This fall I’m bringing my friend Porochista to Amherst College to read from her debut novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects. The novel is, to my mind, one of the most enjoyable novels I’ve read recently. I’ll quote to you from one of my favorite parts, a description of insomnia: Xerxes couldn’t recall experiencing a [...]
May 19, 2008
Bill Moyers, On Democracy
I report the assault on nature evidenced in coal mining that tears the tops off mountains and dumps them into rivers, sacrificing the health and lives of those in the river valleys to short-term profit, and I see a link between that process and the stock-market frenzy which scorns long-term investments — genuine savings — [...]
May 19, 2008
Our Robot Masters Will Know How To Clean This Mess Up
My new favorite band. If you’ve been sitting down for more than an hour, maybe press play and stand up and see what happens. “It was more terrifying than facing the god of death.” “My mother destroyed all pictures of my father, for fear the family would get an image as leftists,” said Koh Chung-ryol, [...]
