Month: November 2025

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The Role of the Artist in Interesting Times: A Look at Albert Camus’s “Creating Dangerously”

Almost two years ago to the day, I finally read Albert Camus’ The Stranger. I had come across, somewhere, a discussion of the novel’s ending, which I won’t spoil here, and I became intrigued, especially since I was reading texts about the Algerian War and about France’s protectorate control of Morocco. Since then, I have been wanting to read more Camus, especially his 1947 novel The Plague which … Read More The Role of the Artist in Interesting Times: A Look at Albert Camus’s “Creating Dangerously”

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Ágota Kristóf’s “The Illiterate” and the Loss of One’s Self

A few days ago, as I am wont to do on occasion, I walked through the stacks at my local library, immediately making a line towards the French literature section. I did this, partly, because I had just read Michael Rothberg’s Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization and wanted to see if I could find some of the works by Didier Daeninckx, André Schwarz-Bart, and … Read More Ágota Kristóf’s “The Illiterate” and the Loss of One’s Self

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“Is it a racist story?”: Nate Powell’s “Cakewalk”

When I teach first year composition, I usually frame the course around personal narratives, allowing students to write about themselves. I find that this helps them get comfortable with writing and allows them to express themselves through their essays. As such, I try to choose at least one text that contains personal stories. This semester, I decided to add Nate Powell’s You Don’t Say, a collection … Read More “Is it a racist story?”: Nate Powell’s “Cakewalk”

The Political Power of Punk: Dead Kennedys’ “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading some books from the 33 1/3 series, specifically Nick Attfield’s on Dinosaur Jr.’s 1987 album You’re Living All Over Me and Michael Stewart Foley’s on Dead Kennedys’ 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. Each has been thoroughly engaging, and Attfield’s writing serves, in a lot ways, as a master class on writing about music while Foley’s does an … Read More The Political Power of Punk: Dead Kennedys’ “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”

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Fears of Invasion in Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefengki’s “The Good Asian”

Last post, I looked at the first few pages of Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefengki’s The Good Asian, specifically the ways that the pages foreground a lot of the themes throughout the series. Today, I want to continue that examination by looking at the first page of issue #3. These pages, likes the first two in the series, highlight the historical aspects of The Good Asian, notably the … Read More Fears of Invasion in Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefengki’s “The Good Asian”