Calum Marsh Looks Behind the Scenes of Reality TV
Calum Marsh’s True Lies: The Art of Reality Television provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the reality television machine, but it doesn’t show the full picture.
sociology
‘Playmakers’ Explores the Chutzpah That Made Kids’ Toys
Playmakers illustrates that many toys of American childhood came into being because their Jewish creators were shut out of the American workplace.
The MCU’s Forever Ending World Problem
In the MCU we are offered gods but not theology, disasters but not mourning, power but not politics. The world can end and restart, but it will never evolve.
Greek Weird Wave’s Absurdism and Tragedy
Greek Weird Wave films are existential with a hefty dose of absurdism, surrealism and tragedy, where alienated protagonists struggle in a meaningless milieu.
Terry Pratchett: Posthumous Sociologist Supreme
In sociological fashion, satirist/fantasy author Terry Pratchett used issues in his imagined world to show the illogic of the matters, customs, and norms in our lives.
W.E.B. Du Bois’ Prescient Masterpiece ‘The Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation’
Rutgers University Press’ engaging, accomplished interpretation of ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ confirms it as W.E.B. DuBois’ most prescient and indelible work.
Embodying the Mexico-US Border with Virtual Reality and Other Imaginings
Iñárritu’s VR experience Carne y Arena, Vizcarra’s documentary La Línea, and Rivera’s sci-fi film Sleep Dealer create unconventional imaginings of the Mexico-US border.
The Book Every American Needs to Read: ‘Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People’
Award-winning lawyer Ben Crump's Open Season irrefutably documents how America's treatment of Black Americans and other minorities is indistinguishable from genocide.
Face: A Visual Odyssey (By the Book)
By turns alarming and awe-inspiring, Jessica Helfand's Face: A Visual Odyssey offers an elaborately illustrated A to Z—from the didactic anthropometry of the late 19th century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the 21st. Enjoy this excerpt of Face, courtesy of MIT Press.
William E. Connolly on the Indifference of the World to Human Endeavor
In Climate Machines, Fascist Drives, and Truth, political theorist William E. Connolly explores how our assumption that the world is made for us has led us into a dangerous complacency.
‘The Power of Cute’ Explores the Complex Binaries in the Things We Adore
In Simon May's The Power of Cute, the uncanny nature of Cute is exemplified by both Hello Kitty and Kim Jong-il.
Bearing the Weight of Jane Brox’s ‘Silence’
Solitary confinement; monastic discipline; gender discrimination: In Silence, Jane Brox explores how our circumstances shape our ideals, showing how authority muffles her not so quiet subject.