Monday, February 1 2010
The Cult of Kindle and the Myth of Digital Utopia
If I could read more with a Kindle, it stood to reason that I wasn’t reading enough without one. Getting and consuming increasingly MORE information is an end in of itself these days.
Friday, January 22 2010
The Best of Books 2009: Non-Fiction
As you will see in the selections we present here, there were more than enough great books by great writers in the past year to more than make up for all the other shouters and malingerers.
Thursday, January 21 2010
PopMatters Picks: The Best of Books 2009: Fiction
More than half of the titles in this year’s selections offer grim portraits of the human condition, some with more wit and optimism than others, and a surprising number of legendary authors complete the portraiture and theme.
Monday, January 11 2010
Starbucks and the New Age of Censorship
Like Kremlin censors, Starbucks regulates choice -- not to retain state power, but to bolster corporate profits -- and the distinction between the role of government and brands gets fuzzier all the time.
Friday, January 8 2010
Pocket Protectors and Politics: Is (Stephen Jay Gould’s) Science Political?
Our biology granted us a faculty (rationality) that allows us, when desirable or necessary, to deny aspects of our biology.
Wednesday, December 2 2009
Reinventing Don Imus: Anatomy of an Excuse
Imus traffics in the tropes of hip-hop and black culture in general on an occasional, selective basis -- a cafeteria approach to cultural exploration as obvious as it is insincere.
Tuesday, November 24 2009
‘Revolution in the Head; The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties’ by Ian MacDonald
Every corner of this book is filled with characterful touches. You can look, but you will not find this level of writing in any other Beatles book.
20 Questions: Sandra Brown
Bestselling author Sandra Brown chats about her weep-inducing, wavering confidence and advises that one should be wary of hiring a discount hit man.
Thursday, November 12 2009
We’re Going to See the Beatles: The Ed Sullivan Show
The Beatles managed to spend the morning of the next day, Feb. 8th, in relative quiet. On Sunday, they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and it was the night Beatlemania exploded.
Tuesday, November 10 2009
A Working Class Family: Ed and Edie Falco
PopMatters talks with Ed Falco and his niece, actor Edie Falco, about their life in the arts and Ed's gritty new novel, Saint John of the Five Boroughs.
Monday, November 9 2009
Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Ayn Rand set out to remake reality as if it were an ill-fitting dress: by sheer will, she tried to fashion a Balenciaga gown from a housedress.
Thursday, November 5 2009
Leaving Las Vegas and Leaving for Good
Using Ben in Leaving Las Vegas as a gauge to measure myself against, my life wasn’t anywhere close to as bad as it could be, but people who thought they had better control of their drinking than me still fuck their lives right up, so....
Wednesday, November 4 2009
Nicholson Baker’s Enthusiasms and Passionate Obsessions
Nicholson Baker writes from his enthusiasms, which are many and ever changing. Among other things, his books have focused on sex, John Updike, public libraries, and pacifism and World War II. His latest, The Anthologist, is his love letter to poetry.
Monday, November 2 2009
How Far Is Too Far?: Navigating the World of Young Adult Fiction
In the world of "edgy" young adult fiction, there's a tendency to either bury real world consequences, or exploit the darker material for all it's worth. But where does that leave the young readers grappling with the content?
Wednesday, October 28 2009
20 Questions: Barb Johnson
From a balcony overlooking the flood of New Orleans to 'The Bubble' laundromat, where the city's characters come to wash it all out, award-winning author Barb Johnson talks with PopMatters 20 Questions.
Monday, October 19 2009
20 Questions: Patricia Cornwell
20 Questions caught up with award-winning, international best-selling author Patricia Cornwell in a rare moment when her feet were on the ground.
Wednesday, October 14 2009
Await Your Reply: Dan Chaon Talks About Self-invention
Lost, indie music and Final Destination inspired Dan Chaon's latest novel, Await Your Reply -- all deal with issues of self-invention and how we conceptualize the self, he tells PopMatters.
Friday, October 2 2009
American Liars and the Enforcers of Honesty
A hard-boiled history of the lie detector revels in the seedy deceptions at the roots of the search for a truth-telling machine (plus: it exposes the kinky origins of Wonder Woman).
Wednesday, September 30 2009
The New American Spook Country
Spook Country is about America’s loss of innocence, its various ways of remembering the past, and an attempt to find a way of reconciling those memories with the present.
Friday, September 25 2009
Envisioning a Better Future: Octavia Estelle Butler, 1947–2006
Octavia Butler’s work offers us a future that is different from the other visions we usually see in popular culture. Her future takes into account identity and culture, power and empowerment.
