Manet in Tunisia
Revolutionary art changes how one can see. So does revolution.
On Rage and Swagger
An excerpt from Roman Letters
The Enduring Legacy of Basquiat’s Hair
The painter’s generative conflict (and coif) lives on
Art, Work, and Refusal
Sara Wookey performing “Trio A” (1966) by Yvonne Rainer at VIVA! Performance Festival, Montreal Photo by Guy L’Hereux I participated in an audition on November…
Death Dreams
Anti-Matter: Michel Houellebecq and Depressive Realism by Ben Jeffery, Zero Books (2011) It can be hard to keep French writer-provocateur Michel Houellebecq’s novels straight in one’s head. Like…
Grudge Lust
I can’t remember the specifics of school years, but I can always remember my enemies. Colleen Shea, blonde, “pretty,” and popular, bore the title in…
The Failure Addict
John Phillips mastered the art of serial disappointment by sharing it compulsively. This makes him a harbinger of the social media age
On the Skin of the World
(image via) On From the Observatory by Julio Cortázar (Archipelago Books) By Mark de Silva Julio Cortázar’s fiction is dominated by questions of knowledge: what it consists in,…
Between the Bars
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s On Booze, from the New Directions Pearl series by Jessica Ferri Unless one has the time and money to turn writing into…
The Resentment Machine
(Geoff McFetridge, via) The immiseration of the digital creative class The popular adoption of the internet has brought with it great changes. One of the peculiar…
Consider the Humblebrag
Roy Lichtenstein Girl in Mirror (1964) What false modesty gains from a new medium By Matt Pearce On Twitter, he calls himself Totes McGotes. He’s…
Empire Goes to College
On Gigi Roggero’s The Production of Living Knowledge (Temple University Press) Recent college graduates seem to have more debt than marketable skills. Could this actually be…
Not Your Friend: Dissensus and the Police
(“Circle of Truth Hovering over The USA” by The London Police) On police cooperation with the status quo and occupiers’ cooperation with the police One of the most…
Zombie Novel
A review of Colson Whitehead’s Zone One From all accounts, it is Colson Whitehead’s time. The Brooklyn writer, 140-character artist, and MacArthur fellow is set…
The Missing Medium
A review of Ian Bogost’s How to Do Things with Videogames It is sometimes possible to love something so much that you carry its worst…
Occupy A Bank
What’s next for Occupy Everything? If you’ve been watching at home, you know the showdown with our lady finance only gets good when state force…