VCO: Chapter 5

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Chapter 5

The DMV is a Visual Cult Object to me. 

When stepping from outside into the glass antechamber, one feels they are in a limbo space.

The second set of doors swing open to the waiting area, the catechumen. 

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“Claire & Hank”: An Excerpt From Bradley Sides’s “Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood”

"Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood"

Today, we’re pleased to present an excerpt from Bradley Sides’s magnificently-titled new collection Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood. Alexander Weinstein called the book “a traveling carnival filled with pond monsters, vampire girls, fire-breathing children, and minor apocalypses” — and that certainly has our interest piqued. Read on for a glimpse inside.

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VCO: Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

 On my first day at Van Gogh’s Vase he appears. 

Either there’s some funky stuff in my gum or this is a dream come true. 

I keep looking at the shaved hair around his left ear, his perfectly groomed short beard (likely a Size 1 clipper guard), and try to truly believe, the creator of DPZ, Everhet Byzantine, is my boss now.

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Art and Literature In an Endless Cycle: Tomoé Hill on “Songs for Olympia”

Tomoé Hill

There’s a long history of literary works inspired by literary works or works of art. For her new book Songs for Olympia, Tomoé Hill opted to go one layer deeper. Her book opens a dialogue with Michel Leiris’s The Ribbon at Olympia’s Throat, which is itself a response to a Manet painting. That said, a detailed knowledge of Leiris’s book is not necessary for enjoyment of Hill’s’; instead, the earlier work by Leiris and Manet provides Hill with a vantage point from which she can reckon with questions of art, gender, intimacy, and her own history. It’s a mesmerizing work, and I caught up with Hill earlier this year to discuss it in greater detail.

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Hysterical Historical Fiction: An Interview With Brad Neely

Brad Neely

Brad Neely’s debut novel, “You, Me, and Ulysses S. Grant,” is probably one of the funniest books I’ve read in the last decade. I was laughing so hard at one point while reading the book that my wife came from the other room to see what was going on. The book pulls off a remarkable feat—not only is it a hilarious, quick-moving account of Ulysses S. Grant’s life and war-time work, it’s also oddly moving. Beyond the jokes and riffs, the book reminds the reader of a trait that’s accidentally, but not essentially, American, and that also happened to be demonstrated by a host of Union soldiers during the Civil War: the willingness to sacrifice yourself for your belief in what is right and just—an idea of what your country could be—and to prevent the immiseration of oppressed people. The book is a portrait of an imperfect man who was striving, like many others at the time, to create a more perfect country than the one he was born into.

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VCO: Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

I arrive twenty minutes early to my interview.

As I wait for the manager to come interview me I make sure to not look like some insecure basketball-short-wearing douche who puts their ankles on their knees to make an obtuse triangle, like they’re stretching their hamstring. Those types don’t come to fancy coffee shops like Van Gogh’s Vase.

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Revisiting the Rust Belt in Words and Pictures With Jay Halsey

Jay Halsey

To read Jay Halsey’s Barely Half in an Awkward Line is to be immersed in its author’s world and the places and people at their heart — sometimes literally. This book blends terse poetry, haunting prose, and mysterious images, all of which combine to bring the reader into the author’s history and the places closest to them. I spoke with Halsey about the book’s genesis and its new edition — as well as what the deal was with the masked figures that factor prominently into the book’s second half.

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Revisiting “The New Brooklyn Cookbook” 14 Years Later

"The New Brooklyn Cookbook"

It’s been well over a decade since the publication of Melissa Vaughan and Brendan Vaughan’s The New Brooklyn Cookbook. Featuring dispatches and recipes from 31 restaurants throughout the borough, the cookbook offered a memorable snapshot of notable eateries at that point in time. I’ve had a copy of the cookbook in my apartment since not long after it was first published, and a few years ago I began to wonder: what happened to the 31 spots featured in here?

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