Berfrois

November 2018

Welcome to Earths

Welcome to Earths

For the past decade, A.S. Hamrah has been the sharp-tongued, rain-lashed drifter of American movie criticism.

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Natalie Lawrence: Global Greed and the Gluttonous Dodo

Natalie Lawrence: Global Greed and the Gluttonous Dodo

The dodo was not always fat. Nobody alive is able to say for sure what a dodo was really like: the last one had died by the end of the 17th Century...

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Idiot Box

Idiot Box

In 1974, with classics like Nashville and Network still forthcoming, Kael wrote that though American movies were “probably the best in the world"...

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Jewishnessness

Jewishnessness

When I was about ten or eleven years old, it was common at my boys’ school to make a loose fist, insert one’s nose...

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‘Vaders

‘Vaders

In 1982, already the author of four novels, Martin Amis published a fizzy, swaggering non-fiction book about arcade games.

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Black–Scholes Misfires

Black–Scholes Misfires

‘Performativity’ has, for example, been employed by the French economic sociologist Michel Callon as a way of denoting the capacity of a mathematical model or other aspect of ‘economics’ to be more than a representation of some external reality.

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Chris Moffat on Naeem Mohaiemen

Chris Moffat on Naeem Mohaiemen

What does an anti-colonial building look like? In Naeem Mohaiemen’s 2017 film Two Meetings and a Funeral, Vijay Prashad stands in the centre of La Coupole d’Alger in the suburbs of Algiers...

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From 9 to 5 to 4.91 to 4.79

From 9 to 5 to 4.91 to 4.79

In May 2016, after months of failing to find a traditional job, I began driving for the ride-hailing company Lyft. I was enticed by an online advertisement that promised new drivers in the Los Angeles area a $500 “sign-up bonus” after completing their first 75 rides.

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Even music and drama classes neglected to reference queer culture…

Even music and drama classes neglected to reference queer culture…

It was during the hangover years of Section 28 that I attended a comprehensive school in Derby...

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‘Cultural Marxism’ is for the New Right both a symbol of the enemy and an example of successful politics…

‘Cultural Marxism’ is for the New Right both a symbol of the enemy and an example of successful politics…

Among historians, 1968 is increasingly viewed as a publishing phenomenon – some have even talked about a ‘paperback revolution’...

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Bolsonaro and Amazonian Deforestation

Bolsonaro and Amazonian Deforestation

With Bolsonaro’s ascension, Brazil — home to the largest rainforest in the world — is facing an “Apocalypse Now” moment for the Amazon. When he takes office...

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The Fall is into Technology

The Fall is into Technology

When I think of technology, of thinking about technology, I recall Norman O. Brown, Marshall McLuhan and John Cage. Jessica mentions none of them...

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Excelsior

Excelsior

When I think of truly magical moments from my childhood, I think of my mother introducing me to comic books when I was about five. Just dropped Archie, Batman and Superman off on my bed and left me to disappear into adventure.

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Controlled Experience: Berfrois Interviews Dimitris Lyacos

Controlled Experience: Berfrois Interviews Dimitris Lyacos

Dimitris Lyacos is the author of the Poena Damni trilogy, which has developed as a work in progress over the course of thirty years...

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The Philosopher of Perhaps. Or?—

The Philosopher of Perhaps. Or?—

All his life, Friedrich Nietzsche hated being photographed. Execution “by the one-eyed Cyclops,” he called it.

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How much différance does it make?

How much différance does it make?

In the five years since I moved to Paris as an American philosopher, my disdain for what Americans know as ‘French theory’ has only deepened...

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Ed Simon: A Gospel for the Left

Ed Simon: A Gospel for the Left

Pause and reflect on the implications of a white Protestant in the Jim Crow South applying America’s ugliest word to Christ...

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