‘The Seventh Cross’ Is a Vital Tale for Anyone Concerned About the Resurgence of Totalitarianism
The beautiful storytelling of Anna Seghers' World War II classic belies its important insights into life under fascism.
fascism
Killing Is Killing: Logan’s Enduring Excellence
In a competitive sea of superhero films, Logan continues to stand out with its tremendous performances, thematic complexity, remarkably critical take on violence, and deeply stirring pathos.
Puritans with Machine Guns in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
The first season of this icily horrific series is a crash course in the possibilities of a uniquely American 'It Could Happen Here' patriarchal Christian fascism.
Double-agents, Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and ‘Hitler in Los Angeles’
While America was riveted by the "Red Scare" on the one hand, it failed to see what the other hand, the Nazi threat, was doing.
‘The Prisoner’ Has Superbly Outlived Its Original Context
Rogue filmmaker Alex Cox ties The Prisoner's island mentality and palpable "cupcake fascism" to current political events, including Brexit, in I Am Not a Number.
Imagine Fighting Fascism
Two recently translated works -- Lydie Salvayre's Cry, Mother Spain and Joan Sales' Uncertain Glory -- bring to life the profound complexity of an early struggle against fascism, the Spanish Civil War.
Can We Say the F Word Yet? On Fascism and Humor
In light of the decrees and executive orders signed thus far by Donald Trump, we might reasonably ask: is fascism relevant to America's current political state?
The Great I Am: Magic, Fascism, and Race in David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’
Blackstar addresses the tension between David Bowie’s avowed attraction to ideologies of blood and soil, and his equally committed obsession with African American musical forms and tropes.
Roger Luckhurst’s ‘Zombies’ Is Gory and Highly Informative
Zombies is just as much an anti-imperialist work as it is an historical examination of the walking dead.
Of Maus and Men: Postwar Identity Through a Postmodern Lens in Art Spiegelman’s ‘Maus’
Far more than a comic book with an edge, Art Spiegelman’s Maus interrogates the fallacious identity politics of the Nazis, to an unforgettable effect. Given recent events in Europe, this is a vital book to revisit.
Techno’s Labor Force, Rock’s Betrayal, and the Birth of the Fascist Groove Thing
There’s a prevalent notion throughout techno and house music of human beings becoming well-oiled machines, or even merging with machines, a vision in keeping with Kraftwerk’s utopian Man Machine futurism or the dignified Soviet toil of Dziga Vertov’s The Man With a Movie Camera.