Category: amerika

• Antimanifesto for a Simulated World

  Feb 26

  Jean Baudrillard’s 1981 Simulacra and Simulation, translated by Sheila Faria Glaser in 1994, contains a four-page essay entitled “Hypermarket and Hypercommodity.” This short essay articulates the structure of the media… more ›

• Taking Time

  Feb 19

  What is meant as a valiant stand against the decline of reading is actually a symptom of it, and then a cause. The fear of dumbing down leads to thinning… more ›

• Texas: A Story of Two Boys

  Jan 16

  IA certain Texas university announced today that it would free 100 employees from the shackles of employment by the end of next month. IIYears ago there were two boys who… more ›

• The Adjunct: Confessions and Manifesto of a Benefits-Deprived Professor

  Feb 11

  First, we need to create honest and accurate language. Adjunct designates an inessential supplement, yet adjunct professors are just as permanent a fixture at colleges and universities trying to save a… more ›

• The Shit We Live In

  Jan 2

  I often complain that the society I live in is shit. Most people here appear beholden to the inherent nihilism of American mediocrity, including the systems of power and bureaucracy.… more ›

• Legend

  Feb 27

  I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know of Van Cliburn. From small-town east Texas, he became a legend–and one of my heroes–of both classical music… more ›

• Apr 20

  I have become such an American! After the past seventy-five minutes in traffic, I now see that I am nothing more than a cog in the great American machine–another blip… more ›