Author Archives: Peter Schmidt

on Haruki Murakami’s The Strange Library

Haruki Murakami, The Strange Library. Published 2005 but written early in his career; translated into English 2014 by Ted Goosen. This brief tale reads like an allegory of reading itself, the Library as emblematic of the world. But it feels … Continue reading

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on Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flamethrowers

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Flamethrowers is burning-hot good. It works on so many levels: a coming of age story; a feminist analysis/satire/tragedy re entrapping gender roles; an anatomy of “revolutionary” cultures of … Continue reading

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Reducing the Bull: the NYTimes Gets It Wrong Equating Apple Design and Picasso’s Art

Brian Chen’s NYTimes’ August 11th article on design training at Apple is fun and informative, particularly the anecdote about design decisions that led to a Google TV remote control with 78 buttons (all the design teams got what they wanted) … Continue reading

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Freedom of expression or the need to speak against oppression in a single voice? Coetzee and Gordimer debate

This 1988 debate between Coetzee and Gordimer (RIP) is eloquent and important, and VERY relevant for current debates in 2014. It’s given a fine overview here. The debate is notable for their focus on the _principles_ at stake; their disagreement … Continue reading

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Satirist George Saunders Strikes Again

… and none of yer nostalgia-y haze is safe. Makes me almost forgive Mr. Bob Dylan’s own liner notes. I’m just sorry George had to leave off mentioning ELO’s “concept” albums, or Jethro Tull’s, or the majestick edifices of that … Continue reading

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Daniel Bosch on Daisy Fried’s poem “Torment”

Here is a fine reading by Daniel Bosch of one of the best poems of the last few years, Daisy Fried’s “Torment,” from her Women’s Poetry: Poems and Advice (2013). I wonder, though, if Bosch is right? That is, is … Continue reading

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on Rilke’s Duino Elegies: the best translation in English

A Goodreads review on mine:

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Sharing an essay by Leigh Alexander, from the Gamasutra website: The tragedy of Grand Theft Auto V

Gamasutra – Opinion: The tragedy of Grand Theft Auto V. For my own much earlier piece on the bizarre metaphysics of video games, plus one way to think about video games’ links to early animated cartoons, see Gamer (1999).

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on Edward Hopper’s East Wind Over Weehawken being sold by PAFA

Click on the link below for a short piece on Edward Hopper’s East Wind Over Weehawken (1934), being sold by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to raise money to buy contemporary art. on Hopper’s East Wind Over Weehawken

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On “In Search of a Gay Aesthetic” in Fashion History, a NYTimes article about a show at the Fashion Institute of Technology

In Search of a Gay Aesthetic – NYTimes.com. Some key things you get to learn about in this sweet piece by Guy Trebay: 18th-century “molly” houses (yet where is the equally important invention, from even earlier, of the “fop”?); the … Continue reading

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