Penny, n. (poetic play, played out in prose)
When a writer repeats words and phrases, they can break away form the usual way someone reads a word and make language have a different kind of emotional weight.
Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will… or something like that
The fantasy that cultural and political engagement is a gift bestowed upon the poor by often white and rich benefactors is characteristic of the all-consuming culture of gentrification, and the prevalent ideology of supply-side economics.
The Case for Writers to Play Video Games
Many people seem happy to think of writing as something that, if simply practiced enough, can be perfected — or even worse, they think of writing as a job. But here’s one piece of advice I haven’t come across in my perusal of readily available resources: play video games.
The whiskey we drank, the sunflower seeds we ate and spat, the places we slept: all make it into the digital backlog forming behind us, a froth of pixels left in our wake.
On the Internet, I’ve noticed, people waste each others’ time all the time. It’s like some kind of weird favor that we do for one another the way that dogs every now and then will behave in a way that, if we were to anthropomorphize their behavior, might sound metaphorically like they were wasting each other’s time.
Lord of the Rings allows me to escape my limited perspective for another world; A Song of Ice and Fire forces me to be acutely aware of that limited perspective, and to evaluate it in relation to the world around me.
Never Argue with Stupid People
Mark Twain, from the grave, on discretion.
Given my privileged access to the life and art of the esteemed jurist, and my general lack of important things to do, I took it upon myself to make a study of his photography.
California Hunger Strikers and the Malnourished American Conscience
To achieve a life behind bars that resembles one worth living, hunger strikers are risking death.
Hannah Arendt is a film that focuses almost exclusively on the subject of thinking, or rather on the subject of thinking while smoking cigarettes.