In the weeks after his death, I think of Giorno’s poetry — exuberantly queer, unabashedly pornographic, frequently hilarious, sometimes furious, and almost always as compassionate as it is sardonic.
Author Archives: Mark Dery
Mark Dery is a cultural critic. He coined the term “Afrofuturism” (in the 1994 anthology Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, which he edited) and popularized the concept of “culture jamming,” which he theorized in his 1993 essay of the same name. His books include The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink, Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century, and the essay collection I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts: Drive-by Essays on American Dread, American Dreams. His biography of the author, illustrator, and legendary eccentric Edward Gorey is forthcoming from Little, Brown on November 6, 2018
An Update of Edward Gorey’s Classic Abecedarium for Dark Times
“The Ghastlygun Tinies,” MAD magazine’s mordant riff on The Gashlycrumb Tinies, updates Edward Gorey’s book for our age of school shootings.
Max Ernst’s Collage Novels Are Part Séance, Part Victorian Underworld, and All Uncanny
Ernst’s trailblazing “collage novels” employ the dreamlike conjunction — the fusion or juxtaposition of unlike elements whose collision makes perfect sense, in a free-associated way.
Mourning eBay’s Days as the Internet’s Kitschiest, Most Surreal Mall
The passing of the old eBay is the last nail in the cyberflâneur’s coffin.
Chuck Berry and the Modernist Fable of “Johnny B. Goode”
The jackhammer chatter of the song’s opening riff lets us know that the pastoral is past.
The Persistence of Hunger: Dalí’s Dissatisfying Cookbook
Salvador Dalí’s 1973 cookbook, now reprinted by Taschen, doesn’t seem to know what Surrealist cuisine is.