Climate Changed
A warmed globe needs new writers to guide us through it
Exorcisms in Style
When we talk about style in writing we're talking about branding
Promotional
A young man is embroiled in a minor dispute on a bus.
Viscera
This page was once plant material.
The First Man
Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes's final novel is a covertly optimistic satire of modern Mexico.
Après Nous, le Déluge
From our stories, you’d think we were ending the world
Looking Through You
Transparency as aesthetic feature, transparency as disposition, transparency as force
The Semiautobiographers
A phalanx of recent books by women are refusing old-fashioned plot structures and paying special attention to the unruly sexual lives of their characters. Is this the way to liberation?
Heroines
An excerpt from the book Heroines, now available from semiotext(e)
Emergency Supplies
Can poetry can be deemed a societal benefit like healthcare or peace-keeping forces or education or food?
Love, Mystery, and Irrationality
“Sexuality is a murky realm of contradiction and ambivalence. It cannot always be understood by social models, which feminism, as an heir of nineteenth-century utilitarianism,…
Orhan Pamuk and The National on Sadness
“Now, many years later, I understand that this discontent is the basic trait that turns a person into a writer. Patience and toil are not…
The Search
Bedrich Grunzweig, Times Square Movie Theatre Marquee (New York City, c. 1950) Walker Percy, The Moviegoer Then it is that the idea of the search…
Moral belief as aesthetic stance
Susan Sontag believed that intellectuals should, must, take political stands. She was active in the movement against the Vietnam War. She tried, with passion and…
The Gift
Leopoldo Lugones Argüello (13 June 1874 - 18 February 1938) Jorge Luis Borges, August 9, 1960: The sounds of the plaza fall behind, and I…