• Marking Time in China and the West — A New Year’s Post

    “A spectre is haunting the world: 1914.”  So writes Harold James, a professor of history [who is] certainly right that …

    Message From Ukraine

    Uncategorized

    By Yuri Andrukhovych  Dear Friends, These days I receive from you lots of inquiries requesting to describe the current situation in …

    Journal of the Plague Season

    Uncategorized

    ALTHOUGH THIS MAY seem counterintuitive, science fiction is often one of the most realistic of genres. It may set its …

    India in China

    By Tong Lam The relative absence of India in Chinese public discourse is an interesting curiosity. Indeed, while there has …

    The McConnaissance: An Alternate Reading

    Dear Television, IN EPISODE TWO of HBO’s stunning new series True Detective, the laconic Rust Cohle, played by Matthew McConaughey, …

    The Future, As Seen on TV

    In 1982, cultural critic Fredric Jameson published “Progress verses Utopia: or, Can We Imagine the Future” which argued against the …

    The LARB Fiction Issue is Here!

    Uncategorized

    The Los Angeles Review of Books presents a collection of original fiction from some of the most exciting contemporary authors …

    Your Urine-Soaked Life

    Dear Television, DEAR TV superfans may remember that I really liked the Natalia arc from last season. I liked the actress — …

    Missing the Harmony Express

    By Maura Elizabeth Cunningham “There is NOTHING,” I typed, “that makes me miss China more than dealing with @Amtrak. Our …

    Space Invaders

    THE THIRD SEASON of Girls opens with Hannah and Ray discussing the aftermath of a breakup in the show’s version of New …