In our afternoon reading: thoughts on books by Nina MacLaughlin and Howard A. Rodman, previewing the most exciting books of the second half of 2019, and more.
Shame and Sex Goggles
Everything is about sex, except sex, which is about power.
In February of this year, when I first read The Trouble with Men by David Shields and Getting Off by Erica Garza, this sentence kept running through my mind. I felt sure it was Foucault. Part of my grad school experience, maybe, or an epigraph from somewhere or other, but definitely Foucault. It’s such a Foucault thing to say, right? Did he ever write a single sentence that wasn’t tangled somehow with sex or power or both?
Morning Bites: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Shirley Jackson Award Winners, Sufjan Stevens, Sigrún Pálsdóttir Excerpted, and More
In our morning reading: thoughts on Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s new album, an interview with John Waters, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Jeff Jackson, Courtney Maum Nonfiction, Steph Post, Gabino Iglesias Interviewed, and More
In our afternoon reading: interviews with Jeff Jackson and Gabino Iglesias, Helen Rosner on great cookbooks, and more.
Six Ridiculous Questions: Leland Cheuk
The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.
Morning Bites: R. O. Kwon, Inside Riffraff, J.S. Breukelaar’s Latest, Birthday Party Revisited, and More
In our morning reading: an interview with R. O. Kwon, inside Providence’s Riffraff, and more.
Sunday Stories: “Symbols of A Self.”
Symbols of A Self.
by Sarah Millar
January, and it’s raining in Mexico. Warm rain but still, rain. I sit in the window of a split level motel room and wonder what I’m doing with my life. Sunshine adds purpose to idleness. Without it, the rain calls into question the entirety of my existence. A rhythmic tattoo on a thin roof, adding cadence to my freefall. An endless freehand roll, injecting a violent heartbeat to my flatline. The rain is knee deep and I am up to my neck.
Weekend Bites: Courtney Maum, Yvonne Turner Revisited, Shane Jones’s Latest, William Boyle Interviewed, and More
In our weekend reading: nonfiction by Courtney Maum, an interview with William Boyle, and more.