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
Who Was Lydia Maria Child? Who Was Lydia Maria Child?
A new biography examines the life and times of the pioneering activist, abolitionist, and writer.
May 17, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Susan Cheever
Is There Anything Below the Surface in “Beau Is Afraid”? Is There Anything Below the Surface in “Beau Is Afraid”?
When mothers and dreams are involved, it is hard not to think of Freud. But in Ari Aster’s latest, very little is left to the imagination.
May 16, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jorge Cotte
Elias Canetti: The Last Cosmopolitan Elias Canetti: The Last Cosmopolitan
Throughout his life, Canetti maintained his commitment to a humanity undivided by the artificial lines of a nation or state and standing as one collective whole.
May 16, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Farah Abdessamad