From Postmodern Culture, Jussi Parikka ( Humboldt): Insects, Sex, and Biodigitality in Lynn Hershman Leeson's Teknolust; an interview with Christian Bok on his current project, The Xenotext Experiment, which explores the intersection between poetry and biotechnology; a review of Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day; and a review of The Ethics of Mourning: Grief and Responsibility in Elegiac Literature by R. Clifton Spargo. From The New Yorker, a review of The Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth-Century Media Culture by Petra ten-Doesschate Chu.
From Nextbook, The Right Questions: German conceptual artists find provocative ways to confront the Holocaust. From Axess, the conformity of rebellion: It has become a requirement of contemporary culture that art transgress norms and overstep boundaries. But the absurdity of this consensual rebellion is being exposed by Søren Ulrik Thomsen and Frederik Stjernfelt, authors of Critique of negative edification, who want to free art from any ideological directives, whether radical or conservative. It may sound macabre, but the creator of Disce Mori (latin for "learn to die") jewellery is just one of a crop of contemporary artists and interior designers inspired by the art of taxidermy.
From Prospect, in recent years, the economics of pop music have been upended. The market for CDs has collapsed, and not even the rise of legal downloading can offset the damage to record companies. Meanwhile, demand for live performances has rocketed. A review of Something in the Air, Radio, Rock, and the Revolution that Shaped a Generation by Marc Fisher. A review of The House That George Built: With a Little Help From Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed. A review of The Life and Death of Classical Music by Norman Lebrecht. Cue the violin: A review of Hitchcock's Music by Jack Sullivan.
From PopMatters, a review of The Gangster Film Reader. Readers of The Guardian pick their top 50 comic movies, with quite a few surprises thrown in. Why is the screenwriter the Cinderella of film? Screenwriters are solitary creatures who rarely get recognised for their achievements. A review of Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television by Lee Siegel. Our Springfield soft spots: Ten (out of 10,000,000) reasons why we love The Simpsons; a look at why Lisa Simpson is the heart and soul of the longest-running TV sitcom of all time; and maybe Bart is right, the Simpsons are not so different from the Waltons after all. They may be misfits, but they subscribe to the same cosy theory about the importance of sticking together. There are 12 kinds of ads in the world: Resist them all!
