Photograph by Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum
My latest piece on the New Yorker’s “Page-Turner” blog, on political sf novelist Kim Stanley Robinson.
Our Greatest Political Novelist?
Category Archives: essays
Introducing Sociology
I’ve posted an updated version of my first-ever nationally published piece of writing, a critical essay on Stanley Kubrick’s last film, the much misunderstood and underappreciated Eyes Wide Shut, fully illustrated and with a new afterword.
“Black Friday Blues” in Al Jazeera
The End of Everything
Take Shelter; Meek’s Cutoff; The Turin Horse — the end of everything
My first foray into film criticism in years, published in the Fall issue of Jump-Cut, about the current cycle of eschatological films.
“Slaves of the Internet, Unite!”
Image by Post Typography
“Slaves of the Internet, Unite!” a manifesto in the form of griping, in the New York Times Weekend Review, October 27, 2013.
The Greatest American Novel You’ve Never Heard Of
Terrorists vs. Spree Killers
My first essay for Al Jazeera is about what, exactly, the difference is between the people we call “terrorists” and the ones we call “spree killers” or “mass shooters,” and why our government’s reactions to them are so wildly different.
Essay on Book Covers for New Yorker’s “Page-Turner” blog
This is my first piece for The New Yorker‘s “Page-Turner” blog, a lovably irascible survey of contemporary book covers and a rumination on the aesthetic/commercial double-binds of designing your own.
Cover illustrations at left and center by Richard Powers; cover at right, unidentified.
Essay in the Times
illustration by Christelle Enault
I have a new essay, “I Know What You Think of Me,” in the New York Times on the hazards of hitting REPLY ALL and the dread of hearing other people’s uncensored opinions of you.
Men’s Journal Essay
John Moore/ Getty Images
I have an essay on the allure of war in the June issue of The Men’s Journal, on newsstands now. It is also available online.