Browsing the archives for the Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face category

Is Claire Messud Wearing Any Clothes?

in Jonathan Safran Foer, postirony, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

This is a question I have been sleeping on, fitfully. I finished The Emperor’s Children last night and I really wanted to be able to post a wholly enthusiastic assessment of it here, but I can’t. First, let’s get rid of business. This is a book that has to appear in the epilogue of my […]

Is Claire Messud Wearing Any Clothes?

in Jonathan Safran Foer, postirony, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

This is a question I have been sleeping on, fitfully. I finished The Emperor’s Children last night and I really wanted to be able to post a wholly enthusiastic assessment of it here, but I can’t. First, let’s get rid of business. This is a book that has to appear in the epilogue of my […]

Enter the Snark

in believer, Dave Eggers, postirony, The Believer, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

What should the critic of postironic fiction (i.e., me) make of this American Scholar article by Melvin Jules Bukiet? You can see it from Manhattan if you look carefully across the East River. You can even go there if you follow a young couple (he’s got a goatee and she has a ponytail) onto the […]

Enter the Snark

in believer, Dave Eggers, postirony, The Believer, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

What should the critic of postironic fiction (i.e., me) make of this American Scholar article by Melvin Jules Bukiet? You can see it from Manhattan if you look carefully across the East River. You can even go there if you follow a young couple (he’s got a goatee and she has a ponytail) onto the […]

Spooky

in Pattern Recognition, postirony, Spook Country, William Gibson, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

I finished reading William Gibson’s newest novel, Spook Country, a few days ago and have been trying to figure out how I feel about it. It is one of the few books I have eagerly scooped up in hardcover, I loved his Pattern Recognition so much. The promise of another book set in what can […]

Spooky

in Pattern Recognition, postirony, Spook Country, William Gibson, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

I finished reading William Gibson’s newest novel, Spook Country, a few days ago and have been trying to figure out how I feel about it. It is one of the few books I have eagerly scooped up in hardcover, I loved his Pattern Recognition so much. The promise of another book set in what can […]

The End (of the Summer) is Nigh

in academic, fiction, Pop Apocalypse, postirony, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

I’m back in San Francisco–blogging from the Que Tal cafe on Guerrero and 22nd. My long summer of traveling is finally at an end. This has been perhaps my craziest and busiest summer on record. I spent two weeks in Singapore, two weeks in Jakarta, more than three weeks at the Ransom Center at UT […]

The End (of the Summer) is Nigh

in academic, fiction, Pop Apocalypse, postirony, Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face

I’m back in San Francisco–blogging from the Que Tal cafe on Guerrero and 22nd. My long summer of traveling is finally at an end. This has been perhaps my craziest and busiest summer on record. I spent two weeks in Singapore, two weeks in Jakarta, more than three weeks at the Ransom Center at UT […]