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Mikita BrottmanAbout Mikita Brottman Mikita Brottman is an author, psychoanalyst, and chair of the humanities program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. Her book, The Solitary Vice, was published as a PopMatters imprint in 2008 (see 1 of 3 excerpts here). She lives in Ojai, California. Her website is available here. Features
The Solitary Vice: Has Reading Really Made You a Better Person?In this third excerpt of PopMatters' first book, The Solitary Vice: Against Reading, by Mikita Brottman, Brottman tells us about the dark, pathological side of reading. [20 June 2008] The Solitary Vice: You Can Always Watch the Movie, InsteadIn this second excerpt of PopMatters' first book, The Solitary Vice: Against Reading, Mikita Brottman suggests an easy out when you don’t want to read the book. [14 May 2008] The Solitary Vice: Remove the ‘Guilt’ from ‘Guilty Pleasures’PopMatters unveils its first book, The Solitary Vice: Against Reading, by Mikita Brottman, in this first excerpt and author interview. Brottman wonders, Just what's so great about reading, anyway? [7 April 2008] In Print and In Conversation: Rocco VersaciSurprising though it may be to PopMatters readers, there are those who still feel that a taste for comic books is a sign of arrested development, or wasted youth. [21 March 2008] Columns
The Curse of Monkey-Eared PeopleNothing like a new iPhone to make one feel self-conscious about one’s ears. [7 July 2009] (more Sub Rosa) The Special BusEsotouric offers the connoisseur of crime a selection of tours round the infamous hot-spots of L.A’s darkest neighborhoods. [21 April 2009] (more Sub Rosa) Surton GirlsThe girls collected in Surton's photographs evoke butterflies pinned to a board in the dusty attic of a lonely lepidopterist. [28 May 2008] (more Sub Rosa) E-mails from the DeadLike a cyber séance, of sorts, these Internet services have become a means for the dead to speak to the living. [6 May 2008] (more Sub Rosa) Customer FeedbackSome Amazon buyers serve as "culture jammers", expressing their contempt for advertisers through simple acts of creative customer feedback. [26 March 2008] (more Sub Rosa) Plastic FantasticIf you’re not shocked by the idea of mounting a dead animal’s head on the wall, why should you be shocked by Body Worlds 2? [19 February 2008] (more Sub Rosa) When Pets are Past Their PrimeRetirement homes for elderly herbivores and posthumous plans for your pet should you kick the proverbial bucket of water, first. [6 February 2008] (more Sub Rosa) Dyke-AlikesWelcome to an alternate universe populated entirely by middle-aged lesbians the likes of Robert Redford, Barry Manilow, Al Franken, and Kim Jong-il. [7 January 2008] (more Sub Rosa) One Man’s Trash…However unseemly and excessive this market may seem, the fact is that ever since there have been celebrities, there have been people rooting through their rubbish. [26 November 2007] (more Sub Rosa) The Good, the Ugly, and the Simply AwfulSince we expect our celebrities to be beautiful, it's no surprise that we've acquired a clinical, critical eye for fine distinctions of physiology, scrutinizing the form and shape of the human face in Talmudic minuteness. [22 October 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Dinners of the DamnedThanks to Dead Man Eating, I now know that most states actually offer you your “special meal” a couple of days before your execution date, when you’ve still got enough of an appetite to enjoy it. [24 September 2007] (more Sub Rosa) The Real McCoyMcCoy's massage parlor guides are comprised of funny, fussbudget prose and genteel, old-world attitude toward the "charms" of the "ladies" he has visited. [27 August 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Xtreme Zoo BabiesNational Geographic's Animals in the Womb brings up an interesting thought; nobody goes around aborting cute, unborn puppies -- we wait until they're born to get rid of them. [7 August 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Stars in our PiesAlways wanted to invite a famous person over for dinner? You can dine with almost any one you want, every day, no linen napkin required. [2 July 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Shit HappensNo-one wants to talk seriously about toilets. Poke around in the hidden corners of The Poop Report, and you’ll come to see there's a lot more to it than tales about the trots. [4 June 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Abandoning the FortIt seems that teleportation, spontaneous human combustion, poltergeists, UFO sightings, alien abductions, and other such phenomena has fallen out of fashion, these days. [11 May 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Side Show SuckersFor those waiting on a cold night for a shrunken head, a vampire-killing silver bullet, and the last, nasty little shred of Abe Lincoln, they would only be misled and deceived, yet again. [2 April 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Art HistoryWithout venturing to psychoanalyze Art Garfunkel’s unconscious fixations, I’d say there are times when you can, in fact, tell a book by its cover -- and one of them is when it’s covered in protective plastic. [7 March 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Mein KatCats that Look Like Hitler: Where cute starts to seem creepy... [6 February 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Mixed PicklesA profile of rogue taxidermists, also known as artists who pay tribute to the overlooked detritus of the natural world, of which death is only a part. [9 January 2007] (more Sub Rosa) Reviews
Sway by Zachary LazarReading this book is like taking a ride a dark, scary ghost train. Only in retrospect can you look back and see where you’ve been. [19 March 2008] 
The Executioners Bible by Steve FieldingHanging people is a messy business, and most of those in the trade, however eager they may have been to take the job at first, before long would be traumatized by the scenes they were forced to witness and take part in. [31 January 2008] 
Sleaze Artists by Jeffrey SconceIt must surely be daunting for any young film scholar with an interest in trash to come face to face with the volume of academic work that’s been done on once-disreputable movies. [3 January 2008] 
The Gothic by Gilda WilliamsAs this volume makes clear, there's nothing new about the Gothic culture, which goes back, well, to the Goths. [12 December 2007] 
Hotel Theory by Wayne KoestenbaumAn exhaustive, exhausting exploration, evisceration, analysis and autopsy of the author’s obsession with the phenomenon of the hotel, both edifice and state of mind. [20 September 2007] 
The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena by Bob Rickard and John MichellUnexplained phenomena, as Rickard and Michell make clear, are limited neither to time nor place. [12 September 2007] 
The Red Parts by Maggie NelsonThe "red parts" in question are those of Maggie Nelson's Aunt Jane. [4 September 2007] 
The Evolving Brain by R. Grant SteenSteen is refreshingly up-to-date on all the latest debates and controversies in brain studies. [29 August 2007] 
Becoming Eichmann by David CesaraniThere are virtually no details of Adolf Eichmann's personal life in Cesarani's book. [26 July 2007] 
Interfictions by Delia Sherman and Theodora GossWhat struck me most about these "interfictions," however, was their striking similarity, rather than their difference. [17 July 2007] 
Tabloid Prodigy by Marlise Elizabeth KastMost people who feel they've made shameful ethical compromises don't usually write books about how thrilling it all was. [6 July 2007] 
New Cultural Studies by Gary Hall and Clare Birchall [Editors]As a discipline, it's a bit like a sandwich left out for an hour; you come back to it, and it's already stale. [24 May 2007] 
The End of the World As We Know It by Robert GoolrickBut while I enjoyed the book and found it engaging, I can't say my "heart was changed" by it, whatever that means. [8 May 2007] 
The Wow Climax by Henry JenkinsJenkins is writing about things that make him go "wow," but he needs to remember his readers won't always feel the same way. [25 April 2007] 
FOUND Polaroids by Jason Bitner (Editor)It's like the thrift-store version of McSweeney's, without the literary pretensions. [16 April 2007] 
Reading Like a Writer by Francine ProseWhile many of us are proud of reading regularly, voraciously, or eclectically, how many of us really pay close attention to what we read? [4 April 2007] 
Freuds Wizard: by Brenda MaddoxThe biography left me wondering how many pioneering intellectuals have been dismissed for exhibiting behavior we now consider inappropriate. [13 March 2007] 
Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnikAt first I hated this book; then I made peace with it; then I started to enjoy it. [7 March 2007] 
What is the What by Dave EggersI'm glad the book's been so successful; it makes me feel less guilty about finding it such a drag. [11 December 2006] 
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane SmileyYou might argue with her judgments, as I did with her criticism of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but you can't help but sense that hers is the more grounded point of view. [15 November 2006] 
Rain Village by Carolyn TurgeonI felt as though I, like Tessa, was flying through the air without a safety net. [5 November 2006] 
Not in Kansas Anymore by Christine WickerToday's bedroom occultists and kitchen mystics are part of ordinary life, co-existing, often amicably, with Baptists, Presbyterians, and Atheists. [17 October 2006] 
Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick HornbyHornby seems unable to decide if this is a serious book about reading, or a light-hearted diary for his friends and fans, to be taken with a pinch of salt. [25 September 2006] 
Remember Me by Lisa Takeuchi CullenWith caskets being sold at Costco and FuneralDepot.com, with cremation becoming all the rage, and with the Internet offering custom funerals, does anyone actually still get buried in the old-fashioned way? [12 September 2006] 
The Ruins by Scott SmithThe set-up is a tour-de-force, but unfortunately, once you've been lured in, you start to feel like the victim of a bait-and-switch. [1 August 2006] BlogsConsuming Consumables: The Big Book of Pop Culture by Hal Niedzviecki [$24.95] [30 November 2007]Re:Print: The Big Book of Pop Culture [9 June 2007] |
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