The Language Plague
by Jyoti Thottam
Doctors say: talking about disease can promote racism, imperialism, and insularity (and may cause dizziness).
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The Romantic Fabulist Predicts a Dreamy Apocalypse
by Brian Evenson
Steve Erickson is dark, poetic, romantic, imaginative, and, according to one of his novels, he was murdered in Berlin in the 1990s.
We Are All Harkonnens
by John Giuffo
Frank Herbert’s
Dune series is dire prophecy posing as drug-induced science fiction.
Nazis, Nuremberg, and Gold-Digging Women
by Tom Bissell
An exploration of the deadening effects of documentary representation, struggling towards the ultimate question: Are You Hot?
Everything Falls Apart
by Jeff Byles
From the London blitz to greasy Gotham, destruction is the necessary prelude to appreciation.
Grab Your Hankies, All You Women (and Democrats)!
by Jim Shepard
Traditional weepies offer either self-denial or indulged desire.
Babette’s Feast is no ordinary weepie.
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Timothy Taylor
interviewed by Tom Vanderbilt
Don’t mourn the skeletons of prehistoric children: they’d be dead by now, anyway.
David Rees
interviewed by Anthony York
America’s new fighting technique is unstoppable and David Rees might be the funniest, most dangerous cartoonist in the world.
Margot Livesey
interviewed by Robert Birnbaum
On getting unsteadily better and the exhilarations of plot.
Liz Phair
interviewed by Vendela Vida
How to spot good songs, avoid black eyes, and perfect the art of the grift.
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Richard Rorty
interviewed by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Neoconservative intellectuals parade their philosophical roots. Richard Rorty doesn’t believe they have any.
