Theory Porn
A review of Tamara Faith Berger's complex erotic novel Maidenhead.
Muckrakers, Inc.
To work at the New York Post, you need both optimism and boundless cynicism
Encounters With Lindsay
If you go to enough rooftops in New York or pool parties in Los Angeles or fashion parties in Paris, you will see Lindsay...
Loving the Alien
The mainstreaming of electronic dance music and the assimilation of non-Western music into hipster taste hierarchies owes more to biopolitics than beats
The Oceanic Feeling
Channel Orange isn’t Frank Ocean’s coming out. It’s a tidal wave crashing down
Jihad Against Jihad Against Jihad
For Muslim hip-hop artists, essentialization can become the price of success
Spotivangelism
Spotify claims to make music “social,” as if it hasn’t always been. In the meantime, it strips us of the sense of control that can come from listening
Punk Isn't
Asking “What is punk?” is the wrong question. The answer inevitably makes itself wrong
The Sound and the Fury
When political factions divided Jamaica, sound systems were caught in the cross-fire
Rank and File Countrypolitan
When country musicians tried to protect the integrity of their genre in the 1970s against the likes of John Denver, it wasn’t merely aesthetic protest but an organized labor movement
The Animal Model of Inescapable Shock
If an animal has previously suffered escapable shock, and then she suffers inescapable shock, she will be happier than if she has previously not suffered escapable shock — for if she hasn’t, she will only know about being shocked inescapably.
TNI Vol. 9 Editorial Note: On Music, Utopia, and Failure
We’re big enough fans of pop music to know that sometimes the promise of happiness is not always betrayed.
The Last Cat
Where Zarathustra defined the letzte mensch as the man so despicable he is incapable of despising himself, the lolcat is incapable of despising his master. Lo! I show you the age of the last cat.
Looney Tunes
Science historian Laurel Braitman talked with TNI's Malcolm Harris about non-human animal personalities, mental illness, and taste
Anti-Anti-Parasitism
Parasitism reminds us that there is a third form of relationship that is neither participating nor opting out, neither eliminating nor redistributing, but repurposing
Missing Captain
Against the strident tones of unmanned-flight boosterism, the reservations of naysayers become just so much noise.