“Star Fucking Trek?” and More About VR and the ‘Dawn of the New Everything’
Computer philosopher and scientist, visual artist and composer Jaron Lanier goes gleefully (but mindfully) "schizophrenic" in Dawn of the New Everything.
Catherine Ramsdell
Fairy Tales for the Children of the Laborers
With anthology Workers' Tales, children's literature professor Michael Rosen curates fairy tales from the 19th and 20th centuries that resonate with workers' rights activists and their children today.
‘Iconic Magazine Covers’ Positions Magazine Covers As Cultural Artifacts and Historical Touchstones
Ian Birch's engaging Iconic Magazine Covers shows how magazines and their covers not only reflect social change -- they can also help bring about social change.
‘On Press’ Shows That Journalism Has Survived Tough Times Before
Matthew Pressman's engaging, historical dive into the fourth estate, On Press, looks at the forces that contributed to the decline of news in print, gave rise to interpretive reporting, and the new challenges and advantages available to news reporters and consumers today.
‘Protest Kitchen’ Is Often, Like Our Politics, Unsettling
Carol J. Adams and Virginia Messina's Protest Kitchen provides easy, everyday tips to help make positive change in the world, but it might best be read with the comfort of a vegan Irish Cream in hand.
‘Grist Mill Road’ Questions the Role of the Spectator to Violence
Just as it's hard not to look at a road accident, it's hard to put Christopher J. Yates' uncomfortable book down.
‘The Perfect Nanny’ Mirrors the Aftermath of Its Murderous Inspiration
As with the media surrounding the Krim children murders, Leila Slimani's book asks, what went wrong?
The Timeless ‘Beyond the Rice Fields’ Is a Study in Contrasts
Sabers and bayonets might not be weapons of choice today, but the phrase "fear caused the powerful to commit the most awful abuses" rings as true now as it did in 19th century Madagascar.
Are You Paying Attention? ‘The Distracted Mind’
Multi-tasking on your smart phone consumes too many resources, including memory, and can cause the system to "choke". Imagine what it does to your brain.
‘Frankenstein Dreams’: When Sci-fi Lumbered into the Victorian Era
Did the Victorians deal with their rapidly changing society better than civilization today is dealing with equally new dizzying discoveries?
What’s Wrong With Education Today? It’s Missing the Monsters
College should include courses on zombie apocalypses. Monsters in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching What Scares Us explains why.
Animal Wives and Animal Husbands — It Goes Way Beyond Belle and the Beast
Sexuality, economics, cultural norms, the other, and self-sacrifice: these and other themes are shared in the globally diverse telling of the classic Beauty and the Beast.