Dickon Edwards of the Dandy Underground Surfaces
Dandy diarist extraordinaire Dickon Edwards talks about how his diary writing is a queer, articulate, and pointed retort to the pressures of conformity.
cultural criticism
Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Shadow Ticket’ Knocks Readers Sideways
Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket, should it be his last, showcases that even when he’s not at his very best, the man can pack an artful wallop.
Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Blood Meridian’ Diagnoses Everyday Fascism
If everyday fascism’s essence is the anti-humanist view of living beings as disposable instruments, then Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is its field manual and warning.
Greil Marcus’ Mystery Train Keeps on Rollin’
Certain books make you dream; Greil Marcus’ Mystery Train wakes you up to the blunt fact that you are alive and living in an ever-rollin’ mythology.
Sophie Gilbert Excavates Millennial Misogyny’s Buildup
Sophie Gilbert’s critique of misogyny in the 1990s and 2000s, Girl on Girl, would be disheartening but for the iconoclastic and subversive feminist artists in pop culture.
The Best Books of 2024
PopMatters Best Books of 2024 include a broad range of nonfiction, many books on music, short fiction, a novel that turns a Mark Twain classic inside out, and much more.
Greil Marcus Explains Why Creativity Is Better Left Unexplained
In What Nails It Greil Marcus delivers a philosophical treatise wherein fact and fiction merge into poetic indeterminacy, like a nebulous 1960s garage rock tune.
Christopher Hitchens and Fights Worth Having
You can smell the cigarette ash and Johnnie Walker Black Label on the pages of A Hitch in Time, a gleefully pugilistic posthumous Christopher Hitchens anthology.
Personal Canons: Peter Coviello on Prince, Pavement, and Parenthood
Blending personal experience with popular culture, Peter Coviello seeks to democratize how criticism is understood and practiced in Is There God after Prince?
‘Wolfish’ Warily Looks Metaphorical and Literal Fear in the Eye
Wolfish: Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear engagingly weaves ecology, sociology, and history into a rich tapestry to warily gaze into the unblinking eye of fear.
‘The Shame Machine’ Illuminates a Key Component of Today’s Incivility
The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation offers a means to fight back against shaming but little advice for addressing shameless behavior.
Take a Whiff of ‘Perfume’ and Enter the World of Queer Culture
How did Calvin Klein’s gender-neutral CK One, with its scent like “a vodka tonic with lemon twist”, help inspire gender revolution?Perfume follows the fragrant path into queer culture.