-
Bad Line Contest [by David Lehman]
In honor of Susan Sontag, who introduced the logic of camp (something so bad that it's good) into the cultural discourse, may I propose a bad line contest? It is remarkable how many bad…
-
“7500 km” [by Roald Hoffmann]
Roald Hoffmann7500 km Amid rusting hulls in Petropavlosk-Kamchatskyi, a man is sitting in a boat.He says, “I’ve been waiting for you,let’s go.” So I get in. ”Where?” he asks. “Mariupol.” “Mariupol… You don’t looklike…
-
An Evening with the Poems of W. H. Auden [by David Lehman]
Back in 2008, Michael Braziller invited me to give a talk on W. H. Auden at the Philoctetes Society. They made a tape of the proceedings, and here it is. Among the poems we…
-
Is Thomas Disch the Right God for You? [by Tom Disch, 1939-2008]
Once a mortal, soon to be in Heaven, I may beyour best chance to distinguish yourselfas someone specially Blessed and bound for Glorywithout going to a lot of trouble or expense.The Scripture is out…
-
Performance art meets literary étrangeté: Lina Lapelytè’s The Mutes makes my uncanny familiar [by Sean Ashton]
Behind the nettles, the wandering un-choral of Lina Lapelytè’s ”The Mutes”, turned the strangeness of ”I have never driven a 7.5 ton truck” into the normative, authoritative, of a Pater Noster. Lafayette Anticipations. Photo…
-
5 Poems from “The Big Smoke” [by Adrian Matejka]
Hubert’s Museum & Flea Circus (1937) Below constellations of pool balls clatteringgeometry’s grace. Below pinball machinesringing like a telephone full of congratulations& the street-car stutter of a movie projector:Jack Dempsey clubbing Luis Firpo or…
