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Metaphor Crafters
WALTER BENJAMIN AND OTHER THEORISTS of the present day argue we’ve turned from a word-based culture back to a visual one like that of the Middle Ages, when the illiterate learned Continue reading
Media & The Arts
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Take Back the Media
WHEN PROTESTS ERUPTED in Egypt this January, the first thing the Mubarak regime did was close down the nation’s internet and cell-phone service. With little more than a phone call, 80 Continue reading
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Redemption Songs
ON A BEAUTIFUL SUMMER NIGHT, Emmylou Harris is taking the stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and it is quite a thing to see. In black cowboy boots and flowing Continue reading
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Instead of Suns, the Earth
IN HIS ACERBIC COLLECTION of essays, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World, writer and critic Thomas Disch says that “there can be no question Continue reading
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Zeitgeist of Doom
When I was a child, my favorite show was Thundarr the Barbarian, a cartoon about a muscled warrior who wears furry underwear and battles wizards and monsters in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Continue reading