Sounds of the Zomia, Sounds of Resistance: An Interview with Kink Gong
Laurent Jeanneau, also known as Kink Gong, walks among the peoples of Southeast Asia and listens, with sincere passion, for their vanishing music and culture.
William Gibson
William L. Gibson is a writer, researcher, and sound artist based in Southeast Asia.. He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds. His current research interest is the life and work of Alfred Raquez. Laotian Pages, a scholarly translation with Paul Bruthiaux of Raquez's travels through Laos in 1900, is forthcoming from NIAS Press. William's trilogy of hard-boiled crime novels set in 1890s Malaya is published by Monsoon Books. Albums from his experimental sound project Third World Skull Candy are available on BitPulse Records. www.williamlgibson.com ...
Indonesian Author Eliza Vitri Handayani on Her Novel of Freedom Set in a Repressed Society
"We were taught what we should aspire to: excelling in math and the sciences were all good because those things have almost nothing to do with politics, but if you had artistic aspirations, if you had the need to examine life…"
Apocalypse, American Style
Apocalypse Now is the most iconic American film about America’s War in Vietnam. But we are not here to expand the myth. We are here to explode it.
Heathen Folklore with Alt/Indie Psych-rock Artist Alvarius B.
"I think it's healthy to have a disdain for mankind and to use a sense of anger and violence and hatred for creative purposes."
How ‘The Quiet American’ Continues to Colonize Vietnam
Neither bombs nor bumbling Americans broke the will of the Vietnamese. Something far more insidious and far-reaching, however, may have.
Life in the Interzone in Old Shanghai
The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai and Flowers of Shanghai capture a William S. Borroughs-like Interzone in Old Shanghai.
Still Living Dangerously After All These Years
As autocratic leaders slowly take over the First World, popular representations of a Third World coup take on renewed significance.
On the Robot Zombies of Angkor Wat in John Burdett’s ‘The Bangkok Asset’
The sixth novel in John Burdett's Bangkok detective series is a dispiriting, dismaying mess. Is there still hope for recovery or is the series in a death spiral?
The Absolution of Paul Theroux’s ‘Saint Jack’ in a World Lacking Irony
The narrative of Paul Theroux's (and later Peter Bogdanovich's) Saint Jack offers a palliative to the high-priced hedonism taking place in an American-owned compound in Singapore.
Death Tripping Tibetan Style With Gaspar Noé’s ‘Enter the Void’
Reaching for the ultimate psychedelic experience, director Gaspar Noé found The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but did he know what he found when he crafted Enter the Void?
Why Does Paul Bowles’ 70-Year-Old Existential Masterpiece Continue to Test Our Limits?
The Sheltering Sky is itself a test of limits: its form is an exploration of how far one can go in novel writing.
It’s in the Blood: A Conversation with History Writer Tim Hannigan
Treading the lines between journalist and academic, travel writer and scholar, author Tim Hannigan talks about his latest book and his unorthodox approach to writing historical narratives.