Criticism

Fahrenheit 451 Vindicated Anew: On the Poor (and Daft) Being More Prone to Using Screens

At one point, in the genesis of smartphone culture, the cost of an iPhone was astronomical, a luxury good intended, as always, to appeal to the rich as the initial demographic to get a taste of the future (think that prime example scene of 80s yuppie Glenn Gulia [Matthew Glave] in the The Wedding Singer coming in the house with a CD player and bragging, … Continue reading Fahrenheit 451 Vindicated Anew: On the Poor (and Daft) Being More Prone to Using Screens

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Poetry

Interrupted Empathy by Syed Zaman

…Of naive complacency—your hands— Wherein possibilities for poignant pleas and Bathetic poetry are rehearsed romantically— Hysterically—through looping piano motifs, And everyday despair. I am haunted—by hollow, harrowing Spaces devoid of dramatic redemption. Filling each frame of memory With, yet again, empty, barely defined— Rugged horizons—plummeting musical Phrases to the intersection of what once was Seen as bucolic but now a landscape found Only in—eternal ruin—hiding … Continue reading Interrupted Empathy by Syed Zaman

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Poetry

Mother Daughter Fight by Peter Crowley

Glass dives off table, marrying flesh Eyes widen, in shock and rage Then another glass, constructed in forgotten Chinese factory, is hurled from hand, from the same direction but toward the other end of the table. The two flying glasses’ trajectories made an X, each shattering after hitting wooden tabletop and splaying out shards which land on mosquito-flooded floor Afterwards, the daughter, temporally “home” from … Continue reading Mother Daughter Fight by Peter Crowley

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Criticism

Ariana Grande Songs as Shakespeare Plays

As Ariana Grande serves to build on an old lexicon–that of love and love lost–both in pop culture and (before that came along to destroy it) literature, it bears noting that the songs on thank u, next offer certain similar thematic elements to most of William Shakespeare’s plays. He was, after all, the supposed inventor of tragedian love, and the intermingling comedy that comes with it … Continue reading Ariana Grande Songs as Shakespeare Plays

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Poetry

Outlier: A Poem About the Workplace by Laura C. Wendorff

The Bandwagon is full (colleagues know which side their bread is buttered on). “I’ve made up my own mind!” (They’re into denial, here, too.) The center is subterfuge. The master-manipulator works his political magic and presto! The Bandwagon is changed into a smooth, black Lexus. Then presto, again! The Lexus becomes a white Prius, and riders breathe a sigh of relief. Their guilt is gone—they’re … Continue reading Outlier: A Poem About the Workplace by Laura C. Wendorff

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