Post-Postmodern Paper People

I finished Salvador Plascencia’s fascinating first novel, The People of Paper, last night and have been carrying it around in my head all day. It is almost too much of a cliche to say, but this is a very very McSweeney’s novel:  typographically innovative, vaguely and sometimes not-so-vaguely magical realist, ironic yet also filled with … Continue reading Post-Postmodern Paper People

Some good news

I have some good news to share with my adoring reading public (about 2 to 5 of you a day, if Google Analytics is to be believed). My essay on William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and branding theory, drawn from the trendspotter chapter of my dissertation, has been accepted for publication by a big cultural studies/theory … Continue reading Some good news

The Old New Criticism, New Again

In the WSJ, James Seaton reviews Praising It New, an anthology of writing by the New Critics, edited by Garrick Davis.  In the space of a short review, Seaton–quite remarkably–manages to blame all of the following for our corrupt contemporary literature-hating ways:  Television shows, movies, instant-messaging, Facebook, blogs, “writers with literary pretensions” who are “now … Continue reading The Old New Criticism, New Again