The Week in Reviews: Dwight Macdonald, Philosophers/Mathematicians, Rick Owens and More

Our weekly appreciation for the art of the review. 

“It’s also the story of champion dishwasher Woo-jin Kan, whose obese sister grows organs in her body for extra cash; Abby Fogg, a young woman who has turned nostalgia into a career as a film archivist; veteran mercenary Al Skinner, estranged from his family and trying to put the ghosts of his past to rest; and Neethan Jordan, a hugely famous actor who can’t stop walking down the red carpet, literally.” – Jenn Northington explains Blueprints of the Afterlife.

“As with all great essayists, his writing had a poetic component, but it was a poetry cleansed of poeticism.” – Clive James at The Atlantic talks Dwight Macdonald.

“Rick Owens was going buck reimagining parts of Ray Petri’s Buffalo style, which was inherently androgynous (leather skirts were de rigueur) and proliferated during the 1980s and ’90s, heavily impacting the rise of vogue culture.” – Julianne Escobedo Shepherd at Spin talks Rick Owens latest collection.

“For two and a half millennia, philosophers have been trying, in other words, to pass themselves off as mathematicians. But what about the mathematicians themselves? Aren’t they equally if not more guilty of striking the same pose?” – Ryan Ruby at Bookforum.

“It’s funny: fifteen years ago, I’d have hunted down a bootleg of this set and gladly paid a premium to get it. But it’s hard not to feel that Costello himself should do better than the bootleggers.” – PopMatters on Elvis Costello.

Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on TwitterFacebookGoogle + and our Tumblr.