Literature
Ice queens, sex machines
published in
Insofar as erotica can ever be about something, what is Russia-themed erotica about?
Cannibalinguistics
published in
Language-learning and people-eating in Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s The Centre.
What an animal isn’t
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Two vastly different books — one a picaresque tale, the other a dystopian meditation — both recount a transition from human to animal or from animal to human.
« Everything starts with fire » — Interview with Hélène Cixous
published in
« The smell was like the sharp notes of a trumpet, a sort of rat-tat-tat like a burst of gunfire, a bombardment. »
From the knacker’s yard
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On the fallen animals loved by Heinrich von Kleist & Curzio Malaparte.
Two palindromes
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→ Setting of the Sun at West Mountain / Puffing & panting ←→ Worm-eaten Rimbaud / Always knowing whom ←
Forget your darlings
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On memory palaces, medieval and modern. A medieval woman’s life would not have taken the form of a straight line.
On Natalia Ginzburg’s Valentino
published in
On Natalia Ginzburg’s Valentino, newly translated: a Q&A with Alexander Chee.
