Books & the Arts

Inquisitions Inquisitions

From Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, tales of the Devil and wise women, torturers and the tortured.

Jun 3, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Eduardo Galeano

The Age of Paine The Age of Paine

It was Tom Paine, ink-stained wretch and citizen of the world, who first roused American patriots to action.

Jun 3, 2009 / Books & the Arts / John Nichols

Women’s Poetry Women’s Poetry

I, too, dislike it. However,        I was trying to not think when out of the gaping wound of the car-detailing garage (smells like metallic sex) came a Nissan GT-R fitted with an oversized spoiler. Backing out sounded like clearing the throat of god. A gold snake zizzed around the license plate. Sunburst hubcaps, fancy undercarriage installation casting a pool of violet light on the pocked pavement of gum blots. Was it this that filled me with desire?

Jun 3, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Daisy Fried

Return of the Fabulous Return of the Fabulous

In the end, the vote was silly or sad, but for eighteen weeks on American Idol, Adam Lambert was Everyman and Everygayman, skating the edge of ecstasy and terror.

May 27, 2009 / Books & the Arts / JoAnn Wypijewski

Live Long and Prosper: Star Trek and More Live Long and Prosper: Star Trek and More

J.J. Abrams's Star Trek, Ron Howard's Angels & Demons, Olivier Assayas's Summer Hours

May 27, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Vice: The Dispiriting Legacy of Dick Cheney Vice: The Dispiriting Legacy of Dick Cheney

Assessing the stealth, subterfuge and delusion of the Cheney vice presidency.

May 27, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Holmes

i am enCentering the amen New i am enCentering the amen New

for Peter Gizzi             crush tamarind and the brown thirst of Quivira       the hollow sound of the silence of travail       the tipp iron toe of aventura coronado . x       -plore for the first time like in imagen childhood       the time of the world of the mesa. but this one is "real"       the opponents are vivid & feather'd & red       not one of these is yr father       here the world that we thought of as round       after all becomes arid & flat in its trail       full of deep stony echoes & the steep sound       of phonemes       as if God is a well where there is no       language of water. no meaning       of silver of mineral flood that we know       in our langurous rivers       . but here is only the archer wind       . is this why we are hearin feathers?       . the future sits across from us squat & vivid on a burn       -ing horse. not a cross. w/its arrows       there are no orchards here. no wine       no other kind of time for these sorrows      

May 27, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Kamau Brathwaite

Steve Earle’s Labor of Love Steve Earle’s Labor of Love

The music on Townes, Steve Earle's tribute to Townes Van Zandt, is simple and literally homespun. There is sinew to this music, and blood in the words.

May 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Charles P. Pierce

Chop Shops Chop Shops

Over a decade ago, in his novel The Ax, Donald E. Westlake captured the ruthlessness and anomie of economic Darwinism.

May 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor

The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes

Book publishers have always predicted that the end was nigh. When it does come they will have only themselves to blame.

May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Elisabeth Sifton

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