Essays
May 15, 2013
Still Merry and Bright? Rethinking Henry Miller 8
by Bill Morris
Few possess Miller’s courage, his willingness to walk away from the American dream and embrace a life without hope. Fewer still manage to be what Miller claimed to be in the face of hopelessness – always merry and bright.
May 9, 2013
The Black and the White: Maus and the Art Spiegelman Exhibit 1
by Charles-Adam Foster-Simard
Born from universal ideas, crafted by the hands of artists, written with passion, the comic strip has become the medium for narratives that can be read again and again and images that can be stared at pensively in the hushed space of a museum.
May 8, 2013
The Superhero Factory: An Unauthorized Corporate History of Marvel Comics 3
by Paul Morton
Sean Howe covers the entire history of Marvel, from 1939 to Disney’s acquisition of the company 70 years later. The book has few heroes and villains, only figures who, with varying degrees of success and failure, negotiate the politics of a large enterprise for their own wants and needs. It’s a portrait of what capitalism can create and what it can’t create — and what it can destroy.
May 6, 2013
So That If I Died It Mattered 29
by Jon Sands
When asked to explain my choices, I’ve said, “Art is how you explain what it feels like to be alive in the 21st century. I am an emotional historian.” But that’s really my answer to, “Why should we all make art?” My why is more personal.
May 2, 2013
On the Fall of the House of Orwell 10
by Vishwas Gaitonde
Orwell’s birth home has languished in dilapidation for decades. Damaged by an earthquake in 1934, it deteriorated into a derelict building that stray animals sheltered in at night or during inclement weather. The homeless also used it; it became a place for people to gather to drink and gamble.
May 2, 2013
James Salter’s All That Is: From Dream to Reality 1
by Sonya Chung
This is not George Saunders or Lorrie Moore making fun of the ineffectualness of romantic impulses; this is for real.