Us and Them
If novels are to help us understand 21st century threats like terrorism, late 20th century masculinist realism will need to give way to hysterical realism
How to Waste a Crisis
Philip Mirowski’s Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste seeks to discredit economic explanations of the crisis, but in so doing discounts any possible political alternatives to neoliberalism
Data Occupations
Quantified Self is a passionate political “movement” without concrete demands. That should sound familiar
The Trouble With White Hats
While seeming to address problems of political disengagement, civic hacking champions provisional citizenship and precarious work conditions
Black Magic,
White Soul
When it comes to the birth of soul, the documentary Muscle Shoals would rather credit the dirt than the singers
Instructions for Young Manhood
Going to the gym has always had a purpose
Style Is Fate
Donna Tartt’s new novel proves that she thrives at a remove from literary scenes
Black Riot
The difference between riots and protests has more to do with who and where than what
The Disconnectionists
“Unplugging” from the Internet isn’t about restoring the self so much as it about stifling the desire for autonomy that technology can inspire
Doing it Wrong
An interview with author Cris Mazza on her new memoir of sexual disfunction, Something Wrong With Her
Placebos and Noisy Bodies
When self-medication is an economic necessity, it helps to believe in magic pills
The Writing Cure
The relief of telling the truth about oneself must compete with the challenge of finding an audience to share it with
Hex Before Marriage
Turning on the charm used to mean something quite different
News From Nowhere
Van den Berg’s intricately plotted stories are narrative nonplaces, glutted with information and drift. A review of The Isle of Youth by Laura van den Berg
Charity Assets
Pierre Omidyar’s journalistic venture is another of his efforts to fuse philanthropy with profit
Celluloid Coven
An oral history of watching the 1996 teen-witch movie The Craft