Terry Eagleton's 'Humour' Is Neither Too Prude Nor Too Erudite
Terry Eagleton's Humor wisely makes no argument beyond a survey of all the ways one can debunk some portion of all preceding theories of humor.
34m
Books
Vivien Goldman's 'Revenge of the She-Punks' Doesn't Gloss the Reasons We Still Have to Rage
In her history of women in punk music, Revenge of the She-Punks, Vivien Goldman hefts the scene's virtues and the vices into one heap and concludes that some of it was necessary, some of it was fun, and some of it was evil.
23h
Newly Translated Mishima Work, 'Star', Offers Insight into His Pop Culture Persona
Posthumous work by celebrated Japanese author Yukio Mishima, Star, explores how celebrities struggle with their own lack of authenticity.
21 May
Trapped by Circumstance: 'Guantánamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani'
Jérôme Tubiana and Alexandre France have created a powerful work in Guantánamo Kid that brings attention to the humanity of people who are accused as terrorists.
20 May
Brian Selznick Communicates Wordlessly with Walt Whitman in Abram's 'Live Oak, with Moss'
Language and image never combine in Abrams' Live Oak, with Moss; they are distant lovers, if you will, as divided as Walt Whitman and Brian Selznick are as collaborators.
17 May
Ted Chiang's 'Exhalation' Calmly Stares Oblivion in the Face
With his second collection of short stories, Exhalation, master of existential science fiction Ted Chiang explores AI, time travel, and alternate realities with the studious eye of an anthropologist.
15 May
Ann Beattie's Latest, 'A Wonderful Stroke of Luck' Leaves This Reader Feeling Hapless
Disaffected prep school youth, seemingly from another era, stumble through the immediate wake of a post-9/11 America in Ann Beattie's A Wonderful Stroke of Luck.
14 May
Wall-Buster Ani DiFranco Has a Chokehold on Irony: 'No Walls and the Recurring Dream'
Ani DiFranco is growing up and getting over herself. Her memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream, highlights the ironies of a one-of-a-kind musical legacy.
13 May
Susan Choi's 'Trust Exercise' Demands the Reader's Restraint
Does the experience of reading Susan Choi's Trust Exercise leave us with anything but frustration? Is it all tease and no release?
09 May
We Must Pay Attention to the Powerful Political Force of Conspiracy Theories
Where does one draw the line between conspiracy theories, and politics-as-usual? Anthropologist Erica Lagalisse warns that we ignore conspiracy theory at our peril in Occult Features of Anarchism.
08 May
'Blame This on the Boogie' Blurs the Lines between Graphic Novel and Songbook
Passion defines Rina Ayuyang's life as Blame This on the Boogie explores the pleasures and pitfalls of pop culture devotion.
08 May
'Article 353' Explores Who Might Mete Out Justice When the Law Fails
Article 353 is Tanguy Viel's politically charged, darkly atmospheric, and cathartic indictment of neoliberal capitalism.
07 May
On Warren Zevon, the "Kurt Vonnegut of Rock Music"
Author C. M. Kushins talks with PopMatters about the complicated legacy of Warren Zevon, from crack-up to recovery and back again, and his research for Nothing's Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon.
07 May
On John O'Hara's 'Appointment in Samarra', 'Butterfield 8', 'Hope of Heaven', and 'Pal Joey'
Party girls, cads, and hopeless dreamers from a distant but eternally familiar past -- John O'Hara was a writer who deserved his place in the bleacher section of Great American Writers.
06 May
Of Botany, Hacking, Biosurveillance, and Boredom; Or, Pola Oloixarac's 'Dark Constellations'
Pola Oloixarac's Dark Constellations is what the late Michael Crichton might have written if he had grown up in Argentina and fancied himself a high postmodernist.
06 May
I Know This Because Talbott Knows This: Chuck Palahniuk's 'Adjustment Day'
Adjustment Day may not be peak Palahniuk, but it is nonetheless entertaining and twistedly educational, providing abundantly peculiar and original paths within one of his most astute and necessary social commentaries to date.
03 May
Maylis de Kerangal's 'The Cook' Is a Classic Case of Style Over Substance
There is a lot of enjoyable sleight of hand in de Kerangal's The Cook, but ultimately the author fails to engage with the questions it raises.
03 May
Graphic Fiction 'Angola Janga' Brings Forth the History of a Kingdom of Fugitives
Poignant motifs travel through Marcelo D'Salete's graphic novel of Brazil's Angola Janga, a kingdom of runaway slaves.
02 May
'Dead Precedents' Explores How Hip-Hop Created the Future
Roy Christopher's dense book-length essay, Dead Precedents, takes much of what is now axiomatic about hip-hop and reminds us how revolutionary its innovations and practices really were.
01 May
'Pick Up the Pieces' Is a Primer in Music as Cultural Memory
John Corbett's writing is often poetic in Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music, with each essay being a resonant reflection on the music, artists, scenes, and memories seemingly etched deeply in his being.
30 April
Esi Edugyan's 'Washington Black' Fails to Problematize Critical Race Issues
In her latest revisionist history, Washington Black, Esi Edugyan points toward colonial theory without critically addressing affirmations of white power.
29 April
Graphic Novel 'The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade' Is at War with Itself
Blurgits—the drawing of multiple limbs to suggest motion— is effective in Yann Kebbi's artwork for The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade, creating a world teetering on carefully crafted incoherence—which is well suited to Viken Berberian's script.
26 April
A Translator Between Worlds: On Behrouz Boochani's Work from the Manus Island Prison Camp
His intellectual and journalistic training, coupled with an eloquent capacity for literary expression, enables Behrouz Boochani to bridge the lived experience of refugees with non-refugee audiences and to express it in the context of the critical social and political theory which shapes intellectual elites' understanding of the refugee crisis.
26 April
'In the Night Wood' Is a Story About Storytelling Itself
Like the characters that Umberto Eco captured in his first three novels, those of In the Night Wood are literary obsessives inspired, baffled, or haunted by texts, codes, cryptic nomenclature, dashed off scribbles, pagan mythology, and weird imagery.
25 April
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