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'Good Enough' Is Great on Darwin
In Good Enough: The Tolerance for Mediocrity in Nature and Society, philosopher Daniel S. Milo argues that science and society have overemphasized Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection
07 Jun 2019
Books
Seth's 'Clyde Fans' and the Revolving Slowdown of a Declining Business
Seth's inspiration for the epic story, Clyde Fans, grew from an empty storefront and photographs of two middle-aged men; thus it is imbued with palpable sadness and regret.
04 Jun 2019
Books
Will Hope Rise from the Dead in Joyce Carol Oates' 'My Life As a Rat?
If happiness usually proves duplicitous, and melancholy a dependable constant, then the journey of an epic Joyce Carol Oates novel is always going to be a trip worth experiencing, as with My Life As a Rat.
03 Jun 2019
Books
Progress Is Not Linear, as 'The House of the Pain of Others' Reminds Us with Devastating Effect
Julián Herbert's The House of the Pain of Others is a masterly study that sheds light on the role played by educated elites in fomenting genocide.
03 Jun 2019
Books
Is Progressive-Populism Our Best Option in These Troubled Times?
When order ruptures it leads to a state of crisis manifest in many ways, as we see emerging throughout the world. What can we do?
31 May 2019
Books
Will a New Form of Socialism Rise? On Bhaskar Sunkara's 'The Socialist Manifesto'
Socialists need to do better in fighting against identity-based discrimination, as editor of Jacobin Bhaskar Sunkara notes in The Socialist Manifesto, but that struggle will only be effective if waged as part of a larger struggle against neoliberal capitalism.
28 May 2019
Books
Yannick Haenel's 'Hold Fast Your Crown' Is French Literature at Its Best
Yannick Haenel's Hold Fast Your Crown is shocking, frustrating, elating, and among the best books published in France for decades.
22 May 2019
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.
21 May 2019
Books
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 2019
Books
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 2019
Books
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 2019
Books
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 2019
Books
'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 2019
Books
'Heaven and Hell' Offers a Powerful Child's-eye View of Japanese Colonialism
Japanese poet Toriko Takarabe grew up in Japanese-occupied Manchuria and lived to tell the harrowing tale.
01 Apr 2019
Books
'Ancestral Night' Is a Sweeping Space Saga for Intelligent Readers
Mystery and discovery in Hugo Award-winning novelist Elizabeth Bear's latest work, Ancestral Night, initially hooks but it's the speculative and complex world she constructs that's most rewarding.
27 Mar 2019
Books
Summer Brennan's 'High Heel' Combines Memoir and Epic Poetry
The lovely cadences in Summer Brennan's High Heel stack up like so many sand castles that sift iconic examples of high heels into a finely grained pile of pros and cons that each reader will sift through quite differently.
22 Mar 2019
Film
In Two Minds: Robert Altman's 'Images' Essays the Terrors of Schizophrenia
Altman's Images is a complex, haunting and always disturbing film about the slow realization that one's sanity is a stake.
04 Mar 2019
Books
Timuel Black Tells His Remarkable South Side Chicago Story in 'Sacred Ground'
The esteemed oral historian, Timuel Black, turns the microphone around to capture his amazing journey through 20th Century black America in Sacred Ground.
22 Feb 2019
Books
You Can Feel the Venue's Heartbeat on Every Page of 'Showtime at the Apollo'
How do we measure the status of a performer's Holy Grail like the Apollo Theater in 2019? Ted Fox and James Otis Smith's beautifully realized, updated graphic history brings this rich history to life.
12 Feb 2019
Books
Is There Hope for Knowledge? On Robert Pasnau's 'After Certainty'
In After Certainty, Robert Pasnau constructs a history of knowledge and concludes that most theories of knowledge aren't up to par. But, he says, we can hope.
12 Feb 2019
Books
'Go Ahead in the Rain' Artfully Melds the Many Parts of a Tribe Called Quest's Backstory
In Go Ahead in the Rain, Hanif Abdurraqib blends his talents as both culture critic and personal essayist for a meditation on perhaps the most influential hip-hop group from the genre's sample-laden boom-bap era, A Tribe Called Quest.
11 Feb 2019
Books
Paul Crenshaw's 'This One Will Hurt You' Will, Indeed
Paul Crenshaw's This One Will Hurt You, a PopMatters' Pick, is powerful essay collection about life, loss, faith, and natural (and man-made) violence in rural America.
08 Feb 2019
Books
Nora Krug's 'Belonging' Could Serve as a Model for Understanding Collective Responsibility
In graphic novel Belonging, Nora Krug takes a single idea – her family's involvement in the Second World War and Nazi Germany – and pursues it with relentless, forensic determination.
04 Feb 2019
Reviews
Irresistible Dark Visions and Sentimental Longing in 'You Know You Want This'
Short story collection You Know You Want This, a PopMatters' Pick, brings forth a dozen brilliant and beautifully unapologetic dark visions from fearless new writer, Kristen Roupenian.
29 Jan 2019
Film
'Black Narcissus' Is Truly, Madly, Hysterically Wonderful
Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus is iconically and almost ethereally beautiful. It's a full-blooded, complex melodrama of the highest order.
23 Aug 2010
Music
Will Stratton: No Wonder
Following his quiet stunner of a debut album, this 22-year-old folk artist just proved that lightning, indeed, can strike the same place twice.
11 Nov 2009
Music
White Denim: Fits
Fits is an electic, sprawling, amps-to-11 rock excursion that revels in nostalgia almost to the point of outright defiance. White Denim have crafted one of the best rock albums of 2009.
19 Oct 2009
Music
The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses: 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition
Imagine if you will: an album re-release that actually gets everything right, making an already-classic album sound even better than before, deepening our understanding as to what made it so iconic.
10 Sep 2009
Music
Florence and the Machine: Lungs
Florence and the Machine deliver a stunning debut in the wake of overwhelming expectations.
06 Jul 2009
Reviews
The Beaches of Agnès (Les plages d' Agnès)
In The Beaches of Agnès, the "game" of cinema is endlessly fascinating, as what was and what can be come together on screen.
05 Jul 2009
Music
Serengeti & Polyphonic: Terradactyl
Compared to other hip-hop releases this year so far, Terradactyl is effectively peerless.
23 Jun 2009
Music
George Jones: A Picture of Me (Without You) / Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Much as Losing You)
A perfect introduction to the Billy Sherrill-Epic years and a chance to watch Jones pick up all the shine and trappings of the Rolls Royce of country singers.
Ben Child
21 Jun 2009
Reviews
Iron Maiden: Flight 666
Only Iron Maiden could pull a world tour like this off. The ecstatic reactions from India, to Australia, to Japan, to Central and South America, to Canada are all essentially the same the world over.
18 Jun 2009
Film
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
The documentaries of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival grapple with profound dilemmas, yet make their cases through deeply personal perspectives.
17 Jun 2009
Reviews
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