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A Deep Dive Into Walter Benjamin
The Benjamin Files by Fredric Jameson explains everything by reference to everything else, in a way that often makes the narrative all but impenetrable.
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Work (Even the Creative Kind) Won’t Love You Back
Amid the recent wave of art worker unionizing, Sarah Jaffee’s Work Won’t Love you Back offers some instructive takeaways for understanding the trap of that persistent Neoliberal myth: the “labor of love.”
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Nathaniel Tarn's Ode to Romanticism
Tarn's meditation on the German Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin explores both human ecstasy and suffering.
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André Gide's Pioneering Autofiction
Intended as a satire of the Parisian Symbolist milieu, Gide's novel Marshlands is a sendup of writing itself.
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Douglas Kearney's Poetry of Performance
Kearney’s language — exquisitely torqued and modulated, sheering from the formal to the vernacular — reminds us that we are in the hands of a masterful performer.
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Plunder Dissects Napoleon’s Obsession with Stealing Art
Using a mix of art, military, and intellectual history, Cynthia Saltzman argues that controlling art is a powerful way to control hearts and minds.
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A Weird and Wonderful History of Design Patents
Patented by Thomas Rinaldi is an illustrated journey through more than a century of American trends and technologies.
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A Beautiful Guide to Colors in the Natural World, Revisited 200 Years Later
"Nature’s Palette" reproduces the groundbreaking color systems and illustrates them with lush engravings.
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Seeing Through the Eye of Others
Aminder Dhaliwal’s new graphic novel, “Cyclopedia Exotica,” challenges stereotypes by delivering broader messages on the complexity of race, gender, and identity.
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Poetry That Targets Compliance as Complicity
Andrew Levy's poems explore contemporary life with globe-spanning sweep and intensive probing.
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The Tender, Loving Side of the Romans
Hérica Valladares explores the softer side of an ancient people famed for brutality.
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When Cell Phone Towers Cosplay as Trees
There is a jarring disconnect as our eye sorts the organic from the imposter.