Peter Guralnick’s ‘Looking to Get Lost’ Is an Ode to the Pleasures of Writing About Music
Peter Guralnick's homage to writing about music, 'Looking to Get Lost', shows how good music writing gets the music into the readers' head.
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Heathen’s Queer Feminist Vikings Are the Heroines Pop Culture Needed
Natasha Alterici's comic series, Heathen, has single-handedly redeemed the disaster that pop culture has been making of Norse mythology.
For Don DeLillo, ‘The Silence’ Is Deafening
In Don DeLillo’s The Silence, it is much like our post-pandemic life – everything changed but nothing happened. Are we listening?
Can Queer Studies Rescue American Universities?
Matt Brim's Poor Queer Studies underscores the impact of poorer disciplines and institutions, which often do more to translate and apply transformative intellectual ideas in the world than do their ivory-tower counterparts.
Paul Leni’s Silent Film ‘The Man Who Laughs’ Is Serious Cinema
There's so much tragedy present, so many skullduggeries afoot, and so many cruel and vindictive characters in attendance that a sad and heartbreaking ending seems to be an obvious given in Paul Leni's silent film, The Man Who Laughs.
Buster Keaton’s Last Silent Masterpieces: ‘The Cameraman’ and ‘Spite Marriage’
Buster Keaton was aware that the camera can be a catalyst of violence, especially stereotypical violence, for audience consumption -- and that it could also evoke the shared joy of cathartic laughter.
UbuWeb’s Kenneth Goldsmith Writes the Book on Internet Archiving
Kenneth Goldsmith's Duchamp Is My Lawyer, a tale of the creation and upkeep of the anti-internet internet, UbuWeb, is highly engaging and avoids the risk of ploughing down theoretical wormholes of limited interest.
Serene Ambiguities in Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry
So much of Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry feels relevant to the 2020 experience, in which small distances have never felt greater.
‘The Art of Drag’ Captivates and Unites
Like a properly tightened corset, the total effect of The Art of Drag lends a stunning shape to the art forms in question.
Privacy and Alt-Right Transhumanism in Hari Kunzru’s ‘Red Pill’
Kunzru excels in capturing the geist in alt-right circles in his latest work, Red Pill, from the callous philosophy down to the very language.
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COVID-19 Is but One Indication of the Return of the Pandemic Monster
Mike Davis' COVID-era update about emerging flu pandemics, The Monster Enters, is concise, disturbing, and valuable.
Joe Sacco’s ‘Paying the Land’ Reflects Journalistic Nuance in a Way Other Media Does Not
The insights Joe Sacco shares in his comics journalism offer important lessons in understanding and compassion to readers around the world. No less so with his latest work, the excellent Paying the Land.