Books & the Arts

Roll Over Techno Roll Over Techno

Can the conundrum of Stravinsky's wayward development be answered by exploring his Russian roots?

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / David Schiff

The Changing Light at Craneway

The Changing Light at Craneway The Changing Light at Craneway

In the film projects of Tacita Dean, everything is just about to disappear.

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

Mirror, Mask, Labyrinth Mirror, Mask, Labyrinth

Two new collections of the poems of Jorge Luis Borges.

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Susan Stewart

Ghosting History Ghosting History

Heidi Durrow traces a young girl's harrowing plunge into racial identity.

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Madison Smartt Bell

Alongside Darwin Alongside Darwin

The sun is a forerunner of itself. Picture a black road very early, Desert mountains to the east, No trees. As the sun rises, Blacking then blazoning The dry slopes, it also Walks the road to you.   Truth like a canopy shelters truth, Illusions of combat among the greenflies. There is no sky. There is only the sun And the sun’s sharp progress Through the God-forsaken, which is sunlight too. I hear voices underneath the road. Whichever way I go was once an ocean.

Jun 30, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Donald Revell

Barry Eisler vs. Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor Barry Eisler vs. Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor

A former covert CIA operative turned novelist is fast emerging as one of the most important fiction writers in the military/covert ops/political thriller genre dominated by right-w...

Jun 29, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Scahill

Economic Anxiety and the Gay Marriage Debate Economic Anxiety and the Gay Marriage Debate

Proposition 8, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Civil Unions? Nation Senior Editor Richard Kim and writer Reihan Salam talk it all out on Bloggingheads.tv.

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Bloggingheads

As Big as Mount Ararat

As Big as Mount Ararat As Big as Mount Ararat

Orhan Pamuk may be the face that Turkish literature turns to the West, but the novelist Yashar Kemal is its conscience and heart.

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Marc Edward Hoffman

Fragments Fragments

When dawn, wearing golden sandals, awoke me, I began to crawl, burning, shivering, to my uncurtained window; Migrating birds streamed over the dark sea.   Who can quench the ingenious fires of cruelty? I was dreaming of white-fetlocked horses conferring in a meadow When dawn, wearing golden sandals, awoke me.   On my stopped loom, a sort of landscape: icy Peaks, serrated as daggers; a corpse, and beside it a crow, And migrating birds streaming over the dark sea.   Fat, autumnal flies alight on my sheets, rainbow-hued, dizzy; This one on my wrist--its mandibles quiver, its gibbous eyes glow... Then dawn, wearing golden sandals, awoke me.   Merciless daughter of Zeus, immortal Aphrodite, Come to me, sing to me, low-voiced, in sorrow Of migrating birds that stream over the dark sea.   Cast aside your spangled headband: in my mirror I see You beneath these stringy locks, puckered lips, and tearstained cheeks... go, Migrating birds, stream over the dark sea; And dawn, wearing golden sandals, awake me.

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Mark Ford

Bierced

Bierced Bierced

Ours is an age of the unexpected, the extraordinary—the uncanny. What better time to resurrect the stories of Ambrose Bierce?

Jun 24, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Victor LaValle

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