The Old Days Were Outrageous – You Couldn’t Say Anything
History of offense, protest, and censorship Outrageous is more of a clip show but also a riotous reminder that nothing in the cancel culture wars is new.
History of offense, protest, and censorship Outrageous is more of a clip show but also a riotous reminder that nothing in the cancel culture wars is new.
Walter Benjamin Stares at the Sea plays with postmodernism, autofiction, philosophy, and a short story canon peopled by writers from Augustine to Raymond Carver.
If there is any consolation to be had in Teju Cole’s slippery and sinuous Tremor, it’s not found in art or literature but in the music that permeates its pages.
Tolhurst’s goth music history intimately details the mercurial movement, interweaving personal memories and descriptions of the “architects of darkness”.
Alexis Soloski’s Here in the Dark illuminates the act of performance (no matter the stage) and the notion of stepping into and out of one’s personhood.
Judith Tick’s Becoming Ella Fitzgerald corrects much of the public’s understanding of the First Lady of Song, necessarily expanding the cultural memory.
It won’t surprise PopMatters readers that many of our best books of 2023 are excavations of our increasingly clamorous culture. It wasn’t a year for escapism.
In Euphoric Recall, the Replacements’ manager Peter Jesperson is often as drunk as the band is, little more in control of their careening path than they are.
Dave Chisholm uses creative methods for his graphic non-fiction novel about Miles Davis including gorgeous artwork to illustrate the jazz icon’s artistic quest.
Blade Runner serves our vision of an inevitable dystopian future because we live in a “stuck future”, refusing to heed cyberpunk’s warning.
Was Joan Crawford self-made or industry-made? Biographer Robert Dance explores what fueled the Hollywood star in Ferocious Ambition.
Zach Schonfeld’s compulsively readable, well-researched book on Nicolas Cage, How Coppola Became Cage, gets to the heart of the unique, multitalented actor.