14 minutes

It is difficult concentrate the first time through this manuscript because each poem induces such laughter. If one expects only a few truly bad lines, as is the case with most bad poetry, one may wish to skip ahead in the hope of laughing soon again. But in this collection each line is so bad … More 14 minutes

Sarmiento du jour

Ricardo Piglia once pointed out that the apocryphal quotation at the beginning of Domingo Sarmiento’s Facundo (1845) — the French sentence “on ne tue point les idées,” written by Sarmiento on a wall after being attacked by a federalist gang — can be taken as an emblem of Argentine literature in its foundational moment. Not … More Sarmiento du jour

Andrei Zvyagintsev

Everyone liked this film, Elena, but I found it entirely too bleak. Had I seen it in Moscow and in Russian, in some art house after reading the papers for several weeks and observing life, I would have found it interesting and stimulating. I would have walked along the street afterwards thinking of the market … More Andrei Zvyagintsev

Message to the DNC

“If fear of Trump is justified, and I believe it is, can someone please explain to me why the geniuses on the Democratic Platform Committee thought it was so god-damned important to play slippery games with the TPP plank? You all saw how Trump wielded that particular knife last night. Do you remember how we … More Message to the DNC

Hermanos Zaizar

I am in deepest California, which is Mexico, so we will sing. This is the Corrido del norte, in which Mexicanness is asserted: Nací en la frontera, de acá de este lado, de acá de este lado puro mexicano, por más que la gente me juzgue Texano, yo les aseguro que soy mexicano, de acá … More Hermanos Zaizar