gibson about his new novel, "The Agency," a sequel to "The Peripheral."
Eliot PeperJan 25, 2020
- SF
Small Culture, Big Mistakes
Philip Ó Ceallaigh reviews a well-researched and compelling study of intellectual life in 1930s Romania.
Philip Ó CeallaighJan 24, 2020
My Taco Laughs at You: On Death Threats Aimed at Women of Color Who Don’t Fellate White Supremacy
When telling the truth is dangerous. Threats to women of color online and in real life.
Myriam GurbaJan 23, 2020
- Nonfiction
It’s Between Us: Lukas Bärfuss’s Georg Büchner Prize Acceptance Speech
Tess Lewis translates Swiss author Lukas Bärfuss’s Georg Büchner Prize acceptance speech.
Lukas Bärfuss, Tess LewisJan 22, 2020
- Around the World
- Politics
Normality Becomes Madness: Trauma in Contemporary Nordic Speculative Fiction
Katie Smith looks at three recent books to consider how Nordic SF writers grapple with trauma through highly experimental prose.
Katie SmithJan 20, 2020
The Earth Died Screaming
What Tom Waits has to teach us about the coming global catastrophe.
Robert Cashin RyanJan 19, 2020
- Music
Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement, and American Jews
Peter Dreier surveys the long history of the black-Jewish alliance for civil rights.
Peter DreierJan 18, 2020
- Politics
- Religion
Art Matters Now — 12 Writers on 20 Years of Art: Yxta Maya Murray on Artists’ Responses to 9/11
Reeling from 9/11 but working on projects begun during the Clinton boom, some artists in 2002 were still able to romanticize millenarianism and the future.
Yxta Maya MurrayJan 17, 2020
- Art & Architecture
- Politics
Homage to Rojava: An American Fighter in ISIS Territory
A New Yorker reflects on his six months fighting alongside the Kurds against ISIS in Syria.
Arvind DilawarJan 11, 2020
- Around the World
- Politics
Sifting the Ashes of Malibu
On the first anniversary of the Woolsey Fire that leveled parts of Malibu, a new book tells the victims’ stories.
Avery SilverbergJan 9, 2020
- Nonfiction
- Politics
Hindutva and the Academy: A Conversation with Divya Dwivedi
Krithika Varagur talks to Divya Dwivedi about the roots of Hindu nationalism, and whether a heterodox India can survive it.
Krithika VaragurJan 8, 2020
Binge and Purge: The Rise of Extreme Film Criticism
Noah Gittell considers the growing phenomenon of “Extreme Film Criticism” in the wake of media conglomeration and the decline of long-form journalism.
Noah GittellJan 7, 2020
- Film
Big Lit Meets the Mexican Americans: A Study in White Supremacy
Latinx novelist Michael Nava considers the unbearable whiteness of publishing.
Michael NavaJan 2, 2020
- Fiction
- Politics
Merchants of Hate: The Dreyfus Affair Revisited
The Dreyfus Affair split France into two warring camps, and still inspires storytelling.
Theo ZenouJan 2, 2020
“The World Is Chaos, but I’m Not Scared of It”: A Conversation with Lari Pittman
Lari Pittman speaks to Yxta Maya Murray about his retrospective at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Yxta Maya MurrayJan 1, 2020
- Art & Architecture