Dearest supporters, readers, and friends:
They say April is the coolest month. (That’s how it goes, right?) Well it was pretty cool over here at LARB, where we spent the month gabbing about movies, politics, music, art, and of course, good ol’ paper books. We present to you the Best of April; at least, according to us, your friends at the Los Angeles Review of Books.
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In Praise of Slowness
By Henry Martyn Lloyd
Henry Martyn Lloyd on “The Slow Professor” and “Slow Philosophy.”
Moving Target: Is “Homeland” Still Racist?
By Brian T. Edwards
Has the Showtime series finally changed its ways? Brian T. Edwards finds out.
Nietzsche’s Horse
By Chris Townsend
Chris Townsend traces the tale of Nietzsche and the Turin horse.
Post-Interest Politics
By Faisal Devji
Are we looking at a political realignment?
The Berth of Biopolitics
By Matt Seybold
On Dr. David Dao’s involuntary deplaning and the failure of neoliberal political economy to abide its own purported logic.
Sympathy for the White Devil: Phoebe Maltz Bovy’s “The Perils of Privilege”
By Jacqui Shine
Jacqui Shine reviews Phoebe Maltz Bovy’s “The Perils of ‘Privilege’.”
S-Town: When a Podcast Becomes a Book
By Nic Dobija-Nootens
The “S-Town” podcast breaks new ground by functioning as a nonfiction novel.
The Ghost in the Ghost
By Anne Anlin Cheng
Anne Anlin Cheng on “Ghost in the Shell.”
Making Meaning at Coachella, in an Era of Collapse
By John W. W. Zeiser
On the spectacle of Coachella, the crown jewel of our period of late capitalism.
Between Philosophy and History: on Guido Mazzoni’s “Theory of the Novel”
By Alberto Comparini
Alberto Comparini delves into “Theory of the Novel” by Guido Mazzoni.
“Literature with a Capital L”: On Arthur Krystal’s “This Thing We Call Literature”
By Patrick Kurp
Patrick Kurp appreciates the serious “sallies” of “This Thing We Call Literature” by Arthur Krystal.
Why Afrofuturism Matters
By Elizabeth Reich
Why Afrofuturism Matters for art, politics, and life.
The Girls Finale
By Jane Hu, Lili Loofbourow, Philip Maciak
Dear TV says goodbye to “Girls.”
An Interview with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
By Nanda Dyssou
Nanda Dyssou talks to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o about writing in native languages, living in exile, and his hope for Africa.
You Can’t Have Me: Feminist Infiltrations in Object-Oriented Ontology
By Rebekah Sheldon
Rebekah Sheldon on “Object-Oriented Feminism.”
Is It Time to Retire the Word “Citizen”?
By Kate Reed Petty
Should we retire the word “citizen” for something more inclusionary?
On Impractical Urges
Via Guernica
By Ayana Mathis
What America’s cult of success hates to admit: race and class can shape not just the path to realizing ambitions, but even whether we recognize our right to have them.
