Books & the Arts

Letter From a Prisoner Letter From a Prisoner

You, who only write letters in your dreams Hello mother! your son now engraves in his heart letters to send you he would like to send you a snail loving the ground passionately he would like to print burning kisses everywhere, where your steps take you he would like to send you a snail to read your poems on the sand to gather them in a shell and send them to the sea this sea whose azure you share where she rests Hello mother! Have you received the snail? (translated from the French by Doog T. Wood)

Oct 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Abdallah Zrika

Disciplined Filth

Disciplined Filth Disciplined Filth

George Clooney’s The Ides of March, Danfung Dennis’s Hell and Back Again, Luc Côté and Patricio Henriquez’s You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days In...

Oct 11, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

The Wrong Moral Revolution: On Michael Barnett

The Wrong Moral Revolution: On Michael Barnett The Wrong Moral Revolution: On Michael Barnett

To see humanitarianism everywhere is not to see it at all.

Oct 5, 2011 / Books & the Arts / David Rieff

Shelf Life

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Jean-Patrick Manchette’s Fatale, Binyavanga Wainaina’s One Day I Will Write About This Place, Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s The History of Costaguana

Oct 5, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz

Getting to Denmark: On Francis Fukuyama

Getting to Denmark: On Francis Fukuyama Getting to Denmark: On Francis Fukuyama

The Origins of Political Order, a work of total world history, pits the old Fukuyama against the new.

Oct 5, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Thomas Meaney

Top Ten Songs About Class Top Ten Songs About Class

Since every great protest movement needs its culture, here's my stab at a list of the ten best songs ever written about class and poverty in tribute to #OccupyWallStreet.

Oct 3, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg

Cruel America Cruel America

Roars of applause for executions at the GOP debate, official approval of torture, barbaric prison conditions, obstruction of aid to storm victims and children in need—is our ...

Sep 28, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Schell

After Deng: On China’s Transformation

After Deng: On China’s Transformation After Deng: On China’s Transformation

Is Deng Xiaoping’s legacy of modernization without political reform one that no contemporary Chinese official can control?

Sep 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Kurlantzick

The Planetary Currents The Planetary Currents

We live on the third rock from the sun In our living rooms We handle the remote and touch off integrated circuits compelling               content, non-integrated circuits such as the chitlin’ circuit, and               disintegrated circuits such as the extended family now stretched               across six continents Plus one under ice The rapid flows of global capital Put us to sleep and wake us We come on in on a wing and a come on We slide right across the ice We stop to catch up, so like a breathing tree   Instead of reading about the unconscious we decide to enter it, that is, by               falling asleep Dream of a document signed by CEO William K. Tasker by which we are               offered a position as director of corporate communications for a               company called Correct We are romantics still, who stand and/or sit in shade Looking straight down to the valley floor Vertiginous, lofty, cerebral, lazy and tight This poem may be recorded for quality assurance purposes There we encounter planets whose colors we shall not forget

Sep 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Kit Robinson

The Planetary Currents The Planetary Currents

We live on the third rock from the sun In our living rooms We handle the remote and touch off integrated circuits compelling     content, non-integrated circuits such as the chitlin’ circuit, and     disintegrated circuits such as the extended family now stretched     across six continents Plus one under ice The rapid flows of global capital Put us to sleep and wake us We come on in on a wing and a come on We slide right across the ice We stop to catch up, so like a breathing tree   Instead of reading about the unconscious we decide to enter it, that is, by     falling asleep Dream of a document signed by CEO William K. Tasker by which we are     offered a position as director of corporate communications for a     company called Correct We are romantics still, who stand and/or sit in shade Looking straight down to the valley floor Vertiginous, lofty, cerebral, lazy and tight This poem may be recorded for quality assurance purposes There we encounter planets whose colors we shall not forget

Sep 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Kit Robinson

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