Zadie Smith on "Speaking in Tongues" and Obama
Of the several noteworthy gatherings hosted this year by New York Public Library’s Live from the NYPL series, the last one I attended was Zadie Smith’s lecture on “Speaking in Tongues”. Poking right...
View ArticleNot altogether wicked, merely unteachable
In these words of George Orwell, from his 1940 essay “The Lion and the Unicorn”, how I feel about a lot of people; most notably one outgoing President, but more suitably, another that almost was: One...
View ArticleOne awesome paragraph, from Oscar Wilde
I’m only on page 23, but I already love The Picture of Dorian Gray (by Oscar Wilde), starting from the preface. I enjoy this paragraph so much that I’ve read it three times already. It’s the first one...
View ArticleExamined Life and Q&A with filmmaker Astra Taylor: pictures and summary
Filmmaker Astra Taylor, whose debut was the documentary Zizek!, has been touring with her latest, Examined Life, which has brought her back to New York as limited screenings resumed yesterday at...
View ArticleBrooklyn Book Festival returns this Sunday
The annual Brooklyn Book Festival returns to Borough Hall this Sunday (forecast is sunny), featuring a multitude of vendors, panels and workshops, and covering a wide range of interests: fiction,...
View ArticleMy day at this year's Brooklyn Book Festival, accompanied by a gazillion photos
Being at the Brooklyn Book Festival—which I also attended in its year of inception, and which has clearly multiplied its prowess since then—was rejuvenating. Really, it’s not a bad place to be at on a...
View ArticleSlavoj Zizek at the Brecht Forum, Cooper Union
Slavoj Zizek has a new book out on Verso Books: First As Tragedy, Then As Farce; a title borrowed from Marx’s “correction” of Hegel’s idea that history necessarily repeats itself: “Hegel remarks...
View ArticleDave Eggers signing at Strand Books tomorrow
The only work I really like from Dave Eggers are Away We Go and McSweeney’s artwork. Too bad this cover (top left) for his upcoming Zeitoun looks kind of terrible. January 14 12:00PM – 01:00PM Details...
View ArticleAmartya Sen at McNally Jackson — Photos
As soon as I read Development As Freedom, I decided Amartya Sen was one of my heroes. And since the chances of me getting more stupid every year is extremely high, I’ve taken to the idea of re-reading...
View Article“This Shit Is Bananas”
(That’s an early review from a commenter over on IMPOSE). I posted a transcript of a Slavoj Zizek talk last night at the endangered St. Mark’s Bookshop. The talk is as meaty as a Zizek rant can get in...
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