Culture

Downtown Jakarta, 2006.

Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Portrait of Gay Indonesia Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Portrait of Gay Indonesia

In, Happy Stories, Mostly, a collection of short stories, the complexities of queer life in the Southeast Asian country come into focus.

Dec 28, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Bryony Lau

A boy searches through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air raids in the southern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Katha Pollitt’s End-of-Year Giving List—Plus Bob Dylan’s Christmas Album Katha Pollitt’s End-of-Year Giving List—Plus Bob Dylan’s Christmas Album

On this episode of the Start Making Sense podcast, Gaza aid is number one on our list; plus Sean Wilentz explains Dylan’s holiday song selection.

Dec 28, 2023 / Podcast / Jon Wiener

Nation Poetry

nous nous baignons — variations nous nous baignons — variations

an experimental translation of Marie-Andrée Gill 

Dec 28, 2023 / Poems / Kristen Renee Miller

Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry and Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo in “May December.”

The Uncanny Façades of “May December” The Uncanny Façades of “May December”

Todd Haynes’s discomfiting and hypnotic suburban melodrama examines topics the director knows well: sex, taboo, and control.

Dec 27, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Beatrice Loayza

Cease Fire!

Cease Fire! Cease Fire!

Mounting civilian death toll to what end?

Dec 26, 2023 / OppArt / Sue Coe

Peace, Now!

Peace, Now! Peace, Now!

Focus on love, compassion, humanity.

Dec 25, 2023 / OppArt / Andrea Arroyo

James Stewart, as George Bailey, points at Lionel Barrymore in a scene from “It's a Wonderful Life.”

Whose “It’s a Wonderful Life” Is It Anyway? Whose “It’s a Wonderful Life” Is It Anyway?

How everybody’s favorite Christmas movie about the perils of monopoly capitalism became a victim of monopoly capitalism.

Dec 25, 2023 / Ray Nowosielski and David Cassidy

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg The Medieval-ness of Mark Zuckerberg

There’s something very feudal about his massive doomsday bunker.

Dec 22, 2023 / Kate Wagner

The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction”

The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction” The Misguided Satire of “American Fiction”

A buzzy film adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure, a novel about publishing’s racial politics, misreads what is truly ailing the book industry.

Dec 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

A Measure of Justice at Last for Victor Jara

A Measure of Justice at Last for Victor Jara A Measure of Justice at Last for Victor Jara

On December 1—just two days after the death of Henry Kissinger renewed international attention to the US role in the 1973 coup in Chile against the democratically elected governmen…

Dec 21, 2023 / Peter Kornbluh

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