Politics
No longer at home
published in
A review of Hangman: A Novel by Maya Binyam. «Returning home rests as the thematic cornerstone of African and African-diasporic literature.»
Sick men of Europe
published in
King Leopold & Sultan Abdülhamid — a tale of two monarchs. «I’ve come to see them as twins of a kind: monarchs in bourgeois garb.»
« Tham dii day dii » – Thai farmworkers in Israel
published in
Modern Zionism’s founding ideology, in which diaspora Jews would be redeemed by working the soil, has long ceded to neoliberalism’s imperatives
The Three Body Solution
published in
The Chinese Communist Party embraces the sci-fi hit The Three Body Problem.
The business of men
published in
On pregnancy’s bloody histories & its visceral fictions. A review of Trudy Dehue’s brilliant history of pregnancy research, « Egg, Fetus, Baby ».
Independence and/or Death
published in
Brazilian artist Jaime Lauriano recreated the iconic painting Independence or Death (1822). A scorched earth remains in his own Independence and Death (2022).
Moscow on the Med
published in
Two winters in Istanbul. If you are a holder of a Russian passport, there are few places in the Western hemisphere that you can go without a visa.
Jesus in the pines
published in
Refugees and border guards in the Białowieża Forest. Scenes of violence play out behind a thick cover of trees, in a remote corner of Poland.
The big beige books
published in
The most important unreviewed books of our times, reviewed. On Xi Jinping’s The Governance of China, Volumes I to IV
Schwarzeneggerology
published in
On Arnold, action cinema & Übermenschlichkeit. « Arnold Schwarzenegger was action cinema’s Adamic man, alternately entering and exiting normal human time. »
An axe to grind should make you sharper
published in
Forensic Architecture charts state-organized crimes, genocide and other disasters in three dimensions. « Flat maps can’t convey the politics of water and shit. »