Who Stays Gone, and Who Can Afford to Return
When I returned to my home town of New Orleans for a second try at making a full-time life there, it was winter, 2011, six years post-Water. I find it impossible now, in the retelling, to know exactly how I decided to move back. I had been living in New York City, running a global…
The Mild Horror of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”
Click:Custom orders The mainspring of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” an adaptation of the three-book series (published between 1981 and 1991) of classic macabre and gory tales gleefully retold by Alvin Schwartz, is, oddly, nearly the same as the one that rebooted “Ghostbusters,” in 2016: the ghost of a cruelly abused woman, locked…
Daily Cartoon: Monday, August 12th
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Toni Morrison and Nina Simone, United in Soul
Toni Morrison was such an exceptional talent, and seemed to float so high above the fray, that it’s easy to forget she was a product of her time. But she was profoundly influenced by the work of contemporary musicians. She wanted her writing to emulate, she told the scholar Paul Gilroy, “all of the intricacy,…
The Glorious Depravity of the British “Love Island”
In the sixth episode of the final season of “Orange Is the New Black,” the steely prison warden Natalie Figueroa settles down, after a long day at work in a corrupt immigrant-detention center, to watch the U.K.’s most popular dating show, “Love Island.” “I want the hot, glistening bodies to zap away my brain and…
Sunday Reading: The Democratic Presidential Front-Runners
This summer, more than twenty Democratic Presidential candidates have assembled to participate in a series of debates and present their proposals on everything from climate change to Medicare for All. This week, as the field begins to narrow, we’ve compiled a selection of pieces on several of the front-runners currently stumping around the nation and…
“How Does It Feel To Be a White Man?”: William Gardner Smith’s Exile in Paris
In 1951, the novelist Richard Wright explained his decision to settle in Paris after the war. “It is because I love freedom,” he wrote, in an essay titled “I Choose Exile,” “and I tell you frankly that there is more freedom in one square block of Paris than in the entire United States of America!”…
Welcome to Our Boutique, Where Nothing Is Called by Its Real Name
Welcome to our boutique! As the newest member of our “barter battalion,” which is what we call our staff, you and I have a few things to review. Over here is our candle, or “olfactory tickler,” display. All of our olfactory ticklers stay lit during store hours, giving our customers a unique and nauseating olfactory experience!…
Rosé Berries Have Arrived
Several years into the millennial-pink phenomenon, that tender queen-conch color still has us in its grip. Why? Thirty-five years ago, when the first millennials were being born, Ronald Regan declared that it was morning in America. Now that the sun is setting on all that, the pink moment feels consolatory, a wistful look from the…
After El Paso, Mexico Takes a New Approach to Trump
On Sunday evening, as U.S. authorities considered bringing hate-crime charges against the gunman who opened fire in El Paso, the Mexican Foreign Minister did not waver. At a press conference in Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard spoke solemnly about the massacre, which took the lives of eight of his fellow-countrymen. “Mexico is indignant,” he said, adding,…