A warning (unlike my normal excerpt). This post is designed to analyze the bizarre phenomenon of those rare individuals who become famous for committing murder (or for killings that are deemed, legally, to be somehow distinct from murder.) As such, it involves a discussion of the inciting incident for that celebrity. Be aware of this fact.
Read MoreSo that happened. By “that” I mean an attempted coup happened – it occurred as I was putting together a slate of book reviews, and honestly I didn’t have the bandwidth to really do anything about it.
Read MoreThis is part of what led me to consider this question further after hearing it brought up on that podcast: how is such a large segment of the population – a plurality, if not a majority – so incapable of producing noteworthy art? And what might this have to do with the culture war that never actually seems to stop?
Read MoreIn an attempt to understand the world as it is, teetering on the brink of environmental collapse and under a constant barrage of information, the rogues’ gallery Sandifer portrays, along with their many followers, have instead chosen death.
Read MoreThe world is burning down around us, and we’re going to work. We’re going to the grocery store and the laundromat and watching Netflix. We have no ability to productively imagine what we have to do in this situation, because the obvious option – taking to the streets, going on strike, making actual demands – are things that we have been conditioned not to do. We continue on as we have been, because the alternatives are either outright unimaginable or are the objects of horror and anti-fascination.
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