Friday, October 17 2008
Honoré de Balzac: A Man of Enormous Appetites
One has to wonder, having conquered two duchesses before reaching his 25th birthday, if Honoré de Balzac didn't believe he deserved the aristocratic title in his name more than some who'd come by it more honestly.
Wednesday, October 1 2008
No Easy Reasons: Interview with Camilla Noli
The question at the heart of Camilla Noli's debut novel, Still Waters, is this: Is every woman suited to motherhood? The book is a sharp, distressing look at the answer. PopMatters spoke to Noli about the book, the controversy, motherhood, and the writer's dream realized.
Monday, September 22 2008
“All I Ever Wanted Was to Control My Own Life”: An Interview with Chuck Klosterman
Cultural critic Chuck Klosterman talks with PopMatters about his new book, Downtown Owl, his regrets about an old one, and that he might next get into making documentary films.
20 Questions: Laurie Lindeen
"It's A Wonderful Life", aint' it? Author and musician Laurie Lindeen (Zuzu's Petals), like George Bailey, would know, as she shares some insights with PopMatters 20 Questions.
Thursday, September 18 2008
This is Water: Remembering David Foster Wallace
Nicholson Baker. Bill Murray. Mark Leyner. David Byrne. Steve Martin. The Coen Brothers. And in the middle of it all, David Foster Wallace.
Monday, September 15 2008
20 Questions: Howard Blum
Bestselling author, Vanity Fair contributing editor, and New York Times award-winning investigative reporter Howard Blum chats with PopMatters 20 Questions about Bob Dylan, Melville's Ishmael, and a bit of a Mafioso affinity.
Thursday, September 11 2008
The Second Coming of Steampunk: An Interview with Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Originally a literary movement that mashed cyberpunk-style themes with speculative rewritings of Victorian culture, steampunk is now equally a subculture devoted to repurposing mass-market consumer products into gloriously obsessive idiosyncratic designs.
Monday, September 8 2008
20 Questions: Chuck Klosterman
Prolific pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman knows as well as PopMatters that, well, pop matters. He discusses with PopMatters 20 Questions some of the things in this world that influence, sway, and affect.
Tuesday, September 2 2008
20 Questions: Handsome Dick Manitoba
Punk rock godfather and legend Handsome Dick Manitoba likes to kick back in the ol' Barcalounger and enjoy the comforts of home, as he reveals to PopMatters 20 Questions.
Wednesday, August 27 2008
Who Can Save Us Now?
Sherlock Holmes, pudgy heroes, and Superman’s sexual prowess: an interview with Owen King.
Friday, August 22 2008
Yukio Mishima, of Love and Death
Death and sex were verboten, and Mishima took it upon himself to be a virtuosic provocateur; part passionate expressive modernist, part fervent traditionalist.
Friday, August 15 2008
Collection Obsession: William Davies King’s “Collections of Nothing”
Wrestling with objects, saving and ordering them, is a way to cope with flux, doubt, and the twin gods of sex and death. Banash deconstructs the human urge to collect all manner of stuff.
Monday, August 11 2008
20 Questions: Clyde Edgerton
Novelist Clyde Edgerton talks with PopMatters 20 Questions about Ry Cooder’s slide guitar, Errol Morris' Vernon, Florida, and the soothing effects of chicken watching.
Monday, August 4 2008
20 Questions: George Pelecanos
George Pelecanos takes a little time from his prolific career to contemplate with PopMatters the temptation to try out a silencer and laser sight.
Thursday, July 31 2008
Fighting Words: Reading Lolita in Tehran
Orientalist fantasy? Neoconservative propaganda in a literary guise? The debate over Reading Lolita in Tehran
Tuesday, July 29 2008
Bleeding on the Page in the Middle of a Nervous Breakdown: Willy Vlautin’s Northline
Willy Vlautin loves the damaged people that most of us would go out of our way to avoid.
Friday, July 25 2008
Surviving the Net Crunch: A Practical Guide for Print Publications in a Digital World
Forget about easy answers, and don't think that the latest hip tech craze will save: PopMatters' Jason Gross offers advice for how long-running print publications can adapt to this brave new Net-driven world.
Wednesday, July 9 2008
Let the Buyer Beware: Bookstore Caveat Emptor Will Not Go Quietly Into That Good Night
Thirty-seven years and still going: Justin Dimos dissects Bloomington's historical secondhand bookstore.
Saint Vinnie
Deanne Sole journeys Melbourne's charity outlets, exploring the fundamentals of the down under St. Vincent de Paul outlet: Bargains, surprises, drunks.
In Memoriam: Thomas M. Disch
It's often said of uncommonly talented writers that they defied description; in Disch's case, that actually managed to be true.
