Progress Is Not Linear, as ‘The House of the Pain of Others’ Reminds Us with Devastating Effect
Julián Herbert's The House of the Pain of Others is a masterly study that sheds light on the role played by educated elites in fomenting genocide.
popmatters pick
Is Progressive-Populism Our Best Option in These Troubled Times?
When order ruptures it leads to a state of crisis manifest in many ways, as we see emerging throughout the world. What can we do?
Books/Business/Culture/Economics/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/History/PopMatters Picks/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular
Will a New Form of Socialism Rise? On Bhaskar Sunkara’s ‘The Socialist Manifesto’
Socialists need to do better in fighting against identity-based discrimination, as editor of Jacobin Bhaskar Sunkara notes in The Socialist Manifesto, but that struggle will only be effective if waged as part of a larger struggle against neoliberal capitalism.
Yannick Haenel’s ‘Hold Fast Your Crown’ Is French Literature at Its Best
Yannick Haenel's Hold Fast Your Crown is shocking, frustrating, elating, and among the best books published in France for decades.
Vivien Goldman’s ‘Revenge of the She-Punks’ Doesn’t Gloss the Reasons We Still Have to Rage
In her history of women in punk music, Revenge of the She-Punks, Vivien Goldman hefts the scene's virtues and the vices into one heap and concludes that some of it was necessary, some of it was fun, and some of it was evil.
Newly Translated Mishima Work, ‘Star’, Offers Insight into His Pop Culture Persona
Posthumous work by celebrated Japanese author Yukio Mishima, Star, explores how celebrities struggle with their own lack of authenticity.
Brian Selznick Communicates Wordlessly with Walt Whitman in Abram’s ‘Live Oak, with Moss’
Language and image never combine in Abrams' Live Oak, with Moss; they are distant lovers, if you will, as divided as Walt Whitman and Brian Selznick are as collaborators.
Ted Chiang’s ‘Exhalation’ Calmly Stares Oblivion in the Face
With his second collection of short stories, Exhalation, master of existential science fiction Ted Chiang explores AI, time travel, and alternate realities with the studious eye of an anthropologist.
We Must Pay Attention to the Powerful Political Force of Conspiracy Theories
Where does one draw the line between conspiracy theories, and politics-as-usual? Anthropologist Erica Lagalisse warns that we ignore conspiracy theory at our peril in Occult Features of Anarchism.
‘Article 353’ Explores Who Might Mete Out Justice When the Law Fails
Article 353 is Tanguy Viel's politically charged, darkly atmospheric, and cathartic indictment of neoliberal capitalism.
‘Heaven and Hell’ Offers a Powerful Child’s-eye View of Japanese Colonialism
Japanese poet Toriko Takarabe grew up in Japanese-occupied Manchuria and lived to tell the harrowing tale.
‘Ancestral Night’ Is a Sweeping Space Saga for Intelligent Readers
Mystery and discovery in Hugo Award-winning novelist Elizabeth Bear's latest work, Ancestral Night, initially hooks but it's the speculative and complex world she constructs that's most rewarding.