Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables
Dunn’s books are often described as cult classics, which fits not only in the sense that they inspire devotion but also in the sense that cults of personality always appear in them...
Jun 1, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Nora Caplan-Bricker
The Janus-Faced End of “Succession” The Janus-Faced End of “Succession”
At once cruel and compassionate, the finale of the much-loved HBO show revels in the space between tragedy and comedy.
May 31, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi
Kelly Reichardt’s Cinema of Class Conflict Kelly Reichardt’s Cinema of Class Conflict
In her latest film, Showing Up, she continues a career-long project of examining the bitter resentments produced by inequality.
May 31, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Alex Kong
What Makes Special Effects Work? What Makes Special Effects Work?
In Empire of Effects, Julie Turnock examines how George Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic transformed the way we make and view movies.
May 30, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Malcolm Harris
The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s “Arabesques” The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s “Arabesques”
A new translation of the 1988 novel documents not only the loss and exile created by the Nakba but also the loss and exile created by occupation.
May 30, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Raja Shehadeh
The Reluctant Feminists of the 1960s The Reluctant Feminists of the 1960s
Wendell Stevenson’s campus novel Margot examines the life of a woman who initially resists the political and sexual education her era offers.
May 25, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer
Liberating a Palestinian Novel From Israeli Prison Liberating a Palestinian Novel From Israeli Prison
The Trinity of Fundamentals, a book Wisam Rafeedie penned while imprisoned, is a stirring account of dissidence and resistance to the Occupation.
May 24, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Danya Al-Saleh and Samar Al-Saleh
What Are Rules For? What Are Rules For?
A conversation with historian Lorraine Daston about her recent book on the history of rules and how they have structured life across centuries.
May 23, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Ishan Desai-Geller
The Curious Case of the Transcendental Painting Group The Curious Case of the Transcendental Painting Group
A touring exhibition of 20th-century painting from the American Southwest is poised to be the next big art world hit. Yet the show forces us to ask: What is fueling the revival?
May 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Max Pearl
The Indulgences of Rainer Werner Fassbinder The Indulgences of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Ian Penman’s study of the German filmmaker’s work elucidates his “cocaine communism”—an aesthetics and politics of revolution and pleasure.
May 18, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Marzoni