Consumption of Culture as Politics
In Mexico, state-sponsored films allow symbolic critique to supplant structural change.
A typology of the beggar in Western culture.
The contradictions of nostalgic crafting.
The God of Things as They Aren’t
The grotesque humor of Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s photography.
We sold ten-dollar juice to people who say, “fuck the rules” while, simultaneously, making the rules.
1984 is a utopia, and Trump is not Big Brother
The Britain of 1984 is a socialist enclave, doing what it can to feed and care for its citizens though it is reeling from atomic war, surrounded by rogue states and beset by an extremist insurgency.
Portraits, Ghosts, and Winters
Though there are days when I can see snow on the peaks of the San Gabriel mountains, the only other way I know how to have a feeling of winter is to see an image of it in a painting or movie, or to read it, and sometimes to write it. I admit that I write and read partly for escape, or maybe to travel is a better way to say it.
We are caught in a loop, and the museum, tasked with preserving history, is instead watching while history leaks and circles around maddeningly.
After Before: El Libro de Carmen Boullosa
As I’ve gotten to know Carmen Boullosa’s work, her invisibility has become harder to take.
There are moments on trains where you do not feel part of the world, frictionless and floating. You glide, powered by one simple push forward, your wheels spinning without gripping onto anything.